In European Antitrust Fight, Google Needs to Appease Competitors

The European Commission on Wednesday formally said for the first time that Google’s proposal for addressing antitrust concerns did not go far enough, and demanded that it come up with more far-reaching remedies or potentially face a fine of up to $5 billion.

It was a significant setback for Google, which in April struck a deal with the commission to settle its three-year antitrust investigation by making certain changes in the way it displays answers to search inquiries. But the deal was contingent on feedback from Google’s rivals. The commission determined that the proposal was inadequate, and said the company needed to do more to address rivals’ concerns.

The about-face followed an outcry from Google competitors during the market testing phase of the inquiry, in which the commission asked for feedback on the proposal.

“What they discovered in the market test was that overwhelmingly, everyone said the settlement was inadequate and doesn’t solve the problem,” said a person with knowledge about the feedback competitors gave the commission, but who spoke anonymously because the filings were not public.

Joaquín Almunia, the European Union competition commissioner, said at a news conference, “I concluded that the proposals that Google sent to us months ago are not enough to overcome our concerns.” He said he had written to Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, “asking Google to present better proposals.”

A Google spokesman, Al Verney, said on Wednesday that it would “continue to work” with the commission to settle the case. He added that Google was confident that its earlier proposal “clearly addresses” the commission’s concerns.

Mr. Almunia did not give Google a deadline for presenting a new set of concessions, according to a person with direct knowledge of Mr. Almunia’s letter who spoke anonymously. So the case, which both sides had hoped to close this year, could continue for several months or more.

The main issue is the way Google, which, according to comScore, handles 86 percent of Web searches in Europe, orders its search results. Regulators have been investigating whether Google favors its own services — like travel, local business, mapping and shopping — over those of competitors. Regulators have also examined whether it disadvantaged competitors by including material from other Web sites in search results and whether its advertising business complied with European antitrust law.

Google managed to avoid antitrust charges in the United States, where it has two-thirds market share, after a two-year investigation of similar issues. Google has faced a more hard-line approach in Europe, where critics have accused the antitrust authorities of relying too much on outside complaints from competitors rather than on evidence of consumer harm. That is somewhat of a sore point for European officials, who insist they share the same goals as the Americans when it comes to consumers.

In April, Google proposed to change its search results to clearly label results from some of its own properties, like Google Plus Local, and in some cases to show links from rival search engines. It also proposed giving competitors more control over how it used information from their sites in its vertical search results and making it easier for small businesses to transport their ad campaigns to other search engines.

The proposal was the first time Google had agreed to legally binding changes to its search results, and went much further than the minor concessions it made to the Federal Trade Commission in its inquiry.

Still, the proposal would not have required Google to change the algorithm that produces its search results. Also, if it had been accepted, Google would have escaped a possible fine of about 10 percent of its annual global revenue of about $50 billion and a formal finding of wrongdoing that could limit its ability to expand in Europe.

James Kanter reported from Brussels, and Claire Cain Miller from San Francisco.

Bits Blog: Why the Airline Industry Needs Another Data Revolution

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Gadgetwise Blog: To-Do Lists, File Sharing and Other Home Worker Needs

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Gadgetwise Blog: Harmony Touch Remote Needs Some Tuning

Logitech’s Harmony remotes have long made it possible to reduce the collection of clickers on your coffee table by combining them into a single Harmony device.

The newest entry, the Harmony Touch, adds a 2.4-inch touch screen. And why not? People must want touch screens, right?

The $250 Touch is a smart looking device, now cleared of busy-looking buttons. But the touch screen did not make it any less work than a device covered with buttons.

That is because to get access to buttons, you have to go through multiple screens. On my old remote, when I want to scroll through the listings a page at a time, I toggle the “Page Up” button. When I want to do the same thing with the Touch, I go from the watch TV screen, to a command screen, and scroll to the Page Up and Page Down buttons. Or I can go one screen deeper, to the “gestures screen,” then slide a finger up or down to control the onscreen guide.

I often had difficulty getting to the screen I wanted. I’m sure it becomes easier with practice.

A touch screen makes sense when searching for a show, though. Instead of having to toggle around a grid of letters to spell out the title or name, you can type it. But the Touch offers a virtual alphanumeric pad, as on rudimentary mobile phones. To type a C, you go to the number screen, then press the number 2 three times.

The Touch offers some customization that lets you save your 50 favorite channels, making it easy to hop between them.

You can also customize the control gestures, such as what swiping a finger across the screen will do, or change the look of the screen and icons.

One of Harmony’s great strengths has been the way the remote is programmed. You connect it to a computer, then enter the makes and models of all your devices. Answer some questions about which devices control which, and you are in business.

But even this process has become harder where it was intended to be easier.

The Harmony setup page doesn’t tell you if you can make the easy transfer or not; it will simply fail over and over again for no apparent reason. The people at Logitech said they were working on that. I would suggest a few other things they need to work on, too. For example, why have separate IDs and passwords for the Harmony site and the Harmony devices?

Why Andy Serkis Needs to Direct Apes 2

Fox's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to the 2011 hit Rise of the Planet of the Apes, appears to be at a crossroads with yesterday's news that Rise director Rupert Wyatt is expected to leave the project. While Wyatt hasn't officially departed yet, word has it that the helmer doesn't feel comfortable trying to make the May 23, 2014 release date that the studio has planned for the film.

So if Dawn is in fact director-less now, who's the right man to come in and steer the ship? Sure, this is a hot project in Hollywood, what with the critical and financial success of Rise, so there's bound to be a bunch of name directors who'd take the job. But the filmmaker we at IGN think might be right for this gig has never even helmed a feature film before -- we're talking, of course, about Andy Serkis, a.k.a. the actor who stars as the ape Caesar in the films. Serkis and the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director's chair could go together like monkeys and bananas. Here's why...

He's Trained with the Masters

Peter Jackson. Steven Spielberg. Christopher Nolan. Serkis has worked with all of them, among many other well-known directors. And while being on set with some of the most talented modern filmmakers around doesn't by any means guarantee that said talent is going to rub off, Serkis is an aspiring director himself. His film Freezing Time has been in development for several years, and he has directed short films, stage plays, and video games. It would seem to go without saying that he has used his years on the sets of Jackson, Spielberg and the rest as the best film school money can't buy.

He's Directing Second Unit on The Hobbit

That little trilogy known as The Hobbit isn't directing itself down in New Zealand. And while Peter Jackson is of course the master of all he surveys during that mammoth production, he certainly must rely on the help and input of the crew that surrounds him. That includes Serkis, who took on a much larger role in this trilogy than he had on Lord of the Rings a decade ago. While the actor originally only planned on filming a few weeks of mo-cap for The Hobbit, returning to his famed role of Gollum, Jackson wound up asking him to direct second unit on the films as well.

"The thing with second unit on a project like this, it's not just hand shots or picking up little bits and pieces, it's very much sharing the vision and being his eyes and ears," Serkis told The Hollywood Reporter this summer. And hey, after directing parts of The Hobbit, what's left to be intimidated about in this industry?

He's a Mo-Cap Master

Serkis has been a huge presence in the development of motion-capture (aka performance-capture). Starting with Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and continuing with Jackson's King Kong, Spielberg and Jackson's The Adventures of Tintin, and most recently his Oscar-worthy turn in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Serkis has been at the forefront of mo-cap performance for over a decade now; he also founded The Imaginarium studio o foster mo-cap production in the U.K.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, with its continued tale of the uprising of Caesar and his fellow apes, is bound to rely heavily on the form. As Serkis himself has shown us over the years, motion-capture isn't just about the technology; so much more important is the performance within the technology. What better director to bring out that most essential element from the actors than Serkis himself?

He's a Fan Favorite

We've met Serkis a bunch of times here at IGN, and we can say without reservation that he's a great guy. Disarming and smart, he's also beloved by fans. And that right there could help put fanboys' and pundits' minds at ease if and when it's confirmed that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is losing Wyatt, the director who contributed so much to the success of the first film. No one wants a Brett Ratner/X-Men: The Last Stand situation again.

Serkis is also, quite frankly, probably super-cheap (as a director -- he reportedly secured a seven-figure deal for acting services on Apes 2). That's always attractive to the studios.

He Knows His Monkeys

Listen, the guy toiled away on Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I was there, on the Rise set for a couple of days during shooting, and I saw him in action in his mo-cap suit, both with his fellow stars James Franco and Freida Pinto as well as with the ape actors who played secondary characters. This isn't just a job for Serkis -- he takes it seriously, researching real apes, studying their movements and expressions, and exploring and translating what he learns through his performance and what he shares with others. He also clearly has a strong grasp of not just what the first film was about, but also how it was made and what challenges Wyatt faced along the way. This would surely serve him well on the sequel.

Of course, having said all this, there's probably only slightly better than a snowball's chance in Ape City that Serkis would actually get the directing gig. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, along with X-Men: Days of Future Past, is a big priority for Fox, and hiring Serkis would be a pretty risky move for the studio.