Microsoft President Brad Smith speaks (L) and Sundar Pichai of Google.
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Microsoft and Google promoted their practices and how they handled news outlets in a battle between trust targets yesterday and today.
In his written testimony for a hearing before the House Criticism subcommittee on antitrust on Friday, Microsoft president Brad Smith said Google has made journalism centers responsible for their wide range of services, citing its incorporate analytics and advertising tools while benefiting from their content. Smith said Google relies on content from these outlets to keep its users engaged, citing its own experience with Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
Smith said that referral traffic from Google to news outlets is of real value, but “observes that traffic has become increasingly difficult for news organizations due to the high volume of traffic. Some of the profits have been squeezed by Google. ” It marked a steep decline in newspaper advertising revenue from $ 49.4 billion in 2005 to $ 14.3 billion in 2018, according to Pew Research. Over the same period, he said, Google’s revenue grew from $ 6.1 billion to $ 116 billion.
“This is not a coincidence,” he said.
Google turned back at Smith in a statement released before the hearing, recalling the time of Microsoft ‘s trust review two decades ago.
“We respect Microsoft’s success and compete hard with them in cloud computing, analytics, product applications, video conferencing, email and many more,” said Google’s senior vice president. Global Issues Kent Walker in a blog post. “Unfortunately, as competition in these areas intensifies, they are returning to their familiar playbook on attacking competitors and lobbying. for rules that are beneficial to their own interests. They are now making self-service claims and are even willing to break with the way the open web works. in an effort to eliminate a competitor. And their claims about our business and how we work with news publishers are simply wrong. “
While Google has been in the hot seat lately when it comes to enforcing trust, against several lawsuits from the federal government and state lawyers, Microsoft was instrumental in landmark antitrust suit around the turn of the century. That lawsuit, which alleged that Microsoft illegally maintained a monopoly and wiped out the competition by connecting its Internet Explorer browser to PCs using the system its operations, has provided in-depth information to the current allegations against Google, which also includes anti-competition contracts.
Walker said Microsoft ‘s testimony dates back to the same period.
“This latest attack marks a return to Microsoft’s longtime practices,” he wrote. “And it is no coincidence that Microsoft’s renewed interest in attacking us comes on the heels of SolarWinds’ attack and at a moment when they have let out tens of thousands of their customers – U.S. government agencies, NATO allies, banks, nonprofits, telecommunications providers, public utilities, police, fire and rescue units, hospitals and, presumably, news organizations – to be actively scrutinized through Microsoft’s core vulnerabilities. “
Unfortunately, Microsoft ran a campaign against Google around 2012, mocking its services with a parody called “Scroogled.” The campaign was intended to draw the attention of users who claimed that unfair practices by Google and directing them to Microsoft search competitors instead. Walker said the latest attack was a reminder of the “old multiplication Scroogled game-book. “
The two giants recently went head-to-head on a similar issue in Australia, which had been working on new laws requiring Facebook and Google to pay news publishers to connect to the Internet. their content. Although the legislation was eventually watered down after Facebook did well to promise to stop displaying news content in the country, it warns tech companies that further changes could be imminent. in other parts of the world.
Although Google never withdrew its news service from Australia and eventually struck contracts with publishers. Microsoft had announced that it was ready to step in if Google removed its news service. The company said they would be willing to play by Australian rules if it was specified by obedience to them and would not threaten to withdraw their service.
Walker said in a statement Friday that Google remains committed to working with news organizations and policymakers “to enable a strong future for journalism.”
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