The European parliament has just voted to recommend that
Google search be split off from other parts of its business. Apparently, the
lawmakers believe that by encouraging the European Commission to prevent any
abuse in the marketing of interlinked services by operators of search engines
such as Google.
The effort is towards the reduction of any monopoly in the
market, in this case the “digital single market”. The European Parliament isn’t
really in the position to actually dismantle Google’s services; rather it hopes
to influence regulation bodies and policy makers who have the power to do it.
The vote was passed with a majority of 384 votes to 174 with
56 abstentions. Other issues tackled during the session include net neutrality
and the abolishment of cellphone roaming charges in the region.
