Microsoft says Google blocks competition in European search market

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Photo: ReutersA woman walks past the logo of Google in front of its headquarters in Beijing January 12, 2011

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Microsoft has fought legal battles with officials in Europe and the United States over competition in the personal computer market. But now Microsoft is accusing Google of being anti-competitive. A complaint to the European Commission accuses Google of unfairly controlling the Internet search market in Europe.

Google is already talking to the commission about the issue and says it is happy to explain to anyone how its business works.

Google also faces other issues. Gmail users in China began reporting problems with Google's e-mail service in late February. The problems came as news of the revolutions in the Arab world filled the Internet and there were online calls for protests in China.

Google said the government was interfering with its e-mail service.

(SOUND)

Last week, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu called the accusations unacceptable. But Google spokeswoman Jessica Powell said the company stood by its earlier comments.

JESSICA POWELL: "This is a government blockage, carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail."

Google is the world leader in Internet search. But in China, the biggest search engine is Baidu. And this week, China's largest Internet media company, Sina, dropped Google's search engine from its website. Sina says it is using its own technology.

An estimated four hundred fifty million Chinese are online -- about half of all Internet users in Asia.

Last year, Google said a cyberattack from China had attempted to get information from the Gmail accounts of human rights activists. Google also expressed concerns about censorship. So Google relocated its Chinese search engine from the mainland to Hong Kong.

The company is also facing new problems at home. A federal judge in New York has ruled against its plan to put millions of books online.

Google wants to create a digital library of all the world's books. It reached a one hundred twenty-five million dollar deal in two thousand eight with groups representing writers and publishers. Google agreed to create a system to pay copyright holders when their works are used online.

But Judge Denny Chin rejected the proposed settlement. He said it gives Google monopoly control of the book search market. But he left open the possibility for a new plan.

On a similar issue, Baidu says it has removed almost three million documents from its library. Writers have complained that Baidu did not have permission for their works to appear on its document-sharing site.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter and available online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

___

Contributing: Stephanie Ho

Listen? Email? Print? Comments?Comments (16)01-04-2011billows(china)

google's products are wanderful ,and i use many of them ,like search,picasa,gmail,document,reader and so on .. i like google .

01-04-2011hua(China)

As a famous comany ,everyone should not be always thinking about the profit,all custerms are the most important.We need the balance!

01-04-2011linna(China)

Whatever,baidu is more superior in China.

01-04-2011Po(China)

Thanks Google as I have used its search engine for almost ten years. I hope Google will go well.

01-04-2011Jean

I use Google as my search engine. Its entry website is simple and easy to use. And it changes the images on its main page very often. They are cute and significant - an image today to celebrate Robert Bunsen's 200th birthday for example.

01-04-2011russell(U.S.)

Google doesn't block competition. They're just better than the competition. Microsoft is behind, for the first time in a long time; they just don't like it. Microsoft should know about blocking competition; however, they were never better than the competition. Are they saying google blocks (amused) bing? ha. They just steal google's results anyways. hahahha.

01-04-2011Winsor

Thank you, This is all about money and government regulations.

01-04-2011Zili(china)

Sometimes Baidu is so bad, I still like google more.

01-04-2011C(Vietnam)

Google is the most effective search engine in my country. But it is not that i agree with the monopoly control in any forms. the monopoly has been happening in my country from petroleum, to electricity... and the farmer class are suffer most. Because it doesn't make the fairly competion in the ecomomy, and to lead the slackness in work. it would have been bad if it happened in administrative cite.

01-04-2011kazuo(japan)

I don't know that Google's prospect of creating book market is likely to have exclusive possesion. there are Amazon and Apple. Is Googole user in Europe so many ?

01-04-2011Balance(China)

I don't know the fact of the collision occurred between the Chinese goverment and Google, so I cann't make a comment about this. But on the issue of digital libary, I absolutely stand by the writers' side. Goole and Baidu have no rights to publish the books without authorization.

01-04-2011Joruji(Japan)

I use Google, Gmail, and Facebook every day, and I don't remember having any problems. I'm very satisfied with them. Also, I support Google's plan to create a digital library of all the world's books, because it would save time and money I spend going to bookstores, besides reducing the use of paper and energy resources required to produce it.

01-04-2011Josephat opio(Uganda)

No body should blame google,because they are still the best search engine. Keep it up with u good work.

01-04-2011

What is the topics ..?? Why I must hear Google in China ??

01-04-2011Gustavo Santos(Braz il)

Thanks a lot VOA Team!Mario Ritter, as always, great articles for us!And Steve Ember, fabulous voice!

01-04-2011drac(China)

no doubt Google is among the greatest companies in the world. whatever from its innovation, power, technology, cultural idea etc.

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