Late last year, Google filed suit against a small Internet site in Ohio, in an effort to collect $335,000 in unpaid advertising bills. In response, last month, the site countered with a 24-page antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing the search giant of various "monopolistic abuses," The Wall Street Journal reports. Making things more interesting, the site's legal counsel just so happens to be Charles "Rick" Rule -- the longtime chief outside counsel on competition issues for Microsoft Corp.
Perhaps more interesting still, TheStreet.com suggests in no uncertain terms that "fear of a global conspiracy by Microsoft" led Google to plant to story in The Journal as part of a pre-emptive media campaign. "Google claims that Microsoft is launching a 'proxy war' using this collection of little cases to slowly build up a big case," writes the news outlet. "To retaliate, Google is using the Wall Street Journal as its own proxy for a court of law and taking its case against Microsoft straight to the public."
News Corp.(NWS Quote), which owns the Journal, looks a little like a pawn in this game playing by these titans of technology.
Considering Microsoft's own comeuppance by antitrust authorities in the U.S. and Europe, it's easy to see why Google's paranoia was granted credibility by the Journal. Microsoft certainly makes no bones about its own concern over Google's Web dominance. But where's the proof?
For the time being, all we've got is tantalizing supposition by Google that makes for entertaining -- if not particularly useful -- reading.
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