14 DAY TRIAL // Google's search engine is the most used part of the company's portfolio, eclipsing G.Mail and Google+ by a lot. It has also proven much more successful than other search engines on the Internet.
Needless to say, the company is very proud of that achievement and constantly updates and improves the performance and functionality of the search bar.
However, there are certain forces that don't approve of Google's way of doing things. The European parliament is one of those forces.
According to a report from the Financial Times, the EU parliament wants the Google search engine to be split off from the company.
In other words, the European Union wants Google to split itself in the middle, leaving the search business separate from the rest of its commercial operations.
At the moment, the matter isn't guaranteed to go in the EU's favor, but if the forces moving against Google on this get the support of the European People's Party and the European Socialists & Democrats, the vote being set for next Thursday (November 27, 2014), then Google will have to do as required.
What led to this confrontation
Back in 2010, the EU launched a preliminary antitrust investigation following allegations that Google was burying smaller search competitors in their search results.
With the Mountain View company's search side so very prominent in Europe compared to the US and other regions, this can be quite grave.
Since then, Google and the EU authorities have been in a tug of war of sorts. Google almost came to capitulation a few times, and some settlements were almost reached only to fail at the last minute.
At the moment, neither side looks likely to give in. Google doesn't want to end its lucrative practices, and the EU won't give up on the matter because of how curious is it that Google search accounts for 90% of the European search market (which it finds suspicious).
Why the upcoming vote is important
Normally, the Parliament can't force Google to do anything, but with enough support it can work through the European Commission to force the break we talked about.
The financial implications could be huge, though still rather ambiguous at this point. In any event, Google certainly won't give up its main bread and butter without a fight.
Fortunately, us normal people probably won't be affected by this, since the search engine isn't going to disappear for parts unknown any time soon.
