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Yesterday was a busy day for Google in Washington, D.C. Google's Eric Schmidt was the first witness called to answer questions from the committee. I watched a lot of this over the internet and I personally felt he did a very good job.
Personally, I think some of the questions showed that some of the subcommittee members really did not fully understand how Google works. Which might be an issue in general but there are basics that a subcommittee should know when questioning a company on these topics.
That being said, there were some strong accusations about anti competitive practices pointed out, such as Google ranking their own results higher than competitors. Things like Google Finance one box, Google Maps, and so on.
I am not to savvy on these types of hearings and how they work - politics and legal topics honestly do not interest me all that much.
But Greg Sterling has an outstanding Google Senate Hearings: The Post-Game Show where he lays out his thoughts and the key points. Also, Danny live blogged the Google Eric Schmidt interview and the Yelp, NexTag & Others At The US Senate Hearing.
There is a ton of discussion on who is right and wrong at the forums, including WebmasterWorld and Sphinn.
My favorite tweet was from Brett Tabke:
Google - you sent the wrong guy. Should have sent Cutts. He would have had them buying adwords for their re-elections before it was over...
Anyway, I do find it interesting that there are new reports that Google is scaling down the 7 pack.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Sphinn.
