Google Search faces anti-trust probe in Texas

Google, the $27 billion search giant, is being probed by the Texas attorney general for having manipulated rankings of lesser-known rivals - the first anti-trust investigation launched against the 12 year-old company in its home country.

Anti-trust investigations are not new to Google, as the European Union had launched several such probes in the past, but being investigated in the US is a first-of-a-kind experience for the Silicon Valley-based Google that was founded in 1996 by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Although regulators in Washington have investigated Google's effect on competition in the past, the Texas attorney general is the first regulator in the US to have formally launched an investigation into Google search business, which is the company's core business that generates a major chunk of its revenue.

Google said in a late Friday blog post that three different firms, Foundem, an online shopping comparison site in the UK, SourceTool, an e-commerce site and MyTriggers, a shopping comparison site have complained against Google for using its power as the Internet's dominant search engine to stifle competition.

The investigation will probe into whether Google is manipulating its search results to push its rivals down in its search rankings.

Google, which considers its search formula the holy grail of its search business and never discloses the method of its search rankings, said that it would reply to the attorney general's request for information.