Google competitor Yelp funded an academic study from Harvard and Columbia universities, and the result was that competitiors were discriminated in Google's Search Results.
Tim Wu, one of the lead researchers, their studies showed that the search results that direct users to Google content, favors it over the results that point to their competitors like Yelp and Orbitz.
Tim Wu stated, "What the data shows, is in the interest of anti-competitive behavior, maybe they're hurting consumers along the way," Wu also added, "It puts the grist in the mill for an antitrust enforcer."
As Google was requested to respond for a comment, they however did not give any feedback. In an April blog post, a spokesperson said: "rival businesses appeared to be thriving, writing people have more choice than ever before."
It started last April when European investigators have been up to work and come up with a decisive factor whether Google distorts search results for its own benefit, with a process of moving rivals away.
An antitrust lawyer in Washington and former policy director for the FTC - David Balto, said that he thinks that hyperbole has gotten ahead of the fact, and there is a long process to take before anyone can confirm that Google violates the competition laws.
David Balto also said that Yelp is showing that they are trying to "hobble" Google through the research they did. It is more like they forced the company to spend time and money justifying its conduct.
When Wu and Michael Luca of the Harvard Business School, working alongside Yelp's Data Science Team, conducted the study and set up two search engine scenarios, the study tested 2,690 participants, and the researchers found out that Google's findings weren't necessarily better than other options
The conducted study that stated, "Google is making a strategic choice to display their own content, rather than choosing results that consumers would prefer."
The researchers stated that their study will be on Journal of Antitrust Enforcement from Oxford University Press.
