Google search status enters the consultation box
The Google search status review has moved forward after a proposal from the Competition and Markets Authority. The regulator may give Google strategic market status in UK search and search advertising. Naturally, everyone searched Google to find out what that means.
The CMA has opened a consultation and published a roadmap. This created a concise diagram of the issue, in which the nation asks the largest search engine to explain why the regulator thinks the nation needs more search engines.
The doorway becomes suspiciously door shaped
Strategic market status could allow targeted measures. The proposal does not find unlawful conduct. It merely notices that one internet doorway has become extremely door shaped and now contains a gift shop.
“Consumers need meaningful choice,” said Dr Wanda Incognito of Competitive Tabs. “Ideally, that choice appears before page eight and above the fourteen sponsored sheds.”
The roadmap covers ranking, publisher controls and access to search data. Consequently, several enormous companies may soon compete to guess why a person typed weather tomorrow at 6.58am.
The workshop discovers a browser on its own laptop
The proposal awaits feedback and a final decision. Meanwhile, consultants have launched workshops on discovery and visibility. Nobody remembers the browser already installed on the workshop laptop.
A rival search engine welcomed the announcement. You can find its statement as the fourth result for its own name, after a sponsored advert for another search engine and three guides to clearing your cache.
The CMA wants stronger competition. The internet wishes it well, then asks whether it could perhaps phrase the answer as one useful link and a little less sponsored garden furniture.
Read the real story: The CMA announcement on competition in UK search services.
