经济学人下载:谷歌的敌人

Another reason that Google is attracting more attention is that it keeps expanding into new areas. In Silicon Valley, one of the first questions a potential investor asks a start-up is: “What would you do if Google moved into your space?” Some of Google’s new ventures have been controversial. For instance, regulators recently gave the company a green light (with conditions attached) to acquire ITA Software, which provides online flight information. Several other travel companies opposed the deal, howling that it would limit competition. Google’s critics say that because it has its fingers in so many pies, from online video to location-based services, it must surely be tempted to give some of its own businesses an artificial boost in its rankings.
谷歌吸引更多注意的另一个原因是它不断向新领域扩张。在硅谷，潜在投资者询问新创办公司的首要问题是：“如果谷歌进入你们的业务领域，你们会怎么做？”谷歌的一些新投资项目充满争议，比如监管者近来对该公司收购在线航班信息公司ITA Software的交易大开绿灯，其他一些旅游公司对这项交易表示强烈反对，他们咆哮说，这将限制竞争。谷歌的批评家表示，因为谷歌染指了从在线视频到位置服务（location-based service）的众多领域，它必定非常想人为推高自己业务的排名。

Google acknowledges that it makes hundreds of tweaks a year to the algorithms that determine the search results it serves up. But it insists that its aim is to improve users’ experience by, for example, blocking spam and thwarting firms that try to game its system. It also likes to point out that its rivals, including Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Bing search engine, are merely a click away. Rivals retort that only Google’s name has become a verb, and that this reflects its vice-like grip on the market. (The other possibility is that Google’s search engine is more popular because it is better.)
谷歌承认每年会对决定搜索结果的算法进行数百项修改，但坚称其目标是通过诸如阻止垃圾信息和对利用其系统进行作弊的公司进行阻扰的方式来提高用户体验。谷歌也乐于指出，其竞争对手——包括雅虎和微软的必应搜索引擎与它仅有咫尺之遥。竞争对手则反驳说，只有谷歌的名字成为一个动词，这一点就反映出谷歌对市场牢固的控制力。（另一个可能性是谷歌的搜索引擎更好，所以更加流行）。

Google is not invincible. Bing has been slowly increasing its share of American searches and is working with Facebook on integrating social-networking data into its results in a bid to improve them. (This is another reason why Google wants its own source of social data.) People are also being offered more and more digital information via other sources, including specialised search engines and software applications on smartphones.
谷歌并非不可战胜。必应在美国搜索市场的份额一直在缓慢地增长，而且它目前正与Facebook共同努力将社交网络数据整合到必应搜索结果中，以提高它们的地位。（这是谷歌希求自己的社交数据来源的另一个原因）。人们也正在通过其他来源得到越来越多的数字信息，包括专门化的搜索引擎和智能手机上的软件应用程序。

When it comes to web advertising, it is equally hard to see how any charges of monopolistic abuse against Google can be made to stick. There is no shortage of sites and ad networks unconnected to Google that are ready to take advertisers’ dollars. And the cost of switching from Google to a rival is very low.
对于网络广告来说，针对谷歌垄断滥用（monopolistic abuse）的任何指控同样难以成立。不少与谷歌没有干系的网站和网络做好了赚取广告费的准备，而且从谷歌转投到其竞争对手旗下的成本非常低。

None of this guarantees that Google will escape unscathed from the investigation. Eric Goldman of Santa Clara University reckons that the FTC’s watchdogs could raise questions about Google’s habit of occasionally bidding in its own ad auctions to promote “house” ads for its businesses. Google insists that it has always been transparent about this practice.

这些都不能保证谷歌能够安然逃脱调查。圣塔克拉拉大学（Santa Clara University）的埃里克．高曼估计，美国联邦贸易委员会的监管人员可能对谷歌偶尔参与自己组织的拍卖活动，为自身业务需要推销自家广告（House Ad）的行为进行盘问。谷歌坚称对此业务一直保持透明。