Google's Head Honcho Gets Grilled

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google Inc., was seemingly unable to assure some lawmakers during a hearing this afternoon regarding the method by which search results are displayed and ranked by the search engine giant.

Schmidt appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Subcommittee to emphasize that his company fairly encourages online competition.

“We get the lessons of our corporate predecessors,” Schmidt told Senators as he tried explaining that Google is different than previous companies that exerted monopolies over the internet, such as Microsoft in 2001.

Schmidt listed five different principles of Google Inc. that ensure they fairly compete with other internet businesses:

1. Always put consumers first. There is a ranking system so not every business can be on top.

2. Focus on loyalty. Users can easily switch to other search engines.

3. Open technology. Google Inc. releases and actively supports code that helps spur internet growth.

4. Be transparent. Google Inc. shares information about how its search engine works and provides advertisers with detailed information about their performance and return on investment

5. The only constant is change. Internet is always changing and there will always be different competitors.

Schmidt said that Google is helping the economy by continuing to hire employees, investing in local services, and helping small businesses by giving them exposure they wouldn’t otherwise have.

“Not all companies are cut from the same cloth and one company’s past is not necessarily another’s future,” Schmidt remarked. “We live in a different world today and the open internet is the ultimate level playing field.”

Some members of the committee, however, were not convinced.

While revealing a chart that depicted Google’s sites search results, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) accused Google of “cooking” an algorithm that placed Google-owned sites higher than competitors in search results.
According to Lee’s chart, Google’s shopping results consistently ranked third while other competitor shopping sites varied.

“It seems to me that this is an uncanny statistical coincidence,” Lee charged. “You’re third almost every time. How do you explain that?”

Schmidt responded that Google searches for the product not for product comparisons like other sites, which can explain the “strange” results.

“It’s an apple to oranges comparison,” Schmidt explained. “I can assure you we have not cooked anything.”

But members of the committee were not assured.

“That seemed like a pretty fuzzy answer to me coming from the chairman. If you don’t know, who does?” Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) inquired.

“That really bothers me, because that’s the crux of this,” Franken continued. “And you don’t know. So we’re trying to have a hearing here about whether you favor your own stuff, and you’re asked that question, and you admittedly don’t know the answer.”

To see photos from today’s hearing click here