Friday, January 4, 2013

Surprise: FTC closes probe; let's Google off with a slap on the wrist...

The Obama/Google love story continues...

Via Politico:
Federal regulators on Thursday concluded a nearly two-year probe of Google with what amounts to a slap on the wrist: an agreement to restrict its use of smartphone patents and a voluntary change in how the most dominant search engine on the Web behaves and handles advertisements.

It was Google’s largest challenge to date from Washington and the company dodged a potentially lengthy and costly antitrust trial by agreeing to a modest set of changes. The case also illustrated just how much more savvy major technology companies have become over the past decade in navigating how they work the regulatory and lobbying lanes in Washington, as Google spent millions in lobbying and two years working the case.

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