April 6, 2012 by Robert H. Bork Antitrust is on the rampage
again. Government agencies in the U.S. and Europe are
investigating Google for alleged anti-competitive practices. No
agency or critic has articulated a coherent theory of how Google
harms consumers. The principal basis for the investigations
appears to be that if one does not understand practices in an
industry, the practices must violate the law. The principal
service of Internet search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo is
to provide access to an extraordinary wealth of information,
eclipsing by magnitudes encyclopedias, guide books and other
references. These searches are free to consumers. Plus, the
search engine adopts algorithms based on an individual's earlier
searches that make it simpler and faster for the person to find
what he wants. Google's search engine is the most effective of
the competing generic search engines; thus, the agencies' focus
on Google. The claim appears to be that Google's search
algorithms are unfair. The U.S. Federal