U.S. Senate panel schedules Google antitrust hearing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate's antitrust panel has scheduled its hearing on Google Inc's use of its considerable market clout for mid-September, the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a brief statement on Thursday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee will meet on Sept. 21 for a hearing titled: "The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?"
The only known witness at this point is Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. Schmidt had been Google's chief executive officer but vacated the post to company co-founder Larry Page in April. He now oversees government affairs.
Google, a global leader in search engine advertising, is in the midst of an antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission following accusations that it abused its market dominance.
The FTC is expected to look into complaints from Google's rivals that its search results favor the company's own services, among other concerns.
Google, which has been making many acquisitions, is also talking to the other U.S. antitrust regulator, the Justice Department, about its proposed acquisition of online advertising company AdMeld.
Schmidt has said that Google would cooperate fully with U.S. antitrust regulators.
Some analysts and investors believe Google will strike a settlement with the FTC to avoid the distraction and business risk that would come with a prolonged fight.
Google controls more than two-thirds of the global search market. But new Web technologies, such as social networking, smartphone applications and location-based services, offer new ways for people to find information online -- putting pressure on Google to find new ways to stay on top.

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Facebook Staff On Google+: How They’re Using It

There has been a great deal of talk about whether Facebook should be scared of Google+, whether Google+ is the next Facebook, etc. etc. etc. Facebook has in fact shown some signs of concern, though Google+ is far from replacing Facebook for the majority of users, at least at this early point in the service’s existence.

Still, it is interesting that hundreds of Facebook users have Google+ accounts. Are they simply checking out the competition? Just seeing what all the fuss is about? Do they really like it and use it frequently? It probably just depends on the user.

It’s not exactly unheard of for staffers of one web service to use a competing web service. We’ve seen plenty of Facebookers on Twitter, plenty of Twitterers on Facebook, Googlers on both, etc. Most of them are probably on LinkedIn as well. Is it a big deal that Facebook people are using Google+? Even Mark Zuckerberg himself has a profile. No it’s not that big a deal.

It is, however, interesting to observe how the people running the world’s largest social network are interacting with the new kid on the block from an existing and very large competitor.

Despite having nearly 400,000 followers, Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t shared a single message (publicly anyway).

anyway).

That hasn’t stopped many of his employees from sharing, however.

Some are using it as a promotional tool. For example, Facebook Journalist Program Manager Vadim Lavrusik posted, “As an educator and Facebook’s Journalist Program Manager, I’ve been thinking about how Facebook as a reporting tool fits into the journalism curricula. So I’ve put together a document titled “Facebook + Journalism 101″ that other professors can use to integrate into their syllabi.”

He then links to the document.

Facebook’s Blake Ross has used Google+ to encourage others to add a colleague to their circles. This was shared by Pedram Keyani, who also used Google+ to link to an article about how Google+ handles your data (“outing the fox in the henhouse” apparently), and note that Tom Anderson (of your-first-friend-on-MySpace fame) is blowing up his stream. “If Google isn’t paying him yet, they should,” he said, adding a smiley face.

Facebook’s Nathan Borror used Google Check-ins through Google+ to check into Facebook Offices. Inanother update, he simply wrote, “Poke.”

One person responded, “That’s the good thing about Google+, no poking.”

Facebook’s Rohit Dhawan used Google+ to post some family video.

Facebook’s Rob Goodlatte used it to ask about tourist attractions in the Bay area.

Facebook’s Sam Lessin used it to say that he was with Sergey Brin. Now that’s interesting. No follow up details unfortunately.

Facebook’s Ankur Pansari wrote, “Dear creepy Google Plus followers, please identify yourselves! How did you find my profile?”

Facebook’s Cameron Marlow wrote, “I just unlinked my Facebook account from G+ since I was seeing an increase in random friend requests. I guess this is a sign that these two worlds don’t really mix well.”

Facebook’s Nick Schrock wrote, “I’ve been debating what to do with all my google+ peeps who have me in circles. I think y’all should fan the Brogramming page on facebook. If you want to know what you are getting into read this quora answer: http://b.qr.ae/o1i7ss

It’s clear that Google+ is just getting started, and while unique visitors and time spent on site were down(at least in the U.S.), it still shows a great deal of promise as a legitimate entry into the social media space. It will be interesting to see if a significant number of Facebook employees sticks around for the long haul. source: webpronews.com

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