Category: search engines

Search engines

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The Right Remedies for Google’s AdWords API Restrictions

Last week the FTC closed its 21-month investigation of Google after Google made several small concessions, among them dropping certain restrictions on use of Google’s AdWords API — rules that previously limited how advertisers and tool-makers may copy advertisers’ own data from Google’s servers. Removing the restrictions is a step forward for advertisers and for competition. But the FTC could and should have demanded more from Google in order to address the harm resulting from seven years of these restrictions.

I first flagged Google’s AdWords API restrictions in my June 2008 senate testimony and in greater detail in PPC Platform Competition and Google’s “May Not Copy” Restriction. In short, the restrictions prohibited making and sharing tools to quickly copy and synchronize ad campaigns across multiple ad platforms — effectively compelling small to midsized advertisers to use Google only, for lack of tools to manage their campaigns on multiple platforms. Google enforces this prohibition with a system of tool passwords and audits — letting Google swiftly and completely disable any tool that Google deems impermissible. Indeed, any tool-maker found offering a noncompliant tool would immediately lose all access to Google’s AdWords API, as to all of its tool-using subscribers, a devastating blow that kept tool-makers under Google’s thumb.

As I pointed out, these AdWords API restrictions let Google charge prices higher than competing platforms: Thanks to these restrictions, a small to midsized advertiser would struggle to buy some placements from Yahoo or Microsoft, even if those vendors offered lower prices. Higher advertising costs directly harm advertisers, and higher prices get passed to consumers (according to the relative elasticity of supply and demand). I also pointed out harms to others in the advertising ecosystem: Competing ad platforms struggle to attract advertisers, hence showing less relevant advertising (discouraging users from clicking ads) and enjoying less auction pressure to push prices upward. Meanwhile, I noted, the AdWords API restrictions give Google that much more leverage in its negotiations with publishers: by weakening other ad platforms’ monetization, Google can more easily win deals for publishers’ inventory, granting publishers lesser compensation for the content they post.

Strikingly, Google has never seriously defended the AdWords API restrictions. In June 2008, Doug Raymond, Product Manager for AdWords API, argued that advertisers are free to export their data in other ways, e.g. as a CSV text file. But that far-inferior manual export is ad-hoc, time-consuming, and error-prone — a poor fit for high-priced online advertising. Indeed, this manual approach is a sharp contrast from a modern automation API, and a far cry from what Google offers in other contexts.

By all indications, competition regulators share my concerns. In a November 2010 press release, the European Commission flagged “restrictions on the portability of online advertising campaign data” as its fourth concern in reviewing Google’s conduct, a concern most recently reiterated in December 2012 remarks by EC Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia. Last week’s statement by FTC Chairman Leibowitz is in accord: “Some Commissioners were concerned by the tendency of Google’s restrictions to raise the costs of small businesses to use the power of internet search advertising to grow their businesses.”

So everyone but Google agrees that the AdWords API restrictions are improper, and even Google has little to say in its defense. Indeed, despite abandoning most other aspects of its investigation, the FTC did pursue this matter. But the FTC reports only that Google is to remove AdWords API restrictions and that, the FTC indicates, ends the FTC’s concern on this subject. I am surprised by such a narrow remedy. The AdWords API restrictions have been in place for more than five years. Were it not for these restrictions, advertisers for five years would have enjoyed lower prices. For five years, third-party publishers would have received higher payment for their ad space. For five years, consumers would have seen more relevant ads at competing ad platforms, perhaps helping to increase competitors’ market shares and put a check on Google’s dominance. Moreover, for five years competing ad platforms would have enjoyed higher advertising revenues and higher ad click-through rates. It’s all well and good for Google to remove the API restriction going forward. But that does nothing at all to address past harm to advertisers and others.

Three Appropriate Remedies

What remedies would be appropriate for Google’s seven years of improper AdWords API restrictions? Let me offer three suggestions:

First, after years of improper conduct in this area, Google should expect to pay monetary damages. Google’s AdWords API restrictions inflated the prices charged to advertisers. Google should disgorge these ill-gotten gains via pro-rata refunds to advertisers.

Second, Google’s changes should be formal binding commitments formalized in a consent agreement. The 1969 Report of the American Bar Association Commission to Study the Federal Trade Commission recognized that voluntary commitments were ineffective, and the FTC largely discontinued voluntary commitments after that report. Indeed, FTC Commissioner Rosch last week noted that the FTC’s voluntary commitment approach lets Google offer a statement of its current intent, which Google could reverse or alter at any time. Moreover, an order would have required the FTC to take a clearer position on whether Google’s conduct violated the law: An order would have required the FTC to file a complaint, which in turn requires a finding by the FTC that there is reason to believe a violation has occurred. This formality would offer a useful confirmation of the FTC’s view — either the FTC believes a violation occurred, or it does not, but the voluntary commitment process lets the FTC avoid a public statement on this subject. Finally, orders are also vetted with third parties to make sure they will be effective. Microsoft’s Dave Heiner immediately offered several gaps in the FTC’s approach on AdWords API restrictions. I would have offered additional feedback had I been asked.

Finally, the FTC’s investigation surely found documents or records confirming the intent and effect of Google’s AdWords API restrictions. The FTC should at least describe those documents — if not release them in full. Describing or releasing these documents would let concerned parties determine what private claims they may have against Google. If the documents confirm meritorious claims, victims can pursue these claims through private litigation (here too, as Commissioner Rosch suggested).

Google’s AdWords API restrictions were a direct assault on competition — indefensible rules serving only to hinder advertisers’ efforts to efficiently use competing search engines, without any plausible pro-competitive justification. On this clear-cut issue, the FTC should have pursued every remedy permissible under its authority. Fortunately it’s not too late for state attorneys general and the European Commission to insist on more.

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Advertising Disclosures: Measuring Labeling Alternatives in Internet Search Engines

Edelman, Benjamin, and Duncan S. Gilchrist. “Advertising Disclosures: Measuring Labeling Alternatives in Internet Search Engines.” Information Economics and Policy 24, no. 1 (March 2012): 75-89.

In an online experiment, we measure users’ interactions with search engines, both in standard configurations and in modified versions with clearer labels identifying search engine advertisements. In particular, for a random subset of users, we change “Sponsored links” or “Ads” labels to instead read “Paid Advertisements.” Relative to users receiving the “Sponsored link” or “Ad” labels, users receiving the “Paid Advertisement” label click 25% and 27% fewer advertisements, respectively. Users seeing “Paid Advertisement” labels also correctly report that they click fewer advertisements, controlling for the number of advertisements they actually click. Results are most pronounced for commercial searches and for vulnerable users with low education and little online experience.

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Google Tying Google Plus and Many More

Disclosure: I serve as a consultant to various companies that compete with Google. But I write on my own — not at the suggestion or request of any client, without approval or payment from any client.

This week Google announced Google Search Plus Your World (“Google Search Plus” for short). Reaction has been critical. Danny Sullivan says Google Search Plus “pushes Google+ over relevancy,” and he offers compelling examples demonstrating this favored treatment. Meanwhile, EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg argues that Google is “using its market dominance in a separate sector [search] … to fight off its challenger Facebook” — essentially, alleging that Google is tying Google+ to Google Search, forcing users to accept the former if they want the latter.

As Danny and Marc point out, Google is favoring its own ancillary services even when other destinations are objectively superior, and Google is using its dominance in search to compel users to accept Google’s other offerings. But this problem is much bigger than Google Search Plus: Google has used similar tying tactics to push dozens of its products for years. I’m working on a detailed article with numerous examples plus relevant antitrust analysis. But with Google Search Plus prompting so much interest, I wanted to flag other areas where Google has invoked these tactics.

This piece proceeds in three parts: I evaluate the competitive implications of Google favoring its own services, including the special benefits Google grants to its own services. I show how Google penalizes those who decline to participate in its tied offerings, including using tying to force others to submit to Google’s will even in areas where Google is not yet dominant. Finally, I briefly survey the legal implications and propose a promising but lightweight remedy to begin to curtail the harmful effects of Google’s tying.

My takeaway: Google’s tying tactics should not be permitted. Google’s dominant position in search requires that the company hold itself to a higher level of conduct, including avoiding tying its other products to its dominant search service. Google has repeatedly crossed the line, and antitrust enforcement action is required to put a stop to these practices.

The Competitive Implications of Favoring Google’s Own Services

I’ve found more than a dozen Google services receiving favored placement in Google search results. Consider Google Blog Search, Google Book Search, Google Checkout, Google Health, Google Images, Google Maps, Google News, Google Realtime, Google Shopping, and Google Video. Some have developed into solid products with loyal users. Others are far weaker. But each enjoys a level of favored placement in Google search results that other services can only dream of.

Google uses premium placements and traffic guarantees to address the “chicken and egg” problem that undermines the launch of many online businesses. For example, many retailers might be pleased to be listed (and even be willing to pay to be listed) in a review site or product search site that has many readers. But finding those readers cost-effectively requires algorithmic search traffic, which a new site cannot guarantee — hindering the site’s efforts to attract advertisers. So too for books, local search, movies, travel, and myriad other sectors. Ordinary sites struggle to overcome these challenges — for example, buying expensive pay-per-click advertising to drive traffic to their sites, or beginning with a period in which they have undesirably few participants. In contrast, anyone assessing the prospects of a new Google service knows that Google can grant its services ample free traffic, on demand and substantially guaranteed. Thus, the success of a new Google service is much more predictable — reducing Google’s barriers to expansion into new sectors. Indeed, if partners recognize that Google can send such traffic whenever it chooses to do so, they may even be willing to join before Google turns on the spigot.

Conversely, Google’s ability to favor its own service dulls the incentive for others to even try to compete. Who would risk capital, energy, and talent in building a new image search engine when Google presents Google Image Search results automatically? A new entrant might be 20% better, by whatever metric, but Google’s automatic provision of a “good enough” option dulls users’ interest in finding a best-of-breed alternative. The problem is particularly acute because the top-most result enjoys 34%+ of all clicks — so when Google takes that position for itself, there’s far less for everyone else.

Google also grants its ancillary services the benefit of certain placement. Ordinary sites have little assurance of what algorithmic search traffic they will receive. They may rank highly for some terms and worse for others. Furthermore, rankings often vary over time, including sudden changes for no apparent reason. As a result, most sites struggle to build business plans around algorithmic search traffic; indeed, companies have laid off staff after unexpected drops in algorithmic search traffic. In contrast, Google’s own services can feel confident in the traffic they will receive from Google — allowing them to plan budgets, advertising sales, hardware requirements, and overall strategy.

By all indications, free traffic from Google Search has played a valuable role in launching many Google businesses. For example, Google Maps usage remained sluggish until Google started to present inline Google Maps directly within Search Results, a practice that began in earnest in 2007. As Consumer Watchdog’s 2010 “Traffic Report” shows, this change precipitated a sharp increase in Google Maps’ market share: Traffic to Google Maps tripled while traffic to competing map sites fell by half.

So too for Google’s launch of Google Finance. service. For example, as of December 2006, Hitwise reported that fully 57% of traffic to Google Finance came from Google Search. By 2009, just 29% of Google Finance traffic came from other Google properties. By providing its ancillary services with additional traffic, when desired and in large quantities unavailable to others, Google gives its ancillary services a greater chance of achieving widespread usage and attracting users and advertisers.

The Special Benefits Google Reserves for Its Own Services

When Google presents its ancillary services within search results, it gives its services distinctive layout and format benefits unavailable to other sites. For example, Google Maps appears with an oversized full-color embedded map, whereas links to other map services appear only as plain hyperlinks. So too for links to Google Shopping, which often feature tabular reports of product pictures, vendors, and prices, whereas competing comparison shopping search engines receive only bare text. Until June 2011, Google Checkout advertisers enjoyed a special logo adjacent to their AdWords ads — particularly valuable since image advertisements were essentially nonexistent throughout that period. But advertisers who chose other streamlined checkout tools (like Paypal) got no such benefit. Favored treatment extends to the most obscure Google services. Even Google Health listings received a distinctive layout and colored image.

Furthermore, when Google favors its own ancillary services, it sometimes bypasses the algorithms that ordinarily allocate search results. By all indications, Google staff manually override algorithmic results, manually specifying that specific Google services are to appear in specific positions for specific keywords. Of course no other site enjoys such overrides.

Google also seems to exempt its own services from the “host crowding” rules that ordinarily assure source diversity. In 2007, Google’s Matt Cutts stated that a single page of results will feature “up to two results” from a single host, though he added that for a domain that “is really relevant” Google “may still return several results from that domain” (emphasis added). But it seems Google waives this rule for its own services. In April 2011, Aaron Wall flagged a search yielding five separate Google Books results among the ten links shown in the first page of Google Search. A commenter found another search term for which nine separate results all pointed to Google Books. (I have a screenshot on file.) On one view, Google Books indexes the work of multiple authors and publishers, and diversity among those authors and publishers provides adequate representation of alternative viewpoints. Yet other repositories also aggregate material from independent authors (consider books at Amazon, or any of thousands of online discussion forums), but only Google seems to enjoy an exception from “host crowding” rules.

Google Effectively Penalizes Those who Decline to Participate In Its Tied Offerings

I joined Google Plus not because I wanted to participate, not to take a look around, but because I perceived that Google would grant my site preferred placement — more algorithmic traffic — if I linked my Google Plus account to my web site and online publications. It’s hard to figure out whether I was right. But SEO forums are full of users who had the same idea. So Google can force users to join Google Plus to avoid receiving, or expecting to receive, lower algorithmic search ranking. Certainly myriad sites added Google +1 buttons (giving Google both data and real estate) not because they genuinely wanted Google buttons on their sites, but because they feared others would overtake them in search results if they failed to employ Google’s newest service.

If an airline declines to participate in Google Flights, its listings are labeled 'no booking links available.' Google fails to offer a more helpful link or booking shortcut, even though it could easily do so.If an airline declines to participate in Google Flights, its listings are labeled “no booking links available.” Google fails to offer a more helpful link or booking shortcut, even though it could easily do so.

Google uses similar tying tactics to compel use of its other services. Consider airlines negotiating terms for appearance in Google Flight Search. If Southwest Airlines prefers not to be included in Expedia, it can easily stay out (and in fact it has). Better yet, a diligent airline can negotiate with various travel sites to seek improved terms — playing one travel site against another to reduce fees. But Google’s dominant position impedes any such negotiation. There’s only one Google Flight Search at the top of Google search results, and any airline that refuses Google’s terms is left behind: Google presents a “no booking links available” bubble, even though Google could easily send bookings to an airline web site without any commercial relationship with the site and without requiring payment from the site. (For an example, click to browse Southwest flights Boston-BWI in May — simple HTML and JavaScript, essentially a “deep link.”)

At the very least, Google could link to an airline’s home page in the bottom right, where the “Book” link usually appears; the bottom-right corner is the standard location for a button to continue a multi-step process, and that’s the location where Google has trained users to look to proceed with booking. In contrast, Google’s bottom-left links are easily overlooked. With so many better options available to Google, Google’s decision to withhold this link looks like intentional punishment for any airline that rejected Google’s terms.

Google links to the 'owner site' only at the far bottom of the drop-down -- putting all advertisers in more prominent positions.Google links to the “owner site” only at the far bottom of the drop-down — putting all advertisers in more prominent positions.

Meanwhile, by effectively compelling participation, Google enjoys high revenue from competing bidders. Consider the drop-down lists Google now shows with hotel listings, presenting advertisements for multiple booking services. A user can enter desired dates to receive a price quote from each booking service, with one-click access to the chosen vendor. But some users prefers to book with a hotel directly — perhaps to reduce booking complexity (less finger-pointing if something goes wrong) or enjoy loyalty program benefits. (Users may also know that hotels pay substantial commissions to the web sites that gather reservations, and some users may wish to spare hotels those costs.) If a consumer clicks the “owner site” link, the consumer will find that his booking dates are discarded, requiring reentry. And even though the “owner site” is the single most authoritative listing for a given property, Google puts all booking services above — here too, favoring advertising revenue over user convenience. It’s an experience savvy hotels would decline completely if Google offered that choice. Instead, Google makes this drop-down compulsory, and there’s no way a hotel can opt out.

To its credit, Twitter has recognized the value of the data it holds and has declined to let Google harvest that data on terms Google dictates. But when Twitter complained about Google’s favored treatment of Google Search Plus, Google responded: “We are a bit surprised by Twitter’s comments about Search plus Your World, because they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer.” Google’s response completely misses the point. For one, as Danny Sullivan points out, Google fails to use Facebook and Twitter content it knows about (without needing a data license). Furthermore, Google equally fails to use content from thousands of other sources — from smaller social networks, for example. Instead, Google favors its own service.

Over and over, Google has tied its services in various combinations to compel (or attempt to compel) others to bend to its will.

  • Google told Yelp it had to let Google present Yelp reviews in Google Places if Yelp wanted to remain in ordinary Google Search. That is, Google tied its dominant search service (where Yelp wanted to stay visible) to its upstart Places service (which Yelp did not care to support).
  • Google’s contradictory statements left newspapers believing for years that they had to participate in Google News if they wanted to remain in Google Search. (See e.g. the multiple contradictory postscripts in Danny Sullivan’s August 2009 posting about newspapers’ concerns — indicating that even he struggled to understand Google’s true policy. I have other inconsistent statements on file.) For newspapers, then, Google also effectively tied its dominant search service (where newspapers absolutely wanted to be listed) to Google News (which newspapers tended to view skeptically). By the time Google clearly stated that newspapers could exit Google News while staying in Google Search, Google News had achieved enough traction that leaving was a much less desirable choice.
  • For years, Google’s YouTube offered filtering technology (to identify and remove copyrighted works) only to companies that granted licenses to YouTube, on the terms YouTube sought, but not on companies that refuse Google’s terms. To get the filter — the only quick, effective way to block infringing content — rights-holders had to accept Google’s license terms.

I’ll have more examples in my forthcoming paper.

On one level, these are standard “all-or-nothing” tactics: Google has something others want, and Google only provides the desired service if it gets it way. But the impact is clear: Google’s multiple mutually-reinforcing tying arrangements extend Google’s position of dominance, forcing prospective business partners to bend to Google’s will, and enlarging Google’s control over ever more sectors.

Legal Implications

When Google presents its ancillary services in its search results, it engages in classic “tying” behavior, raising concern under US and European antitrust law. Certainly Google’s search service is dominant, and US and EU investigations have already held as much — triggering the heightened duties of those with a dominant position.

Yet Google offers its search results only with its own ancillary services. In particular, Google gives no mechanism for users to obtain Google Search with others’ ancillary services or with no ancillary services at all. This tactic has already led Google to dominance in blog search, book search, image search, maps, news, and product search, and it is amply clear how this tactic could soon lead Google to dominance in reviews, local search, and travel search (satisfying the “dangerous probability” test in Verizon v. Trinko note 4). Is Google likely to succeed in social? It seems network effects offer somewhat greater protection to Facebook and Twitter than they do to review sites or travel search sites. But when Google uses the same tying strategy to claim a leg up in myriad sectors, it’s no great stretch to view the strategy with equal skepticism wherever it arises.

In Remedies for Search Bias, I offered several suggestions to blunt the worst of these practices. Most relevant: Google should let users swap its own services for competitors’ offerings. Consider users’ ability to choose their preferred web browser, media player, email program, and myriad other applications — choices that facilitates continued competition and innovation in all these areas. Yet a user at Google.com has zero ability to eschew Google Maps for Mapquest, or to replace Google Places reviews with Yelp. The first time a user runs a search calling for a review, Google could ask the user for his preferred review provider, and an unobtrusive drop-down box would let the user make changes later. Similar prompts would appear, as needed, for other key sectors — limited, of course, to areas where Google seeks to promote an offering of its own. I was thrilled when, in a little-noticed remark last summer, Danny Sullivan endorsed this approach (“hey eric: how about letting people choose their shopping, local, etc. one box provider?”). It’s an elegant and straightforward solution, sidestepping the most complicated questions of “regulating search” but putting an important check on Google’s abuse of its dominant position in search.

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Revisiting Unlawful Advertisements at Google

Last week, Google’s 10-Q disclosed a $500 million charge “in connection with a potential resolution of an investigation by the US Department of Justice into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers.” Google initially declined to say more, but a Wall Street Journal report revealed that the charge resulted from Google’s sale of advertising to online pharmacies that break US laws.

While Google has certainly profited from selling advertisements to rogue pharmacies, that’s just one of many areas where Google sells unlawful advertisements. Here are six other areas where I’ve also seen widespread unlawful AdWords advertisements:

  • Advertisements charging for something that’s actually free. I’ve documented scores of AdWords advertisements that attempt to trick users into paying for software that’s widely available for free — charging for RealPlayer, Skype, WinZip, and more.
  • Advertisements promising “free” service but actually imposing a charge. I have also flagged dozens of advertisements promising “100% complimentary” “free” “no obligation” service that actually comes with a monthly charge, typically $9.99/month or more. Promising “free” ringtones, these services rarely ask users for their credit card numbers. Instead, they post charges straight onto users’ mobile phone bills — combining carrier-direct billing with deceptive advertising claims in order to strengthen the illusion of “free” service.
  • Copyright infringement – advertisements touting tools for infringing audio and video downloads. For example, in 2007 media companies uncovered Google selling advertisements to various download sites, typically folks charging for Bittorrent clients. These programs helped users download movies without permission from the corresponding rights-holders, which is a double-whammy to copyright holders: Not only did labels, studios, artists, and filmmakers get no share of users’ payments, but users’ payments flowed to those making tools to facilitate infringement.
  • Copyright infringement – advertisements touting counterfeit software. For example, Rosetta Stone in six months notified Google of more than 200 instances in which AdWords advertisers offered counterfeit Rosetta Stone software.
  • Advertisements for programs that bundle spyware/adware. At the peak of the spyware and adware mess a few years ago, distributors of unsavory software used AdWords to distribute their wares. For example, a user searching for “screensavers” would receive a mix of advertisements — some promoting software that worked as advertised; others bundling screensavers with advertising and/or tracking software, with or without disclosure.
  • Mortgage modification offers . Consumers seeking mortgage modifications often receive AdWords advertisements making deceptive claims. A recent Consumer Watchdog study found AdWords advertisers falsely claiming to be affiliated with the US government, requiring consumers to buy credit reports before receiving advice or help (yielding immediate referral fees to the corresponding sites), and even presenting fake certification logos. One prominent AdWords advertiser had previously faced FTC litigation for telemarketing fraud, while another faced FTC litigation for falsely presenting itself as affiliated with the US government. Other advertisers suffer unsatisfactory BBB ratings, and some advertisers falsely claim to have 501(c)(3) non-profit status.

Google’s Revenue from Deceptive Advertisements

Google does not report its revenues for specific sectors, so it is generally difficult to know how much money Google receives from particular categories of unlawful advertisements or from particular unlawful practices. That said, in some instances such information nonetheless becomes available. For example, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google charged $809,000 to one company advertising tools for unauthorized audio and video downloads. In 2006, I estimated that Google charged more than $2 million per year for advertisements distributing spyware and adware shown when users search for the single keyword “screensavers.” Scaling up to other keywords pushing spyware and adware, I suggested Google collects $25+ million per year for advertisements distributing spyware and adware.

Importantly, when AdWords advertisements deliver users into unlawful sites, the majority of the profits flow to Google. Consider a keyword for which several advertisers present similar unlawful offers. The advertisers bid against each other in Google’s auction-style advertising sales process — quickly bidding the price to a level where none of them can justify higher payments. If the advertisers are similar, they end up bidding away most of their profits. Indeed, most of these advertisers have low marginal costs, so their profit approaches their revenue, and Google even collects the majority of their revenue. In 2006 I ran an auction simulation to consider bidder behavior with 10 bidders and 20% standard deviation in per-click valuations; I found that in this situation, advertisers on average paid 71% of their revenue to Google. Drawing on litigation documents, the WSJ reports similar values: EasyDownloadCenter and TheDownloadCenter collected $1.1 million from users, but paid $809,000 (74%) to Google for AdWords advertising. Consumer Watchdog’s revenue estimates, drawn from Google’s own traffic estimation tools, reveal that an advertiser would need to pay more than $6 million per year to capture all the clicks from searches for “credit repair” and “bad credit.”

The Scope of Google’s Involvement — and Resulting Liability

Multiple sources have revealed Google’s far-reaching involvement in facilitating and supporting deceptive advertisements. For example, Google staff supplied EasyDownloadCenter and TheDownloadCenter with keywords to reach users, including “bootleg movie download,” “pirated,” and “download harry potter movie.” Similarly, plaintiffs in Goddard v. Google alleged that not only did Google show deceptive advertisements for “free ringtones” and similar searches, but Google’s own systems affirmatively suggested that advertisers target the phrase “free ringtones” (deceptive, since the advertisers’ service weren’t actually free) when advertisers requested only the word “ringtones.” Google’s involvement also extends to financing. For example, the WSJ reports that Google extended credit to EasyDownloadCenter and TheDownloadCenter — letting them expand their advertising effort without needing to pay Google in advance (as most advertisers must). In short, Google knew about these deceptive advertisements, profited from them, and provided assistance to the corresponding advertisers in the selection of keywords, in the provision of credit, and otherwise.

One might naturally expect that Google is liable when its actions cause harm to consumers — especially when Google knows what is occurring and profits from it. But the Communications Decency Act potentially offers Google a remarkable protection: CDA § 230 instructs that a provider of an interactive computer service may not be treated as the publisher of content others provide through that service. Even if a printed publication would face liability for printing the same advertisements Google shows, CDA § 230 is often interpreted to provide that Google may distribute such advertisements online with impunity. Indeed, that’s exactly the conclusion reached in Goddard v. Google, finding that even if Google’s keyword tools suggests “free ringtone” to advertisers and even if Google is aware of fraudulent mobile subscription services, Google is not liable to affected consumers.

The broad application of CDA § 230 immunity has attracted ample criticism. For example, a 2000 DOJ study concluded that “substantive regulation … should, as a rule, apply in the same way to conduct in the cyberworld as it does to conduct in the physical world.” Yet CDA § 230 unapologetically invites Google to show all manner of unlawful advertisements that would create liability if distributed by traditional publishers. And if Google can turn a blind eye to advertisers using its ad platform to defraud or otherwise harm users, advertisers will do so with impunity. For Google to escape liability is all the more puzzling when Google reaps most of the profits from advertisers’ schemes.

CDA § 230 includes several important exceptions. For example, the CDA does not immunize violations of criminal law — and rogue pharmacies implicate various criminal laws, giving rise to the liability for which Google now expects to pay $500 million. But this exception may be broader than critics yet realize. For example, large-scale copyright infringement and distribution of counterfeit goods may also create criminal liability for the underlying advertisers, hence excluding Google from the CDA safe-harbor for the corresponding advertisements.

Ultimately, I stand by my 2006 conclusion: “Google ought to do more to make ads safe.” Since then, Google’s revenue and profit have more than doubled, giving Google that much greater resources to evaluate advertisers. But I wouldn’t say Google’s users are twice as safe — quite the contrary, deceptive and unlawful advertisements remain all too widespread. Kudos to the Department of Justice for holding Google accountable for unlawful pharmacy advertisements — but there’s ample more work to be done in light of Google’s other unlawful advertisements.

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In Accusing Microsoft, Google Doth Protest Too Much

In Accusing Microsoft, Google Doth Protest Too Much. HBR Online. February 3, 2011.

Google this week sparked a media uproar by alleging that Microsoft Bing “copies” Google results. But is that actually the best characterization of what happened? In fact Google’s engineers intentionally clicked bogus listings they had previously inserted into Google’s results, and they did this on computers where they had specifically authorized Microsoft to examine their browsing in order to improve Bing.

Strikingly, Google’s own Matt Cutts previously endorsed the use of Toolbar and similar data to improve search results — calling this approach “a good idea.” And Google’s own Toolbar Privacy Policy allows Google to perform the same analysis Bing used. So I don’t have much sympathy for Google’s allegations of impropriety. Quite the contrary: With Bing’s small market share, this data is important in improving Bing search results and building a viable competitor to Google’s dominant search offering.

Details, including what exactly happened, Google’s prior statements, and Google’s widespread use of others’ intellectual property:

In Accusing Microsoft, Google Doth Protest Too Much

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Measuring Bias in “Organic” Web Search with Benjamin Lockwood

By comparing results between leading search engines, we identify patterns in their algorithmic search listings. We find that each search engine favors its own services in that each search engine links to its own services more often than other search engines do so. But some search engines promote their own services significantly more than others. We examine patterns in these differences, and we flag keywords where the problem is particularly widespread.

Even excluding “rich results” (whereby search engines feature their own images, videos, maps, etc.), we find that Google’s algorithmic search results link to Google’s own services more than three times as often as other search engines link to Google’s services.

For selected keywords, biased results advance search engines’ interests at users’ expense: We demonstrate that lower-ranked listings for other sites sometimes manage to obtain more clicks than Google and Yahoo’s own-site listings, even when Google and Yahoo put their own links first.

Details, including methodology, analysis, and policy implications:

Measuring Bias in “Organic” Web Search

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Adverse Selection in Online ‘Trust’ Certifications and Search Results

Edelman, Benjamin. “Adverse Selection in Online ‘Trust’ Certifications and Search Results.” Electronic Commerce Research and Applications 10, no. 1 (January-February 2011): 17-25.

Widely used online “trust” authorities issue certifications without substantial verification of recipients’ actual trustworthiness. This lax approach gives rise to adverse selection: the sites that seek and obtain trust certifications are actually less trustworthy than others. Using an original dataset on web site safety, I demonstrate that sites certified by the best-known authority, TRUSTe, are more than twice as likely to be untrustworthy as uncertified sites. This difference remains statistically and economically significant when restricted to “complex” commercial sites. Meanwhile, search engines create an implied endorsement in their selection of ads for display, but I show that search engine advertisements tend to be less safe than the corresponding organic listings.

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Bias in Search Results?: Diagnosis and Response

Edelman, Benjamin. “Bias in Search Results?: Diagnosis and Response.” Indian Journal of Law and Technology 7 (2011): 16-32.

I explore allegations of search engine bias, including understanding a search engine’s incentives to bias results, identifying possible forms of bias, and evaluating methods of verifying whether bias in fact occurs. I then consider possible legal and policy responses, and I assess search engines’ likely defenses. I conclude that regulatory intervention is justified in light of the importance of search engines in referring users to all manner of other sites, and in light of striking market concentration among search engines.

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Knowing Certain Trademark Ads Were Confusing, Google Sold Them Anyway — for $100+ Million

Disclosure: I serve as a consultant to various companies that compete with Google. But I write on my own — not at the suggestion or request of any client, without approval or payment from any client.

When a user enters a search term that matches a company’s trademark, Google often shows results for the company’s competitors. To take a specific example: Searches for language software seller "Rosetta Stone" often yield links to competing sites — sometimes, sites that sell counterfeit software. Rosetta Stone think that’s rotten, and, as I’ve previously written, I agree: It’s a pure power-play, effectively compelling advertisers to pay Google if they want to reach users already trying to reach their sites; otherwise, Google will link to competitors instead. Furthermore, Google is reaping where others have sown: After an advertiser builds a brand (often by advertising in other media), Google lets competitors skim off that traffic — reducing the advertiser’s incentive to invest in the first place. So Google’s approach to trademarks definitely harms advertisers and trademark-holders. But it’s also confusing to consumers. How do we know? Because Google’s own documents admit as much.

Today Public Citizen posted an unredacted version of Rosetta Stone’s appellate brief in its ongoing litigation with Google. Google had sought to keep confidential the documents that ground district court and appellate adjudication of the dispute, but now some of the documents are available — giving an inside look at Google’s policies and objectives for trademark-triggered ads. Some highlights:

  • Through early 2004, Google let trademark holders request that ads be disabled if they used a trademark in keyword or ad text. But in early 2004, Google determined that it could achieve a "significant potential revenue impact" from selling trademarks as keywords. (ref)
  • In connection with Google’s 2004 policy change letting advertisers buy trademarks as keywords, Google conducted experiments to assess user confusion from trademarks appearing in search advertisements. Google concluded that showing a trademark anywhere in the text of an advertisement resulted in a "high" degree of consumer confusion. Google’s study concluded: "Overall very high rate of trademark confusion (30-40% on average per user) … 94% of users were confused at least once during the study." (ref)
  • Notwithstanding Google’s 2004 study, Google in 2009 changed its trademark policy to permit the user of trademarks in advertisement text. Google estimated that this policy change would result in at least $100 million of additional annual revenue, and potentially more than a billion dollars of additional annual revenue. Google implemented this change without any further studies or experiments as to consumer confusion. (ref)
  • Google possesses more than 100,000 pages of complaints from trademark holders, including at least 9,862 complaints from at least 5,024 trademark owners from 2004 to 2009. (ref)

Kudos to Public Citizen for obtaining these documents. That said, I believe Google should never have sought to limit distribution of these documents in the first place. In other litigation, I’ve found that Google’s standard practice is to attempt to seal all documents, even where applicable court rules require that documents be provided to the general public. That’s troubling, and that needs to change.