Google's Senate Hearing: What's At Stake For You

19.09.2011

"We found that what people want is, when they go to Google, they want the answer right now," Schmidt told ABC News. "So in certain categories--the weather, maps, things like this--if we can algorithmically compute the answer of that quickly, we'd rather give it to you."

Microsoft's Bing offers similar information for searches thanks to its Instant Answers service that favors information from Bing Maps, Bing Weather, Bing Finance, and Bing Travel. The Instant Answers service is only available in the U.S. version of Bing.

Another concern likely to be brought up is Google's use of third-party content in its own products. One of the biggest complaints against Google has come from Yelp, whose reviews used to show up in . Last year, Yelp's content was removed from Google Places, and the two companies have been bickering about ever since.

Google Places currently uses its own user reviews with links to other review sites such as Menu Pages, Urban Spoon, and recent .