Why the fuck is the FTC trying to troll Google?
Because it prioritizes (and thinks better of) it's services than other sites? That's what ANY business is supposed to do!
They're trying to "troll" them for abusing their search monopoly to promote their services- but unfortunately they can't prove it at the moment.
They went after Microsoft for similar reasons- they were using their operating system (Windows) to push other products (like Internet Explorer), which limited competition and hurt consumers. Now Google is integrating Google Plus into their search, and ignoring sources like Facebook and Twitter for that same positioning. It's pretty clear cut to me why they're doing that.
The other issue here is that the author of this article is the one making this connection, and adding his own thoughts about it. No one from the FTC is saying they're trying this second path because the first one didn't work- in fact, if you follow the links from this linkbait blog post, you'll see that he's filling in a hell of a lot of blanks himself. The FTC is still pursuing the original issue, they're just also going after this second complaint at the request of Microsoft and Apple (amongst others), who think paying 4 billion dollars to add wifi to their phones is a bit ridiculous.
Google is not allowed to search tweets and Facebook posts. Twitter and Microsoft do not allow Google to do that and they both made an exclusive deal with Bing.
There's a huge difference between "nofollow" and blacklisting a search engine- as the link I pointed out shows, google is still pulling in their information and displaying it in search results. They're just not giving it preferencial treatment like they are Google+.
Seriously, try the browser extension or tools setup on the link I sent- they use Google's own results, they're not just injecting things randomly.
Clearly, Google needs to be punished for such abuses of the power, power that is granted to them by consumers voluntarily choosing to use their free product.
That doesn't sound quite accurate. I know Microsoft ran a study saying such but in the small sample size of friends on various social networks I saw test this Google won nearly every case, with a few ties (I don't think Bing won any of the posts I saw).
Not all "consumers" make rational decisions in all cases, but they do have the capability of doing so. Going by reason and reality (as opposed to whim or faith) is itself a choice.
It's almost certainly google's enemies having finally got through to the FTC. Google's made a lot of enemies, the telcos, microsoft, apple, big oil, big media. The population should wake up realize there's only a few good guys out there, google and maybe amazon, everyone else is evil and an effort needs to be made to stop the evil guys from destroying the good guys.
