US Senate Judiciary’s Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has joined subcommittee chairman, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), in questioning whether Google is abusing its dominant position in search. They are calling for vigorous antitrust oversight and enforcement, and a hearing on possible anti-competitive conduct by Google. Google's predictable response is: "Our goal is to provide users with the best possible answers as quickly as possible ..." See http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51152.html

Neither Lee nor Kohl mention WP. But my question is: given that the Google algothrim elevates WP (which in any event certainly does not provide users with "the best possible answers") to the highest level of search visibility, does that not also open Google to possible anti-trust / anti-competitive claims?

I'm tempted to debate this with you, because if anyone is violating anti-trust, it's not Wikipedia, but Google. I'd like to hear VictimOfCensorship's view on this, though.

Anti-trust laws apply to competitive businesses, not charities.

If you can point to evidence that Google is using Wikipedia to stifle a competitor, you'd have a case.

Considering that Google is in competition with Wikipedia (anybody remember Knol?), I think this is fairly clearly a nonstarter.

Hard evidence is hard to come. But some commentators (at slashdot etc) have argued that Google is using WP to give non-commercial "balance" to high-visibility search results in which commercial/paid-for advertising links appear at top of results, which are then "balanced" non-commercially by relevant WP link. Without the Google algothrim, WP would achieve only a fraction of its search visibility; and it is of course a willing accomplice benefiting directly from that practice.



In "competition" with? Surely you mean in cahoots with.

Re: Anti-trust laws apply to competitive businesses, not charities.

Jimbo's for-profit business Wikia benefits from its association with the non-profit Wikipedia.

Funny thing happened on the way from the forum. Mere two after days after I started this topic, Google suddenly removed from its search engine 14 indexed pages that Google had previously indexed for my site http://truth-hertz.net -- purely coincidental, of course. If not, thanks Google/WP for confirming I might be onto something here ...

Do you want some more tinfoil for that magnificent hat of yours?

Hello "Backward!" Thank you for your thoughtful contribution.

You are welcome, comrade, as ever. Hotlinking not allowed for this site, but the picture is arguably topical: http://cache2.artprintimages.com/p/LRG/22/...ward-russia.jpg

And don't forget Wikia Search, Jimbo's "Google-killer".

Neither Knol nor the for-profit Wikia invalidate the symbiotic relationship between Google and WP. Newyorkbrat, Arbcom's resident lawyer who's know to be active at WR might be an appropriately qualified individual to comment here. He's unsurprisingly chosen to remain silent.