article_snippet: Google was almost prosecuted by the US government three years ago for skewing Google search results, according to a confidential report.
article_snippet: In 2012, experts at the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) who were probing Google after some of Google rivals complained about Google’s dominance in internet search, wrote that Google was using anti-competitive tactics, to the detriment of users.
article_snippet: it said that key staff members of the FTC were in favour of suing the Californian tech giant for violating antitrust rules, before the agency settled the agency investigation in 2013.
article_snippet: FaceNet argued that the owner of the world's number one internet search engine illegally took information from rival websites, such as Trip Advisor and Amazon, to improve Amazon own search ranking system and placed restrictions on websites and advertisers, the BBC reported.
article_snippet: Despite this, the FTC settled the FTC multi-year investigation of Google in 2013 after the search giant agreed to some voluntary changes to the FTC practices.
article_snippet: This included allowing websites to opt out of having content included in  competing search products.
article_snippet: Jon Leibowitz, who was chairman at the time, said in a statement that Google’s voluntary changes deliver 'more relief for American consumers faster than any other option.'
article_snippet: Google said in a statement that ‘after an exhaustive 19-month review, covering 9 million pages of documents and many hours of testimony, the FTC staff and all five commissioner agreed that there was no need to take action on how Google rank and display search results.
article_snippet: A representative of FTC said Google had no comment on the report.
article_snippet: A picture of Google headquarters in Mountain View, California is shown .
article_snippet: Yelp has reiterated Yelp assertions that Google abuses Google dominant position in the search market, The New York Times reported. '
article_snippet: This shows FTC FTC had direct evidence of intentional search bias by Google,' said Luther Lowe, vice president for public policy at Yelp. '
article_snippet: With FTC FTC agreeing to a weak settlement against the recommendation of professional staff, this anti-consumer behavior has been effectively greenlighted in the United States.'
highlights_snippet: Shows Google was almost prosecuted for manipulating search results .
  
highlights_snippet: Report suggests Google's algorithms demoted rival services .
  
highlights_snippet: Deal was reached in 2013 for Google to change Google search rankings .