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Google May Face Yet Another Android Antitrust Investigation

US regulators believe Google may be giving preferential treatment to its own apps and services on Android.

The Federal Trade Commission is now investigating whether Google abused the dominance of Android to promote its own apps and services at the expense of rivals, according to a Bloomberg report. The long and short of it is that regulators are concerned that the automatic inclusion of apps like Google Maps and YouTube in Android may stifle competition, ultimately harming everyday consumers in the process.

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Yes, it sounds a bit like what Microsoft was accused of back in the 90s with Windows and Internet Explorer.

Google is already facing similar antitrust investigations over Android in the European Union and Russia. The company is also facing a separate antitrust investigation in the EU over whether or not it abused its dominance in search to promote its own products and services over competitors like Yelp.

Who are the competitors the FTC may be thinking Google is harming by including its own apps are services in Android by default? Amazon could be the biggest: the company has its own Android app store (it's the default store on its line of Kindle tablets) that could well benefit from being included on more Android devices by default. That's partially the reason why Amazon is giving away thousands of dollars of apps to people who go out of the way to load its app store on their device.