Skift Take

Yelp's efforts to see tighter regulation of Google's business practices could have more success this time around than several years ago, when the U.S. Federal Trade Commission dropped the ball. European Union regulators have really cast the previous U.S. effort in a shameful light, and the Trump team may be more sympathetic than the Obama administration.

Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Consumer Watchdog have formed a new coalition to pressure U.S. regulatory authorities to force Google to become an unbiased broker of internet content, particularly when it comes to local search results, including travel and restaurants.

The coalition, which Yelp is spearheading following CEO Jeremy Stoppelman appearance Sunday on a 60 Minutes segment, How Did Google Get So Big, is calling on Google to reindex content from its own businesses, such as Google hotels, flights, and restaurants, so Google would compete on a level playing field against other businesses.

If third-party content provides a better answer than results from Google’s own products — and competitors argue they often do — then there should be clear links to competitors websites, the coalition argues.

“We can keep the internet honest by helping Google continue to focus on the user,” a new video on the coalition website, Focus on the User, argues. The website went live Tuesday night.

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Tags: antitrust, dining, google, restaurants, tripadvisor, yelp

Photo credit: Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, who appeared on 60 Minutes on May 20, 2018, is stepping up efforts to get regulators to clamp down on Google's business practices. Bloomberg

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