Internet search services provider Google, Inc., US, is reportedly facing new protests following the company's decision to stop copying information from other local websites for use in its own rival service, Google Places. The reversal brought calls for Google to stop using other types of content from rival sites, and for regulators to take action against the company for its past practices in the local information market. The company's critics are seeking a legal commitment from the company to not to revert to its earlier practice.
The turnaround is seen as the first sign of Google changing its business practices since the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched a broad antitrust investigation into the company last month. Last year a similar review began in Europe.
According to Google, it will no longer carry parts of reviews posted on other local web services on Google Places, which carries information about local businesses. Rival services such as Yelp, which heavily depend on user-generated ratings and reviews to draw an audience, have objected to Google using information from their users to give an unfair advantage to its own service.
Google announced this change in practice a little over a week after its legal director, Dana Wagner, came under attack about the practice from opponents at a conference of US state attorneys-general. A number of states have reportedly begun their own investigations into Google's business practices, echoing the FTC study.
Google's critics have also called on regulators to take action against it over its previous copying of content on Places.
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