Google has been trying to settle an antitrust problem from the European Union regarding how the company generates its search results for some time. Today, the EU's regulator, the European Commission, has announced Google sent a settlement proposal it claims is an improvement compared to previous offers.
The European Commission's press release states:
In its proposal, Google has now accepted to guarantee that whenever it promotes its own specialised search services on its web page (e.g. for products, hotels, restaurants, etc.), the services of three rivals, selected through an objective method, will also be displayed in a way that is clearly visible to users and comparable to the way in which Google displays its own services.
That could be a huge help for Bing and Yahoo, both of which are likely to be among the three rivals selected to have their services displayed alongside Google in its search results. The leader of the European Commission, Joaquin Almunia, stated today, "I believe that the new proposal obtained from Google after long and difficult talks can now address the Commission's concerns."
Google's settlement proposal is not yet final, however: The European Commission will allow Google's complainants, including Microsoft, a chance to voice any objections to this latest offer before the agency makes the the decision on whether to accept the proposal.
Source: European Commission | Image via Google
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