After EU tries to limits its powers in Europe, Google says it is "not like that" Google's boss has hit back at the EU's attempt to block its dominance of search and positinoing of its own content. "Put simply, we created search for users, not websites," says Eric Schmidt (below) during a Berlin speech, defending Google's integration of its own content within search results against claims that it violates antitrust law.
"Companies like Expedia, Yelp, and TripAdvisor argue that it deprives their websites of valuable traffic and disadvantages their businesses. They’d rather go back to 10 blue links. What’s interesting is that the traffic these websites get from Google has increased significantly."
The Google chairman also argued Amazon, rather than Bing or Yahoo, was Google's biggest search rival, since Amazon shoppers often go straight to its site/apps and bypass Google search.
"They are obviously more focused on the commerce side of the equation, but, at their roots, they are answering users’ questions and searches, just as we are."
He also noted the threat posed by mobile, where (deep linking efforts notwithstanding) users are more likely to access content by directly opening an app. "Seven out of every eight minutes of mobile phone usage is spent within apps. And the most popular app in the world is Facebook, a company which now describes itself as 'the on-ramp to the Internet'."
Google, of course, has a few popular apps of its own. Schmidt insists to regulators that his company remains quite vulnerable to disruption. "The next Google won’t do what Google does, just as Google didn’t do what AOL did."