Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairmen, vigorously denied claims that the search giant “cooks” their results following questions by Senator Mike Lee. He implies that Google prioritises its own services in search results, over those of rivals.

The hearing is part of a larger inquiry into Google by the Federal Trade Commission.  The inquiry is wide-reaching and is investigating antitrust issues.

Schmidt also submitted a written testimony to the US Senate anti-trust committee, in which he claims that most complaints “come from websites that don’t like where their sites rank on Google’s search results page.”

The document then goes on to say:

“We built search for users, not websites, and no matter what we do, there will always be some websites unhappy with where they rank”

What are your views on this story?  Does Google have a special responsibility because of its size?

Google has opened the doors for everyone to join their new social network; Google+.

Since it’s initial release in June, Google+ has been invite only, meaning you needed to know someone already invited to get access.  This led to an inevitable scramble for invites, and after only two weeks Google announced that the service has attracted over 10 million users.

Google has been praised for several innovations with the new network.  This hasn’t gone unnoticed by rivals, such as Facebook, which has rolled out changes of their own.  One can only assume, in an attempt to keep up competition with Google.

So if you haven’t already got an account, head over and get one now!