Why Yelp And Tim Fu Are Wrong In Accusing Google Of 'Manipulating' Search Results

Re/code recently published an article on a study done by Tim Wu and Yelp Inc YELP titled, "Google Manipulates Search Results, According to Study From Yelp and Legal Star Tim Wu."

Jon Steinberg, Daily Mail North America CEO, thinks that the study doesn't paint the true picture. He was on CNBC recently to explain why Google Inc GOOGL GOOG isn't doing anything manipulative per se.

Manipulation: The Wrong Word

"I think manipulation is the wrong word," Steinberg began. "Google is a company that's allowed to do what it needs to do to survive and grow right now. Mobile has been a tremendously negative force on Google as people use more apps and use more built-in type functions. Remember Microsoft, okay? Microsoft was not allowed to bundle the browser."

He continued, "That was the big Supreme Court case that kind of basically destroyed that company; they never really recovered from right now. Now every single operating system on earth, every phone operating system on earth, has a browser built into it. Now, Google isn't allowed to do in mobile what it needs to do to grow and survive?"

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Not A Monopoly Behavior

Steinberg elaborated on his point, saying, "When Bloomberg puts a new bond functioning into their Bloomberg terminal to make it more sticky, is that monopoly behavior? Are you not allowed to improve your products? I mean, that to me is what's really so crazy right here. Local is more and more of what people want to do in mobile; Google has mobile services.

"What's a difference between growth and progress with your core product and monopoly behavior? I don't think it is a monopoly behavior. Apple has far larger share of search right now than Android does, right? And that is not controlled by Google, and ultimately Apple can topple Google out at any given time. So I think they have to be allowed to do things," Steinberg concluded.