• Guardian, Friday, June 1, 2012 11:44 AM

In other EU-based, Google-related news, Europe's antitrust chief has given the search giant until early July to propose changes to its search results and ad rules or face a court battle, and the threat of huge fines. “Joaquin Almunia, the head of competition policy, has set out in a private letter the European commission's concerns on how Google's dominance -- where in Europe it has about 90% of searches -- could be harming competition,” The Guardian reports.

The threat of government regulation is nothing new for Google, as it faces similar perils at home, as well as in France, Germany, and South Korea. "We operate in over 100 countries around the world, and the internet is disruptive by its nature,” Google said in a statement. “It's understandable that our business should attract scrutiny and sometimes complaints in a few of those countries. We're always happy to answer questions authorities may have about our business."

In what The Guardian consider to be an unusual move, however, Almunia has apparently suggested that he is ready to deal with Google, rather than taking it to court -- evidence, a Google spokesman notes, that "we've have been co-operating with their investigation and that issues can be solved through conversation."

Read the whole story at Guardian »