Why Google's new search might be illegal

There's nothing illegal about being so big that you dominate a market. But when Google unveiled a new feature last week called Search Plus Your World, some antitrust experts believe Google stepped over the line.

Google's new feature risks abusing the company's dominant position in the search market to stifle competition from its rivals. That could be against the law. "Google runs a very high risk of being found in violation of antitrust and competition laws," said Ted Henneberry, a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe's antitrust group. "The issue raised by Google's new announcement is how it potentially increases its dominance and furthers its discriminatory treatment of rivals." Search Plus Your World tailors search results to each individual user by tapping into Google's social network, Google+. Search results now include Google+ posts and profiles. Noticeably absent from the feature are the much larger social networks of Facebook and Twitter, or any other social service. Google insists that its users benefit from Search Plus Your World, and that the company has no legal duty to boost its rivals' services. "The laws are designed to help consumers benefit from innovation, not to help competitors," said Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman for Google.