Fight against Google runs counter to free market

[Commentary] The U.S. economy is on the wrong track. Consumers are anxious and a rising possibility of a double-dip recession looms. One would think that the Obama administration would have a laser-like focus on growth and jobs. Apparently not.

Just as he chose to reward a green agenda over jobs at the Environmental Protection Agency, a union agenda over jobs on trade and the National Labor Relations Board, and a social agenda over jobs in health care reform, the president apparently has an agenda that trumps growth in the most dynamic, vibrant and competitive sector of the U.S. economy: high tech companies.

In June the Federal Trade Commission — which ironically touts the slogan "Protecting America's Consumers" — launched a broad antitrust investigation of Google. The Senate Antitrust Subcommittee will soon hold a congressional hearing on the issue. Presumably, this has been spawned by the fact that Google's leading competitor, Microsoft, and others filed complaints with the European Commission against the company with allegations of anti-competitive conduct and calling for its search results to be regulated. But we should be skeptical of reflexive claims that being big automatically means being bad, especially if the claims come from self-interested competitors. As with other markets, the search engine that holds the lead market position most probably earned that position by providing good service and because customers are happy with the product. Consumers maintain the power and control to ultimately choose which provider they use.