Google Antitrust Hearing of the Day: Google chairman Eric Schmidt testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust today, answering questions about, as Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) put it, whether Google controls “who will succeed and fail on the Internet.”
Schmidt led off with a comparison to Microsoft, which famously testified before the same committee 20 years ago, saying that “not all companies are cut from the same cloth” and claiming Google has “learned the lessons of [its] corporate predecessors.”
The best soundbite from Schmidt’s testimony came when Sen. Michael Lee (R-Utah) accused Google of rigging search results in favor of Google Product Search. “You’ve cooked it so you are always third!” Lee said.
“Senator, I can assure you we have not cooked anything,” Schmidt responded.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) also called Schmidt out for hesitating when asked whether Google’s search algorithms are unbiased, saying, “We are trying to have hearing here about whether you favor your own stuff, and you admittedly don’t know the answer.”
This isn’t the only antitrust investigation Google is facing right now. Schmidt said he plans to cooperate with the Federal Trade Commission, which is also looking into the company.
Schmidt’s full testimony is available at senate.gov (pdf).
[techcrunch / wapo]
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