Google has won a UK court case filed against it by a European mapping company named Streetmap.EU, which claimed the search giant had been skewing results in its own favor. Streetmap will appeal the decision, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“The court made clear that we’re focused on improving the quality of our search results,” a Google spokesman said
While this is a victory for Google, it’s just a small win in a lengthy investigation against the company in Europe. The EU has been looking in to Google’s practices for some time and last April, filed formal charges against Google for showing results which favor its own shopping comparison service.
Two years ago, Google agreed to settle an EU case, agreeing to give equal prominence to rival news and shopping services. With that said, it has been criticized for showing its own, attractive Now cards with store business details and reviews, pushing down results from the likes of Yelp and TripAdvisor.
With Google continuously focussing on improving its search tools and user interface, the company is forced to tread a fine line. Offering a supposedly un-biased search tool, and having its own home-made business reviews, maps and shopping services show up in results, will undoubtedly cause controversy – and this may not be the only civil lawsuit it has to fight.
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