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back to article Europe seeks company to monitor Google's algorithm in €10m deal

The European Commission is seeking a company to police Google’s algorithm in a tender worth €10m, following its record antitrust fine against the advertising business of €2.4bn (£2.1bn). The tender is for a "Technical expertise to support the Commission on issues relating to an antitrust case in the IT sector." It called for …

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  1. ArrZarr Silver badge
    Holmes

    Isn't the Google algorithm getting to the point where even the engineers that wrote it don't properly understand it anymore?

    Have fun auditing that guys!

    8 0 Reply
    1. TheVogon
      Reply Icon

      Good to see Slurp finally getting a spanking...

      2 1 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Clearly the only company smart enough to monitor Google is Yahoo!

    Oh wait...

    2 0 Reply
  3. Nonymous Crowd Nerd

    Seems a little small

    The striking price of €10m for actually "doing the monitoring" seems very small indeed when set against the size of the fines involved, the Google company and the markets affected by their search algorithm.

    0 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Jobs for the boys

    You can be sure those with a vested interest - both google itself and the SEO spammers who successfully attacked them - will be looking to get their respective stooges into the job.

    Too political for me.

    1 0 Reply
  5. td0s

    Satya Nadella

    Immedietly brushes up his cv

    0 1 Reply
  6. Daggerchild Silver badge

    Wanted: Fox to watch henhouse.

    They've just asked for a commercial company to define 'fair' for them, so they can fine Google whenever that company says Google isn't.

    There are a number of companies that would *pay* the EU to be able to control what Google is allowed to do.

    Oh, and of course, it's not the EU's fault if the result is garbage. Next year they'll just open another tender for a watcher to watch this watchman.

    1 4 Reply
    1. sabroni Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: They've just asked for a commercial company to define 'fair' for them

      The alternative being that Google define fair for themselves? They're a "commercial company" too....

      1 0 Reply
  7. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    "I can get to the bottom of Google"

    Expect a swathe of applications with something like the above in the covering email.

    0 0 Reply
  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google could set up a subsidiary

    With a few layers of corporate shells, who would know Google is monitoring itself?

    1 0 Reply
  9. Twilight

    really? this is what they nail Google for?

    There are very likely things Google should be nailed for but I don't think this is one. They are penalizing Google for promoting its search engine in its search engine. Comparison shopping/pricing sites are nothing more than targeted search engines. It's no different than penalizing Google for promoting Google Image Search in its Google search results (if anything, Froogle is closer the the core Google engine than Image Search is).

    0 0 Reply
    1. ratfox
      Reply Icon

      Re: really? this is what they nail Google for?

      I assume the difference is that online commerce is where the money is.

      0 0 Reply
  10. shaunhw
    WTF?

    A company can't promote their products on their OWN web site ?

    Shouldn't any company or corporation be able to promote it's own products first ? The BBC never (or rarely) tell you to watch ITV programs do they ? Even when they get ALL the telly tax we pay.

    If the EU think something like this is wrong why didn't they tackle the "distortion" created by the telly tax where we have to pay the BBC to watch anything regarded as television, especially when they hardly ever even mention a competitors TV programmes.

    Google are a commercial company. They came from nowhere, in the 90s when Alta Vista was the search engine everyone was using. It's right they should be able to promote their own products on their own web site.

    People can go Bing for things if they want to can't they ?

    If I were them, I'd disconnect the whole of the EU from Google for a day or two and let the politicians deal with the flak from users.

    2 0 Reply

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