Google Accused of anti-competitive practices

TradeComet.com accused Google of manipulating its system for setting ad rates to make it too expensive for a specialty search engine called SourceTool to promote itself within Google's vast online marketing network.

Google said it hadn't reviewed the allegations as of late Tuesday, but the Mountain View, California-based company reiterated its belief that there are plenty of other online advertising options, including networks run by rivals Yahoo and Microsoft.

TradeComet's lawsuit is the latest legal action to allege Google has used its widening market power to create a monopoly that enables it to bully rivals or squeeze out websites that it doesn't like.

Google processes nearly two-thirds of the internet search requests in the United States and sells an even larger chunk of the text-based ad links that appear alongside search results and other content on millions of web pages served up each day.

New York-based TradeComet alleges Google stymied the growth of SourceTool in May 2006 when it raised the minimum bids on SourceTool ads that were triggered by specific search requests. Words that resulted in advertising costs of 5 cents and 10 cents per click soared to $US5 and $US10 per click, according to the suit.

TradeComet said its traffic plunged by 90 per cent after Google imposed its new pricing terms.