(Image Source: Google)

BY EVAN THOMAS

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Search giant Google went to Washington yesterday, where chairman Eric Schmidt defended his company in an antitrust hearing.  Members of the Senate Antitrust Committee grilled Schmidt for nearly three hours about Google’s search results and practices. Utah Senator Michael Lee put Schmidt on the spot about the suspicious consistency of Google’s in-house results.

“Why is it that they’re always third? It seems to me that this is an uncanny statistical coincidence, if we can call it that. Third, every single time.... I don’t know whether you call this a separate algorithm, or whether you’ve reverse-engineered one algorithm, but either way you’ve cooked it so that you’re always third.”

Some of Google’s competitors were at the hearing. Expedia’s legal counsel Thomas Barnett tells Bloomberg -- Google still doesn’t recognize how serious these accusations are.

“They’re simply in denial. I don’t think they quite get it.... If you are a website, your ability to get search traffic from Google determines whether you live or die, basically.... I really didn’t hear any acknowledgement that they recognize the situation that they’re in.”

ZDnet suggests the hearing was less about search results, and more about Google’s considerable influence on the web.

“I believe the question should be, ‘How much control should one company have over what we can find on the Internet?’ I am not a fan of breaking apart companies under the guise of anti-trust. But there is great power in Google’s hands and that should make us all stop and think.”

Others don’t mind that influence. A Salon blogger says the status quo works.

“Google's success is built on the bedrock of giving consumers exactly what they want, better and faster than anyone else. And for free! That's a pretty good deal, and I and millions of others are happy to take advantage of it multiple times a day.”

Finally-- Search Engine Land points out-- approve or disapprove of its practices, this hearing isn’t the last Google will hear of antitrust.

“...it seems almost certain to me that there will be some kind of case ultimately brought against Google. ...today’s hearings were just the opening scene in what may become a very long drama for both Google and government.”

The hearing comes in the midst of an FTC investigation into Google’s practices, which Schmidt says Google is cooperating with.

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