Judge’s Google Data Sharing Order Leaves Small Rivals Hanging

Just over a week after a federal judge ordered Google to share its search data with rivals, the limitations of the judge’s order have become more clear—as have the doubts about whether rivals will be able to take advantage of it.

The order was designed to weaken Google’s monopoly in search by allowing smaller search rivals to get access to a variety of its data, including raw search results and information on users. But the judge, Amit Mehta, kept the scope of the data that could be shared deliberately narrow, noting that he intended the remedies to kickstart competition, rather than create a situation where rivals are “feeding off” Google’s work.