December 28, 2009 2:41PM 

# ‘Search Neutrality’ Regulation? 

By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) 

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For more technical audiences, I [wrote recently on the Tech Liberation Front blog](http://techliberation.com/2009/12/23/google-on-open-myopic-self-focus/) about Google’s claim to favor “openness” when, in fact, its crown jewels—search and ad serving—are closed systems.

Google is “free to be wrong about philosophy, of course,” I wrote. “It doesn’t matter at all—except when Google tries to impose its philosophy on others. And in the debate over ‘net neutrality’ regulation it has done exactly that.”

Now Google is in the sights of those proposing [public utility regulation of Internet search](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/opinion/28raff.html). It would be entertaining ironic comeuppance for Google, but “search neutrality” regulation would ossify an innovative business and deprive consumers of the benefits of competition.

##### Related Tags 

[Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy) 

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