Last week, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp sent an open letter to the European Union outlining anti-trust concerns it has about Google, mainly criticizing the search giant for exploiting its dominant market position to stifle competition while also being a “platform for piracy”.
This week, Google fired back with its own open letter, highlighting its efforts in constantly downgrading the search rankings of piracy sites. Google also rebutted the accusation of “speech domination” by citing the huge numbers of readers going directly to News Corp sites or via social network referrals.
In addition, Google claims to have plenty of competitors in many specialty areas, including Amazon for product search; Kayak and Expedia for flights; and Yelp and TripAdvisor for local information. The various claims and counter-claims highlight the rapidly shifting balance of power between technology companies and traditional media companies in digitally distributing media content.
