Google + will be facing a scrutiny on its social networking service imposed by the US Federal Trade Commission. The report claims that the investigation is part of its antitrust probe.
Sources have disclosed the federal agency’s plan to include the networking site in the investigation. The controversy lies on the possibility that Google has violated some laws on antitrust if it provided preference for its services on the search engine.
The search controversy on Google went out on the same time as Google gained harsh criticism on its new feature called “Search, plus Your World.” This means Google result will be tailored to Google+ users’ profiles. The company will also serve related pages and people from their service.
The new feature was disapproved by majority after Google+ pages has apparently displaced more significant results from networking sites rivals Twitter and Facebook. Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land has published posts specifying the changes and possible implications.
Meanwhile, Google+ rival Twitter has complained of blocking their service in an online exchange with Ai WeiWei, a Chinese artist. The company’s co-founder Jack Dorsey visited China to clear up the issue. In his Twitter with 1.8 million followers, he reported that Twitter is currently blocked in China so he can’t view tweets.
Ai has responded to his tweet by saying “Welcome to land of no twitter!”
The exchange was followed by Dorsey saying how disappointing and unfortunate the case was. Ai finally tweeted back by posting “Have a nice rest, (and) enjoy Shanghai…a city without culture, but a lot of money.