Google FTC Investigation: The Inevitable has Become Reality

Google announced today that they received official notification from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it has started an investigation into allegedly unfair business practices.

The monster search and advertising company has been called many things over the years related to their monopoly-esque control of the search market. In the past, search engine marketers and optimizers have said “we just have to deal with it” when it comes to the toughest challenges with certain Google products, and moved on to find inventive and round-about ways to combat the issue at hand.

In Search Influence’s road map to serving clients, Google Places is stand-out problem child, often presenting data problems, mix-ups, and merges that have been costly, time-consuming, and frustrating to fix. It goes almost without saying that this move was inevitable, as Google has undergone similar scrutiny in other nations of the world, including China and Italy. A Tech Crunch article from early last year reports that various Google products and content are blocked in one fourth of countries in which it offers products.

While the investigation and following proceedings will almost certainly take years to be resolved, search marketers and the small businesses they help succeed online can rest easy with some solace that one day, there may be some changes that make your website promotion just a little bit easier.