Is Google’s goose cooked?

Excerpted from the March 1, 2009 piece What An Antitrust Case Against Google Might Look Like posted on TechCrunch by Eric Clemons, professor of Operations and Information Management at the Wharton School

The mainstream press, such as The New York Times, has noticed that even Google itself is starting to worry about the possibility that the Department of Justice may seek regulation, possibly even the break-up of Google. How can this be? How can a firm seen as a triumph of creative capitalism and a virtuous contributor to the economy (“Don’t be evil!”) possibly be suspected of anything? Is this regulatory oversight gone mad? Not exactly.

Below I summarize what I do know about Google’s behavior and what I believe the Department of Justice is likely to perceive and likely to need to demonstrate if it seeks to act against Google. In a later post I will expand, including what I believe but cannot yet demonstrate. It’s important to remember that I am not an attorney, just a computer science faculty member at a major business school, with some litigation experience, and that I have had no conversations with Google or with the Department of Justice about these issues, but I believe that what follows provides some insight into thinking at the Department of Justice. [read the rest of the post]

Coincidentally (or not) the same kind of story appears in the January 2009 issue of Wired Magazine [see The Plot to Kill Google].