It has long been alleged that Google uses its influence on the web to promote its own products and play down the offerings of its rivals. When Federal Trade Commission is already investigating such allegations against Google, DuckDuckGo says that the former has deliberately tried to hurt the latter through different tactics.
In the past, a number of other companies have filed complaints against Google, alleging that the search giant didn’t give them a fair space on the search results or elsewhere to compete against its own products. The founder of DuckDuckGo has resounded similar sentiments.
DuckDuckGo is an internet search engine which was started five years ago by an MIT graduate, Gabriel Weinberg. However, in the last five years, DuckDuckGo has gained little traction and has a rather tiny user following compared to Google, which it had set out to compete.
Weinberg now says that Google has used many tactics in order to shut down DuckDuckGo from competing with its own products. He said that a Chrome user has to undergo a lot of hassle if he wants to replace the default Google search with that of DuckDuckGo.
Weinberg says that similar problems occur when a user tries to choose DuckDuckGo as a browser of choice on the Android OS. He recently met the FTC officials and registered his complaints with the agency. His complaints will likely be incorporated into an already-ongoing investigation against Google.
However, the grievances of the companies citing complaints against Google must be judged on the merit of their fairness. For instance, in the case of DuckDuckGo, barely any users know about the alternate search engine. Naturally, it would make little sense if Google deliberately tried to play down a rival that is barely a rival at all. But then again, this remains for FTC to decide now that how fair Google’s practices have been in relation to its competitors.
Courtesy: Chicago Tribune
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