Google responds to the EU Antitrust with a blog post

At Google, we have always focused on putting the user first, providing the best possible answers in the shortest possible time – and our product and engineering innovation has produced results that users seem to appreciate, in a world where competition is only about clicks. However, given our success and the disruptive nature of our activities, it is entirely understandable that we have caused discomfort among other companies and attracted the attention of regulatory authorities. Today, the European Commission announced that it will continue to investigate complaints regarding Google search and search advertising. We respect their process and will continue to work closely with the Commission to respond to their questions.

To help everyone understand our approach to search and ads, it is useful to clearly state the principles that guide our activities:

1. Responding to users’ queries accurately and quickly is our number one goal. Sometimes the best and most relevant answer to a query is the SERP with ten positions, which can sometimes be represented by an article, sports, quotes, videos, or a map. Today, when you type “weather in London” or “15 grams in ounces” you get the answers directly (often even before pressing Enter). In the future, we should answer even more complex questions with the same speed and in the most transparent manner. We believe there is too much information, and that is why we work hard to ensure that the ads you see are directly relevant to what you are searching for.
2. We built Google for users, not for websites. It may seem obvious, but people sometimes forget this. Not every site can rank high or even appear on the first page of results, so there will almost always be website owners who are unhappy with their ranking. The most important thing is that we satisfy our users.
3. We are always transparent when we have been paid to promote a product or service. Before we launched Google, many search engines took money for inclusion in their results without this being clear to users. We have always distinguished advertising content from organic search results. When we have experimented with new ad formats and types of content, we have always promised to continue being transparent about payment methods.
4. Our goal is to be as transparent as possible. We provide all possible information about how our ranking works, much more than any other major search engine, through our webmaster site, blog, diagnostic tools, support forums, and YouTube channel. We give our advertisers information regarding ad auction sales, advice on how to improve their ad quality score, and the ability to simulate their bids to give them greater transparency. We are committed to increasing transparency for the future. We do everything possible to ensure the integrity of our results is not compromised.

Our final principle: the only constant is change. We have worked on this for over a decade during which our search technology has improved by leaps and bounds. Our results are continually evolving from a list of websites to something much more dynamic. Today, the content is real-time (note not all news sites receive the same treatment), content is automatically translated, we search local content (especially important for mobile devices), images, videos, books, and much more. Users can search in a variety of languages. We have developed new ad formats, such as product listing ads and new pricing models like cost-per-action. We cannot predict where search and online advertising will go, but we know for sure that the situation will not remain unchanged. By staying focused on innovation, we can continue to improve search – for the benefit of users worldwide.

The original English text from Google on the official blog

This is Google’s official response which does not mention the lack of transparency when the user, precisely the user that Google puts first, asks questions even through tools mentioned in the post. Google which has not explained whysome sites, including Italian ones, were able to do PPC arbitrage, Google which remains silent in the face of major infrastructural and algorithmic changes, Google which does not give official answers to the many, perhaps too many users, who have put Google at the center (we see the other side of the coin) and who have seen their work wiped out overnight. Google owes too many answers for years of silence. Probably during all these years the Web was still immature to protest. And if Google puts the user first, as it claims, it must stop giving answers (when it gives them) in the form of an algorithm and take on the human role, the one worn daily by the user it so praises.