Ad chiefs welcome probe into Google search business

Advertising executives have welcomed the first antitrust inquiry into Google's hugely profitable search advertising business, after the European Commission's decision to launch a preliminary probe.

"Generally when you talk to our clients they would welcome greater transparency in its business practices ... [and] a regulatory review to make sure there is nothing going amiss," said Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising group WPP. The head of a large media-buying agency said: "The simple commercial reality of where [Google] sits and generates its revenues [is that] it will exploit its dominant position."

Google on Wednesday mounted a robust public defence of its secretive search algorithms . It warned that any regulatory move to force it to disclose more about how its technology works would damage its core search service and the advertising that runs alongside it.