Why Does Everyone Think Google Beat The FTC? | The New Republic

Excerpt from a timely Google reality check by Tim Wu; for another timely Google perspective, see The future according to Google's Larry Page (Fortune)

"The contrast with the famous Microsoft investigation in the 1990s, conducted by the Justice Department is instructive. There, during the initial investigation, enough skeletons came tumbling out of the closet to fill the Calvary Cemetery in Queens. Microsoft was defending its operating system monopoly by conducting an all-out campaign to kill Netscape and Java. In service of that effort, it had forced its partners to stop pre-installing Netscape; rebuilt Windows specifically to force consumers to use Explorer; and secretly crippled the Java language.
Google just didn’t have this kind of blood on its hands, at least at this point in its history. Yes, Google had made decisions that its competitors didn’t like, but ultimately American law favors an improved product over the protection of failed competitors; that is the standard that the FTC is obliged to adhere to. And with some exceptions mentioned above, Google’s engineers generally produced products that beat its competitors on the merits. Ultimately, it is not the job of the Federal Government to try and convince people to use Bing."

Why Does Everyone Think Google Beat The FTC? | The New Republic