• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, August 19, 2010

Google's house ads -- including those promoting products like Google Maps -- undercut the integrity of auctions run by the search giant, Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman argues in a new piece.

"Google differs from most publishers because it auctions ad space on its network," Goldman writes in a post that appeared on his own blog as well Search Engine Land. "Thus, when Google runs house ads, it simultaneously conducts the auction that it is bidding in -- an impermissible conflict of interest."