Google has responded to the latest accusations of anti-competitive behaviour by maintaining travel search anomalies highlighted by rivals were cause by a ‘coding bug.’
Long time critics TripAdvisor and Yelp have both laid into Google’s policy of raising its own ‘OneBox’ local search results on mobile above others even when ‘TripAdvisor’ or ‘Yelp’ is used in the search terms.
Google blamed it on a glitch and is in the process of being remedied.
“The issues cited were caused by a recent code push, which we’re working quickly to fix,” a Google spokeswoman said.
However Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman was far from impressed with Google’s explanation.
“Far from a glitch, this is a pattern of behaviour. Google is now intentionally providing the wrong answers for local searches on the mobile web. This is not good for consumers or for competition but good for maintaining Google’s monopoly,” Stoppelman said.
TripAdvisor’s CEO also took to social media to vent his frustration.
“While Google’s explanation, in this instance, could be legitimate despite rivals’ understandable suspicions, it’s not going to do Google any favours in upcoming legal battles,” tweeted Stephen Kaufer.
The European Union’s antitrust commission is also pressing ahead with a full investigation into accusations Google abuses its dominant market position in search engine results and other areas of its business.
