Google to Control Your Home

[JBeukema]

Little detail was given, but Google explains it has essentially created a framework to control wireless communication between objects in your house

 

[uscitizen]

My toilet is wireless.

 

[waltky]

Google comes under the watchful eye of the FTC...

US Probes Google's Business Practices
June 25, 2011 - The U.S. government has launched an investigation into whether Internet search engine Google is using its dominance to promote its products while blocking competitors.

Google controls more than 65 percent of web searches worldwide and earns most of its money - billions of dollars - in search-related advertising. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it wants to know whether Google is using its dominance in searches not only to earn advertising revenue but also to channel users to its growing network of services.

The FTC investigation mirrors a similar probe the European Union opened last year. The U.S. state of Texas also is looking at Google's business practices. Google executives say they do not believe they are doing anything wrong or violating any antitrust laws.

In the 1990s the FTC looked into the business practices of Microsoft and whether it was using its Windows operating system to kill competing software makers. That case was settled in 2002. It was only last month that Microsoft emerged from government oversight.

Source

See also:

Google investors fear long battle against feds
6/25/2011 - An echo of Microsoft's drawn-out legal clashes in antitrust cases

Larry Page should put in a call to Bill Gates. Microsoft Corp.'s famous founder may know better than anyone else what the Google Inc. chief executive would face if he engages in a protracted legal battle against U.S. antitrust regulators. Google said on Friday that the Federal Trade Commission has started a formal investigation into its business, raising concerns among investors about a lengthy, distracting probe and potential legal action.

Microsoft suffered that fate in its two-decade fight with the U.S. Department of Justice and state attorneys over charges that it abused its monopoly in operating systems to crush competition in other areas. After a high-profile trial, Microsoft finally settled the matter in 2002, and only last month emerged from government oversight.

"Bill Gates felt like he was being punished for being successful, and he never really recovered from the antitrust trial," said Michael Cusumano, professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, who was involved in the trial. "Microsoft has suffered as a result. They're not as aggressive. They definitely lost their edge."

Page know for stubbornness

Whether Google's Page will handle the review of his company more dispassionately than Gates remains to be seen. The 38-year-old son of academics is known for a stubborn streak, championing ambitious technology and products whose near-term financial payoffs are not always clear.

More Google investors fear long battle against feds - Business - US business - msnbc.com

 

[Mr. H.]

I heard this scenario postulated 20 years ago. Nothing new.