Lex专栏：谷歌要警惕“雄心陷阱”
想征服世界，通常要征得世界的同意——尽管像亚历山大大帝(Alexander the Great)这样的野心家曾试图跳过这一步。谷歌(Google)宣称，其目标是“组织”全世界的信息（而非世界本身），但信息就是力量，因此拿什么作为交换就成了不可回避的问题。
谷歌已经表示，愿意在它自身提供的服务——包括地图、股票行情和航班时刻表等——出现在搜索结果显要位置时，予以标注。此举意在安抚欧洲监管机构，
后者担忧谷歌会利用其在总体或“横向”搜索领域的主导地位，打压“纵向”的竞争者，如在旅游或购物领域。批评者称，谷歌可以操控其横向的搜索结果页面，让
用户几乎看不到其竞争对手纵向的产品服务。考虑到谷歌在搜索领域的份额（据ComScore估计，其在美国份额为60%，在欧洲还要高得多），监管机构的担忧是合情合理的。但搜索引擎不是计 算机操作系统，在不同的搜索引擎（或类似应用）之间进行切换的成本几乎为零。而消费者对完整信息的渴望意味着，如果谷歌为了一己私利而过度操控搜索结果， 可能会导致用户流失。正因此，谷歌已经具有了相当的透明度。在结果页面找到付费广告、谷歌产品或竞争产品并非难事。
考虑到谷歌在用户计算领域的地位，要求其增加透明度的呼声将永远不会停歇。这也是理所应当的。如果谷歌想走在监管机构的前面，它可以采取措施，让用 户更容易设置搜索模式，搜索结果中会出现什么样的地图或旅游程序，应该让用户可以自主选择。谷歌的产品固然优秀，但切不可被自己的雄心绊了跟头。
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