谷歌胜利的背后

    11月份，笔者在采访拉里•佩奇时，谈到关于谷歌（Google）操纵搜索结果，在损害竞争对手的情况下为自己公司的服务提供便利的投诉。当时，他对这个问题侃侃而谈，表达了自己对这种指控的不屑：

    “我们的态度就是，我们的客户就是我们的终端用户。人们希望能从我们这里得到真实、准确、精确分类的信息。这是我们的第一要务。我知道有许多公司在从事各种细化的专业搜索业务，而他们所做的只是我们的一部分业务。我们看到了打造卓越产品的机会，而不仅仅是一些零散的业务。我经常以度假计划为例。如果有一个系统能够为人们提供基本的度假计划，那再好不过。它能够知道用户的偏好，了解天气，知道飞机票的价格、酒店价格，熟悉物流情况，还能将所有因素综合成一种用户体验。这就是我们对搜索的认识。

    你在刚开始提到了“你们的竞争对手”。那些对我们的各类业务提出投诉的公司，我并不认为他们真的会那么做。所以，再次重申，我并不会那么想。”

    当时，已经有迹象表明，对上述指控展开调查已经长达两年的美国联邦贸易委员会（Federal Trade Commission，FTC）不会对谷歌的核心搜索业务行使反垄断强制执行权。上周四，该委员会发表声明，称未发现证据证明谷歌存在所谓“搜索偏向”，谷歌赢得了一场完胜。这样一来，谷歌确定可以避免与美国政府的大规模对抗。之前的科技行业领导公司，如美国电话电报公司（AT&T）、IBM和微软（Microsoft）等均曾深受该类调查的困扰。

    委员会主席乔恩•雷博维茨在新闻发布会中说道：“我们一致认为……（谷歌）公司没有涉及非法垄断，没有违反《联邦贸易委员会法》（FTC Act）。”

    谷歌在佩奇【他成功的CEO生涯将成为本期《财富》杂志（Fortune）一篇报道的主题】的领导下恢复了活力、专注度和发展势头。虽然来自亚马逊（Amazon）、苹果（Apple）和Facebook的竞争仍然非常激烈，但除非是与监管当局直接交锋，否则任何事情也无法阻挡谷歌前进的脚步。市场研究公司Sector & Sovereign Research的分析师保罗•撒加瓦最近在一篇看好谷歌的文章中写道：“政府干预是谷歌最大的威胁所在。”如今，美国监管部门在交锋中让步，谷歌的竞争对手，尤其是微软，肯定会将案件提交到欧盟（the European Union）和美国各州的首席检察官。但起码在上周四这一天，谷歌上下可以弹冠相庆了。谷歌首席法律顾问大卫•德拉蒙德在公司官方博客中写道：“结论一清二楚：谷歌的服务既有利于用户，也不妨碍竞争。”

    不过，谷歌确实对联邦贸易委员会做出了部分让步：公司将在“公平、合理、非歧视的条款下”授权重要的手机技术专利；允许其他公司将广告宣传活动从谷歌转移到竞争对手的搜索引擎；自愿同意改变与Yelp等“垂直”搜索引擎的关系。

    但许多分析师发现，这些让步，尤其是关于广告和垂直搜索方面的让步，只是谷歌的一种策略而已。谷歌之所以坚持到现在才做出让步，只有一个目的：给联邦贸易委员会一些好处，让它停止对搜索偏向的调查，从而保住公司的颜面。

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    When I asked Larry Page in November about claims that Google manipulated search results to favor its own services at the expense of rivals, he gave me a lengthy answer that more or less pooh-poohed the allegations:

    "The way we think about it is that our customer is our end-user. People are really trying to get some information and get honest, accurate, well-ranked information from us. That's our job one. I think that there are companies that do various kinds of specialized things, that they're doing a part of what we do. We see the opportunity to build amazing products that are more than any of those parts. So one of my favorite examples I like to give is if you're vacation planning. It would be really nice to have a system that could basically vacation plan for you. It would know your preferences, it would know the weather, it would know the prices of airline tickets, the hotel prices, understand logistics, combine all those things into one experience. And that's kind of how we think about search.

    You began by saying "your competitors." I don't think the companies that are complaining about various components of what we do are trying to do that. So again, I don't kind of think about it that way."

    By then, Google (GOOG) already had a pretty good indication that the Federal Trade Commission, which had investigated the allegations for nearly two years, would not aim its antitrust enforcement powers at the company's core search business. Still, the announcement by the agency on Thursday that it found no real evidence of so-called "search bias" is a major victory. It all but ensures that Google will avert the kind of major confrontation with the U.S. Government that derailed tech leaders of earlier eras, like AT&T (T), IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT).

    "We found unanimously that […] that they hadn't engaged in illegal monopolization and had not violated the FTC Act," Jon Leibowitz, the commission's chairman, said during a press conference.

    Under Page, whose successful tenure as CEO is the subject of a story in the current issue ofFortune, Google has regained energy, focus and momentum. While competition from Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL) and Facebook (FB) among others, remains intense, few things had the potential to disrupt Google's march forward more effectively than a fight with regulators. "Government intervention is Google's biggest threat," Paul Sagawa, an analyst with Sector & Sovereign Research, wrote in a recent bullish report about Google.

    Now that U.S. regulators have backed down from a confrontation, Google's rivals, led by Microsoft, are sure to press their case with the European Union and with attorneys general in various states. But Thursday was a day for Google to gloat. "The conclusion is clear: Google's services are good for users and good for competition," David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, wrote on the company's official blog.

    The F.T.C. did obtain some concessions from Google: the company will license important mobile technology patents on "fair, reasonable and non discriminatory terms;" it will allow businesses to easily take their advertising campaigns from Google to rival search engines; and it will voluntarily agree to some changes in its relationship with "vertical" search engines like Yelp (YELP).

    But as some analysts noted, those concessions, especially on ads and vertical search, were merely tactical. Google held firm on these issues until now with one goal: give something to the F.T.C. so it could close the search bias case and save face.