“Mobilegeddon”

This is a cool! Google re-evaluates search rankings based on whether sites are mobile friendly or not. Many will complain but this shows how this general pressure overall benefits consumers. Read more about it at this FT link.

Europe going crazy on Google again

Europe has decided to really go after Google by filing formal charges against the search engine (see FT article). It is quite clear that most of this is driven by politics (a former settlement was objected by finance ministers from France and Germany). The French lead the way, of course, by proposing a law whereby Google would need to hand over its proprietary algorithm to the French government so that it can check whether the search engine is fair to its rivals. This level of intervention is totally crazy. Even if one can argue that damage has been done to rival businesses, the resources dissipated in the legal process, lobbying and politics is by no means beneficial to society. To see the unreasonable lobbying that puts pressure on politicians, consider this other FT article on major music groups' attack on Google. The Internet is a fast evolving space with incredible benefits to consumers. Holding back investment and providing negative incetives for innovators is not a wise policy.

Agenda Chasing by the News

The Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) published a short blog on our paper with Zsolt Katona from Berkeley's Haas School of Business. It is about Agenda Setting in the News and it argues that with lower barriers to entry and lower customer switching costs agenda setting is more "Agenda Chasing" by news providers who are in a contest to become the 'go-to-place' for a particular topic.