Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is asking the Department of Justice to "thoroughly investigate" the proposed search partnership between Google and Yahoo.
In a letter to Assistant Attorney
General Thomas Barnett, Barton complained that Yahoo did not adequately respond to questions about the deal. Instead, Barton wrote, Yahoo's answers "seemed designed to obscure rather than clarify" how
the partnership would work.
The deal, announced in June, involves Google powering some paid search ads for Yahoo. Together the companies account for an estimated 80% of search activity, which
has led some people to warn that the deal could give Google too much power over the search marketplace.
Barton also questioned whether the deal would diminish consumers' privacy. "Google, Yahoo
and the search advertising companies that are affiliated with them collect a great deal of information relating to an individual's online activity, and it is important that any agreement between
the companies make clear to consumers how their data will be used," he wrote.--Wendy Davis