Over the years, Google has been slapped with record multi-billion-dollar fines, been forced to change its services to allow more competition, and been investigated for tax evasion. A new report from Reuters puts Google in hot water in Europe again, this time with a Danish job-searching firm. Jobindex accuses Google of using its Google for Jobs service to unfairly sway the job market for its own benefit. This is not the first time Google for Jobs has been flagged in Europe. In fact, 23 EU-based job searching providers reported Google’s service to the EC and its head Margrethe Vestager three years ago. Google says it has made changes that address the complaints, but it is unclear whether this will keep the EC at bay.
Unfair
If you are not familiar with Google for Jobs, it collects job postings from across the internet and highlights them as a widget attached to relevant searches. Jobindex claims the core functionality of the service is unfair. The company says it allows Google to further its grip on the search market by favoring its own service. Jobindex’s CEO Kaare Danielsen says that: “[…] In the short time following the introduction of Google for Jobs in Denmark, Jobindex lost 20% of search traffic to Google’s inferior service. By putting its own inferior service at the top of results pages, Google in effect hides some of the most relevant job offerings from job seekers. Recruiters in turn may no longer reach all job seekers, unless they use Google’s job service. This does not just stifle competition amongst recruitment services but directly impairs labour markets, which are central to any economy.” Tip of the day: With many reachable wireless access points popping up and disappearing again, the available networks list can become quite annoying. If needed you can use the allowed and blocked filter list of Windows to block certain WiFi networks or all unknown WiFi networks.
