Google has avoided legal action in the US after regulators failed to produce any evidence it manipulated search results to favour its own products.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found no wrongdoing at the end
of a 19-month investigation into claims the search engine put its
own products high up in results for terms such as "hotels" and gave
competitors a lower ranking so customers cannot find them.
But in a concession, the Californian firm promised to give
advertisers access to more information about their campaigns and not
to use other providers' material such as product reviews in its
search results.
FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said: "Even though people would like
us to bring a big search bias case, the facts aren't there." Social
networking website Yelp said the decision was a missed opportunity
to protect internet innovation.
Google is also making changes to how it uses patents it bought
from its purchase of Motorola Mobility last year.
