What Google's win means

[Commentary] Now that U.S. regulators have backed down from a confrontation, Google's rivals, led by Microsoft, are sure to press their case with the European Union and with attorneys general in various states. But Jan 3 was a day for Google to gloat. "The conclusion is clear: Google's services are good for users and good for competition," David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, wrote on the company's official blog. The Federal Trade Commission did obtain some concessions from Google: the company will license important mobile technology patents on "fair, reasonable and non discriminatory terms;" it will allow businesses to easily take their advertising campaigns from Google to rival search engines; and it will voluntarily agree to some changes in its relationship with "vertical" search engines like Yelp. But as some analysts noted, those concessions, especially on ads and vertical search, were merely tactical. Google held firm on these issues until now with one goal: give something to the FTC so it could close the search bias case and save face.