The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is expanding its antitrust probe of Google Inc., the world’s most popular search engine, to include scrutiny of its new Google+ social networking service, according to two people familiar with the situation.The competition issues raised by Google+ go to the heart of the FTC’s investigation into whether the company is giving preference to its own services in search results and whether that practice violates antitrust laws, said the people, who declined to be identified because the probe isn’t public.
www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-13/google-s-social-networking-service-said-to-be-added-to-ftc-antitrust-probe.htmlAlso see:U.S. FTC expands Google antitrust probe – source
U.S. regulators looking at whether Google manipulates its search results to favor its own products have expanded the probe to include Google+, the search giant’s new social networking tool, a source familiar with the probe said on Friday.
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Google announced on Tuesday new features aimed at making search results more personalized. As part of the changes, photos and posts from Google+ will increasingly appear within the search results.A Google spokesman, however, said that the Federal Trade Commission had not asked about Google+ or indicated it was looking into the new social network as of this week.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/13/oukin-uk-google-ftc-idUKTRE80C2JR20120113FTC To Probe Google+ In Antitrust Investigation: REPORT
Another of Google’s many web properties may come under scrutiny in an ongoing antitrust investigation by U.S. regulators.According to Bloomberg, a Federal Trade Commission probe into Google’s business practices will expand to include burgeoning social network Google+. The news comes days after Google announced that its search engine would include public data from Google+ in search results.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/13/ftc-google-plus-antitrust_n_1205490.html