Google Free to Extend Web Search Lead as U.S. Ends Probe
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Google Inc. is free to extend its dominance of the $50 billion Internet-search market after U.S. regulators ended an investigation into whether the company unfairly disadvantaged competing websites by favoring its own services in search results.
The Federal Trade Commission, after a 20-month antitrust probe, concluded Google was motivated more by wanting to improve its search results and the user’s experience than by a desire to stifle competition, said Chairman Jon Leibowitz, who drew a distinction between dominating a market and doing so unfairly.