There's also the question of Google's habit of penalizing sites that run afoul of Google's rules about search spam---results offering little or no value to the user. Google has stated before that it --sites dedicated to a specific search category such as shopping--accusing them of being spam. The search giant earlier this year also penalized the search results for department store chain J.C. Penney after an investigation by The New York Times showed were being used to favor the retailer. J.C. Penney denied any wrongdoing.

There are also concerns that Google manipulates its search results to favor its own information or downplay information from others. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a civil liberties and privacy advocacy group, recently sent a letter to the FTC complaining that Google was favoring its own material on searches for the .

There may also be questions raised about Google's large number of disparate businesses such as search, the Android mobile operating system, YouTube, Google Places (local search), flight data company ITA/, Zagat, Google Books, Maps, Google Apps for Business, and Chrome OS for laptop computers. Most of these services are centered around encouraging users to stay in Google's ecosystem and use its biggest revenue generator: Google search advertising.