Formulas at heart of Google complaint

Algorithms are the "secret sauce" behind Google's business, much like the recipe for Coca-Cola, and an important background to the antitrust complaints filed against it at the European Commission.

They are highly complex mathematical formulae. Google's algorithm draws on 200 factors and is tweaked 400 times a year by an army of engineers, which the company uses to determine how to rank the search results it displays on its Internet search site. Google rankings can be vital to a company's business. About 67 per cent of Internet users go to its search engine to locate information, and most will only click on links on the first page of Google's search results. A low ranking means invisibility. The secretive nature of the algorithm is at the heart of the antitrust complaints the company faces in Brussels. Companies find it hard to understand why their rankings go up and down, and Google stands accused of manipulating the formula to discriminate against competitors.