Google Requires Oversight but Not a U.S. Antitrust Probe

[Commentary] When Google went public in 2004, its founders declared that the search-engine leader wasn't a conventional company and didn't intend to become one. This maverick attitude has defined Google ever since, especially in its hot-and-cold relations with the world’s governments.

Regulators constantly find some aspect of Google’s business that demands attention. There are bogus advertisers to be shut down and offensive YouTube videos to be challenged. Authors fret about copyright issues involved in digitizing old books. Privacy-minded citizens worry about unwanted visibility from Google Maps and Google Earth. The controversies are endless. To date, regulators have acted as if Google is moving in the right direction but needs to be more careful about how it proceeds. Now some of Google’s fundamental business practices are under fire. At issue is the company’s dominance in online search, with more than 60 percent of the U.S. market and an even larger share in Europe. The biggest critics, which tend to be other online businesses, argue that Google is skewing search results to favor its own services, that it is making it hard for other businesses to win top ad placements, or that the company is using other sites’ content in unwelcome ways.