WASHINGTON - GOOGLE is more than a fabulously successful company - it is a cultural phenomenon facing increasing US government scrutiny despite its chief executive's campaign support for President Barack Obama.
The No. 1 Internet search company and provider of text-based search ads is finding size attracts attention from antitrust enforcers still party to a settlement with personal computer operating system giant Microsoft Corp.
COMPETITION JUST A CLICK AWAY
Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich said competition on the Internet was just a click away.
'We understand that any time a company is successful, there's a certain degree of scrutiny that comes with the territory.'
'In some ways people think of them as potentially becoming the next Microsoft,' attorney Beau Buffier, with Shearman and Sterling LLP, said of Google.
With high tech one of the few industries where the United States remains the world leader, care needs to be taken to ensure that the market remains competitive, said Evan Stewart of Zuckerman Spaeder LLP.
'The point is that if we're going to maintain that competitive position, it can't be because we allow one entity to become a complete monopolist,' Stewart said.
In one investigation, the Justice Department is looking at Google's settlement with the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers that would allow it to create a massive, online digital library.
That deal has come under criticism because it assigns Google access to so-called orphan works, those whose copyright owners are unknown. Libraries also fear the product will become a must-have and extraordinarily expensive.
Amendments to the deal, such as excluding orphan works or spelling out pricing, could go a long way toward defusing these concerns, critics have said.
And the Federal Trade Commission has reportedly opened an inquiry into whether the ties between the boards of Apple Inc and Google Inc violate antitrust laws. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson are directors of both companies. -- REUTERS
