Germany wants the secrets of Google search – Computer Point

Rome – A desperate times call for desperate measures: According to the German Minister of Justice, Heiko Maas, if you are not able to negotiate with Google for a solution that satisfied competitors and companies of the Old Continent concerned about the dominance of the search Mountain View, then as a final measure you could also require Google to reveal details about how its indexing engine . Suggestive hypothesis, but you can bet that Big G will do anything to avoid turning into reality.

“We should not be frightened by Google, but as a state we have responsibilities,” says Maas to the Financial Times during an interview. He adds: “We know that Google covers about 95 percent of the search market ( in Europe, ed .) It is an impressive number. And we know, anyone who uses the Internet, anyone who is not at the top of results of a search virtually does not exist, if I may say so. then I believe that the power of Google on consumers and traders is extraordinary. We need to think about what precautions put in place to ensure that this power is abused. (…) With a market share of 95 percent, Google dominates the world of search engines, and is able to influence its results in a way that promotes their interests. And this is not acceptable. “

According to the German Minister, therefore, the issue of competition and visibility of competing services to those on the page of Google SERP is more timely than ever: Maas speaks explicitly of “transparency algorithm”, in the light of ‘Mountain View may have impact on economic growth of a company, and cites the antitrust proceedings opened in the EU that involves Google and can not find a solution at the moment. “Consumer protection must play a key role in the evaluations” says the owner of Justice, which reaffirmed the commitment at EU level to try to get a consultation to ensure first of all the competitors and the public.

Despite the separation of the activities of Google search is still feared as one of the possible solutions, Maas tries to defuse this possibility by saying it is of “last resort.” For its part, Google has already released a position about this affair through a spokesman: “The issue has been examined for a total of 8 years in the United States and in Europe and the regulators have concluded that we do not use our algorithms to target our competitors. Making our algorithms may seem simple, but doing so would leave the field open to spammers, malware sites, and websites of low quality, thus damaging our users. “

The German minister is, moreover, very clear in his statements and in his positions also, and especially, in the light of the fact that precisely matches from Germany are opposed many of the claims they see – for example – publishers and search in Mountain View. As in the case of the right to be forgotten are several opposing visions of cultural and business belonging to the European tradition and that of the US reconcile the various regulations, as well as ensure freedom of competition and ensure the presence on the European market of the most important of ICT landscape is not trivial undertaking.

Luca Annunziata