• Bloomberg, Wednesday, February 16, 2011 11:58 AM

Among other information, the office of Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott has requested Google's formula for setting advertising rates. According to a demand for documents by state antitrust officials cited by Bloomberg, the antitrust investigators are also seeking Google documents that show "manual overriding or altering of" search result rankings.

The order is similar to a subpoena, compelling a company to turn over documents and make executives available for interviews. "State investigators also want Google documents on rivals Microsoft Corp.'s Bing and Yahoo! Inc. and complaints about purchasing and placing an ad on Google." As Google admitted late last year, Abbott is looking into whether the search giant's business practices presently thwart, or have ever thwarted, competition.

Read the whole story at Bloomberg »