GOOGLE: Yes, We're Under Investigation, But We Don't Know Why (GOOG)

Google has confirmed that it is now under investigation from the FTC for antitrust in a blog post. 

It says, "it's still unclear exactly what the FTC’s concerns are," but it lays out a preemptive case against any charges.

Basically Google says, we're all about what's doing best for the users, and if people think we're up to no good they can go use Bing.

Here's the full post:

Supporting choice, ensuring economic opportunity

At Google, we’ve always focused on putting the user first. We aim to provide relevant answers as quickly as possible—and our product innovation and engineering talent have delivered results that users seem to like, in a world where the competition is only one click away. Still, we recognize that our success has led to greater scrutiny. Yesterday, we received formal notification from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it has begun a review of our business. We respect the FTC’s process and will be working with them (as we have with other agencies) over the coming months to answer questions about Google and our services.

It’s still unclear exactly what the FTC’s concerns are, but we’re clear about where we stand. Since the beginning, we have been guided by the idea that, if we focus on the user, all else will follow. No matter what you’re looking for—buying a movie ticket, finding the best burger nearby, or watching a royal wedding—we want to get you the information you want as quickly as possible. Sometimes the best result is a link to another website. Other times it’s a news article, sports score, stock quote, a video or a map.



Instant answers. New sources of knowledge. Powerful tools—all for free. In just 13 years we’ve built a model that has changed the way people find answers and helped businesses both large and small create jobs and connect with new customers.



Search helps you go anywhere and discover anything, on an open Internet. Using Google is a choice—and there are lots of other choices available to you for getting information: other general-interest search engines, specialized search engines, direct navigation to websites, mobile applications, social networks, and more.



Because of the many choices available to you, we work constantly on making search better, and will continue to follow the principles that have guided us from the beginning:

• Do what’s best for the user. We make hundreds of changes to our algorithms every year to improve your search experience. Not every website can come out at the top of the page, or even appear on the first page of our search results.

• Provide the most relevant answers as quickly as possible. Today, when you type “weather in Chicago” or “how many feet in a mile” into our search box, you get the answers directly—often before you hit “enter”. And we’re always trying to figure out new ways to answer even more complicated questions just as clearly and quickly. Advertisements offer useful information, too, which is why we also work hard to ensure that our ads are relevant to you.

• Label advertisements clearly. Google always distinguishes advertisements from our organic search results. As we experiment with new ad formats and new types of content, we will continue to be transparent about what is an ad and what isn’t.

• Be transparent. We share more information about how our rankings work than any other search engine, through our Webmaster Central site, blog, diagnostic tools, support forum, and YouTube. We also give advertisers detailed information about the ad auction and tips to improve their ad quality scores. We’ve recently introduced even more transparency tools, announcing a major change to our algorithm, providing more notice when a website is demoted due to spam violations, and giving advertisers new information about ads that break our rules.

• Loyalty, not lock-in. We firmly believe you control your data, so we have a team of engineers whose only goal is to help you take your information with you. We want you to stay with us because we’re innovating and making our products better—not because you’re locked in.

These are the principles that guide us, and we know they’ll stand up to scrutiny. We’re committed to giving you choices, ensuring that businesses can grow and create jobs, and, ultimately, fostering an Internet that benefits us all.

To learn more about our business, please visit google.com/press/competition.

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See Also:

• Google Is About To Be Hit With An Antitrust Probe From The FTC
• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Google Buys Place-Shifting Software Company To Enhance Google TV
• CHART OF THE DAY: A Tale Of Two Smartphone Companies

GOOGLE: Yes, We're Under Investigation, But We Don't Know Why (GOOG)

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Office for Mac, Office for PC: Yes, We Can be Friends!

In this Office Show, Dr. Office, aka Doug "Office Casual" Thomas, shows you how Office for Mac 2011 makes compatibility so much better. Docs made on Macs look great on PCs. And vice versa. Not that we really want to wade into that whole operating-system-as-personal-identification conflict thing, but we think this makes the argument a lot harder.

Office for Mac, Office for PC: Yes, We Can be Friends!

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DTWB/~3/ZHc0pmZmBrI/

"Yes, Social Media Does Pay Off," A New Report Says

Read it and tweet: Social media takes a lot of time, but it pays off, says a report released today.

Ninety percent of marketers surveyed say that social media is important for their business, with the self employed and small business owners with two or more employees "more likely to strongly agree," says the 2011 Social Media Marketing Report, which surveyed some 3,300 marketers.

The No. 1 payoff: Generating more business exposure, say nearly 9 in 10 marketers. Increased traffic (72 percent) and improved search rankings (62 percent) were also top on the list. Improved sales was last on the list of seven benefits, with 43 percent of those surveyed enjoying success—but it was the self-employed and small business owners with two or more employees who were most likely to report that social media helped them close new business.

The self-employed and small businesses also were most likely to find business partnerships through social media, with at least 59 percent reporting that benefit.

As almost anyone who's ever updated a status (and then clicked around for another hour) can attest, social media is time-consuming. More than half (58 percent) of respondents are using social media for more than six hours per week, and about one-third (34 percent) invest 11 or more hours weekly. Fifteen percent spend more than 20 hours a week blogging, tweeting, and the like.

The more experience respondents had with social media, the more time they spent: 63 percent of people with three or more years experience spend more than 10 hours a week on social media. Just 41 percent of those with one to three years experience spend that much time. For the record, about half of those surveyed have less than a year's experience with social media marketing.

Wondering if you can (or should) hire someone to do this sort of marketing for you? Just 28 percent of businesses are outsourcing some portion of their social media marketing, says the survey.

Where, exactly, are efforts being spent? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs were the top four social media tools. Facebook overtook Twitter to take the top spot in the study this year (in 2010 it was Twitter).

But some three-quarters (77 percent) of marketers plan to increase their use of YouTube and video marketing this year—a virtual gold rush. 

This post originally appeared at Inc. To read more from Inc., check out:

•    How Great Entrepreneurs Think >>

•    Tactics Are the New Strategy >>

•    5 Things You Should Never Say While Negotiating >>

•    How to Extend Your Laptop’s Life >>

•    11 Businesses You Can Start in Your Pajamas in 2011 >>

For the latest career news, visit War Room. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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See Also:

• Facebook Just Launched A Business Page Migration Tool
• Five Twitter Strategies That Every Brand Should Know
• 7 Ways To Get The Most Out Of An International Business Trip

"Yes, Social Media Does Pay Off," A New Report Says

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Happy Birthday Twitter. Yes, You’re Awesome. Now Back To Work (On Search And Archives)

I woke up this morning and my Twitter stream looked like a Facebook Wall on a teenager's birthday. "Happy birthday, Twitter!" "Twitter, you're the best, happy bday!" "Can't believe you're five Twitter!" These messages came in fast and furious from folks in the tech sphere, folks not in the tech sphere, celebrities, Twitter employees. On and on and on. And that's great. Twitter is awesome. Even if you're unwilling to admit that it has changed the world, there's no denying that it has drastically changed the tech landscape and the way information is created and consumed. And it continues to do so. So yes, happy birthday, Twitter. And now it's time to get back to work.

Happy Birthday Twitter. Yes, You’re Awesome. Now Back To Work (On Search And Archives)

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/w10zHK-BG2s/

Yes, here it is... Andrew Mason and other Groupon execs and investors took $135 million off table earlier this year....

Yes, here it is... Andrew Mason and other Groupon execs and investors took $135 million off table earlier this year. So they're playing with house money.

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Yes, here it is... Andrew Mason and other Groupon execs and investors took $135 million off table earlier this year....

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Hell, Yes, Google Should Buy Groupon. And Twitter. And Foursquare...

Google is in talks to buy Groupon for more than $3 billion, Kara Swisher reports.

Good.

Google offered $2.5-$4 billion to buy Twitter a few months ago, Nicholas Carlson reports.

Also good.

Google's Marissa Mayer is obsessed with Foursquare and is probably considering buying it.

Also good.

Google should buy all these leading companies--and more. 

Here's why:

Google has cash coming out of its ears, and the cash is currently doing the company no good whatsoever.  Google has $30 billion in the bank. It's earning next to nothing. Google generates another $2 billion of cash each quarter, or $10 billion a year.  Google could buy Groupon, Twitter, and Foursquare for, say, $10-$15 billion in all.  Google shareholders would never miss the cash--not for one second.  And Google would then own the leading companies in three potentially huge new businesses, none of which Google is currently in.

Google's core business, search, is maturing, and despite a lot of excitement about display ads, Android, YouTube, etc., Google's other businesses are still a rounding error.  Groupon is already generating $500+ million of revenue a year. Twitter and Foursquare could become massive new businesses, especially with Google's help. 

There's very little downside risk: If Twitter and Foursquare and Groupon ended up being worthless (unlikely), Google would just take a meaningless write-off.  Some journalists and Twitter-pundits might snicker at Google's "stupidity," the way they snickered at Google's "stupidity" in paying $1.7 billion for YouTube (great deal) and Microsoft's "stupidity" in investing in Facebook, etc. But whatever. That's a small price to pay for owning the top companies in several exciting new categories.

History has shown again and again that buying the No. 2 or No. 3 player in online categories is usually a much worse move than paying up to buy No. 1.  Groupon, Twitter, and Foursquare are No. 1s, at least for now. 

Google sucks at social, and it has never done anything in commerce or, really, location.  Thus, if Google buys these companies and doesn't screw them up (not a given), Google will suddenly add competencies that so far it has been unable to develop internally.  Again, that's worth paying up for.

Google's spending big bucks to move into social, commerce, and location-based services is VASTLY smarter than some of Google's other bizarre investments, such as wind-farms and self-driving cars.  These businesses are complementary to Google's core business and close to its core competency.  Wind farms aren't.

The bottom line: Google has way more cash than it will ever need, and the cash is a competitive weapon. Instead of just letting that cash sit around and earn peanuts, Google should convert the cash into potential future growth engines.  Google can afford to buy companies that other companies can't--and it can afford to pay top dollar for them.  If all the bets don't pay off, whatever--Google has way more cash than it needs.  And Google's investors are invested in the company in the hope that it will one day pay out the cash as dividend.

So just write the checks, Google.  Be bold.  The time is now.

See Also: "My Nightmare Interviews With Google"

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• My Nightmare Interviews With Google
• "Easy To Work At Google? Bulls--t"
• Google On A Massive Hiring Spree: Wants To Add 2,100 New Employees

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