Antitrust Suit Says Google Fixes Ad Prices

By Geoff Duncan February 18, 2009

Antitrust Suit Says Google Fixes Ad Prices

There’s no denying that Google is the currently the 800-pound Gorilla of the Internet search and keyword advertising markets—the company handles about two-thirds of all Internet searches (more in some countries) and handles an even larger proportion of ad links that appear on millions of Web sites. Now TradeComet, which runs the tiny competing search engine SourceTool, as filed an antitrust complaint against Google, alleging the company manipulates the prices of its advertising to suppress competition from rival search tools. According to TradeComet, Ads it used to be able to buy for 5 to 10 center per click suddenly skyrocketed to $5 and $10 per click just as SourceTool was starting to gain some industry momentum.

SourceTool looks to help businesses looking to offer services or goods to one another, rather than acting as a search engine for consumers. According to TradeComet, traffic to SourceTool dropped by 90 percent after Google initiated its new pricing terms in May 2006—just after SourceTool was ranked as the second fastest-growing Web site by media metrics firm comScore.

Google has come under increased scrutiny for its dominant position in the online advertising market, and regulators’ concerns over its reach led to the termination of a planned advertising partnership with Yahoo last year.

Google has not commented on the TradeComet suit directly, but has always maintained that the online advertising market is highly competitive, with firms like AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo also running major advertising operations.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

Google’s ChatGPT rival is an ethical mess, say Google’s own workers

ChatGPT versus Google on smartphones.

Google launched Bard, its ChatGPT rival, despite internal concerns that it was a “pathological liar” and produced “cringeworthy” results, a new report has claimed. Worker say these worries were apparently ignored in a frantic attempt to catch up with ChatGPT and head off the threat it could pose to Google’s search business.

The revelations come from a Bloomberg report that took a deep dive into Google Bard and the issues raised by employees who have worked on the project. It’s an eye-opening account of the ways the chatbot has apparently gone off the rails and the misgivings these incidents have raised among concerned workers.

Computing

Google may have just fixed Chrome’s most annoying problem

A Macbook with Google Chrome opened to a Gmail inbox.

While Google Chrome is one of the best web browsers, over the years it has gained a reputation for being something of a resource hog, gobbling up your PC’s memory like it’s going out of style. That can be a problem if you’re running other resource-heavy tasks and don’t want things to slow down. Now, Chrome has been updated with two new features that cut down on memory usage and extend your laptop’s battery life, according to Google. The changes are set to roll out today with the latest release of Chrome on desktop (version m108).The first new feature, dubbed Memory Saver, is designed to reduce the amount of memory Chrome’s tabs use. It does this by freeing up memory from inactive tabs, and putting them to sleep so they can’t monopolize your system’s resources. When you need to access the tabs again, they will be reloaded and become active. The goal of Energy Saver, meanwhile, is fairly self-explanatory -- helping your laptop battery last longer -- but it does so in a somewhat interesting way. When your battery drops to 20%, Chrome will try to prolong your battery life by “limiting background activity and visual effects for websites with animations and videos.”Presumably, this means Chrome will limit the kind of flashy effects that have made a comeback in web design in recent years. Google says that when these new features launch, users will still be able to customize them to their liking. You can disable either Memory Saver or Energy Saver (or both), and mark certain websites as exempt in Chrome’s settings. The changes could turn out to be important. While Chrome has managed to become the dominant Windows web browser and one of the best browsers for Mac, it has been plagued by poor memory management for years. If Memory Saver and Energy Saver are able to help ameliorate that -- and make your battery last longer too -- then Google might have gone some way to fixing Chrome’s biggest problem. Both Memory Saver and Energy Saver will be launched globally over the next few weeks. The features are coming to Chrome on Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS.

Computing

Nvidia says falling GPU prices are ‘a story of the past’

The RTX 4090 among green stripes.

Nvidia has just confirmed what many of us were already suspecting -- GPUs are expensive, and Nvidia plans to keep it that way.

During a Q&A session with the media, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lifted the veil of suspense on RTX 40-Series pricing, and the insights are not what we've been hoping to hear.