Google’s Chairman and former CEO, Eric Schmidt, and outside counsel for antitrust, Susan Creighton, appeared before the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust to defend its actions that restrict competition in the online search and search advertising industries. There were some vigorous exchanges between Senators and representatives from the search giant, but when the questions got tough the Google folks tended to obscure the truth or obfuscate.

The Committee submitted to Google a series of questions on issues the search giant failed to adequately address, seeking responses to questions that remained unanswered from the hearing. The answers to these questions are due today and Senators are hopeful these provide more clarity to the issues. To help identify the areas needing further discussion, ACT has produced a helpful translation of key Google testimony. We’ve added subtitles to video clips from key points in the hearing in which Google representatives left out information or misrepresented the facts.

Search Bias

Marissa Mayer Quote
One of the key Judiciary Committee antitrust considerations was whether Google favored its own properties, like Google Maps, Finance or Places, at the expense of competitors in its search page.  Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl discovered a video clip of Google’s then-Head of Search Marissa Mayer explaining that Google does indeed put its own properties at the top of the page.  Schmidt tries to distance himself from her statement suggesting it did not occur during his tenure which is patently false.

Google Knows What You Want Before You Do
Throughout the hearing, Schmidt and Creighton try to defend Google’s practice of favoring its own properties on the search page (at the expense of competitors) by offering the condescension that Google knows more about you want than you do. Apparently, Google knows what users want before they even ask for it and, in their mind, it’s simply easier to give you a result that Google knows you want rather than waiting for you to ask for it. Their repeated claim is they are giving users “answers” even though they haven’t even asked the question.

“I actually think most people don’t want Google to answer their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next.” – Eric Schmidt, Wall St. Journal, 8/14/10

Google’s rationale is that it knows better than the user what it actually wants. Clearly, a user has always wanted a Google map without ever asking for one.

Google continues to demonstrate it knows what people want without their asking as Schmidt explains to Senator Franken what “answer” he is really looking for.

In this clip, Schmidt is responding to Senator Lee’s question about why, when Google determines what you want before you’ve even asked, it has to give an “answer” from a Google property. Schmidt inexplicably claims the “answer” has to come from Google’s own data sources because it can’t be engineered any differently.

Throughout the hearing, Google sought to obfuscate on the key issue of how it preferred its own services to others. It sought to cloud the distinction between organic search, product search, and its favorable placement of Maps, Finance, Places, and other Google features.

The Senate asked some very pointed questions that will hopefully provide answers about Google’s business practices and conduct as a monopoly force in the internet economy. Having to respond in written form, and without the restraints of a five-minute line of questioning should yield some interesting results.