Google faces Texas attorney general inquiry over fairness

San Francisco: Google said on Friday it was the target of an investigation by the Texas Attorney General's office into the fairness of its search engine rankings.

The world No. 1 search engine company said the probe is the first by a US legal authority into the fairness of its rankings, which can make or break commercial websites.

Google faces a similar probe by the European Commission, prompted by complaints from some small websites that felt they were unfairly hurt by low Google search rankings.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has asked for information about complaints from a number of companies, Google said on its website. Google specifically mentioned websites operated by Foundem, TradeComet and myTriggers as challenging its results, saying they competed with the search giant.

A spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General confirmed the probe, but would give no further details. Google said it looks forward to answering questions from the Texas attorney general.

"We recognise that as Google grows, we're going to face more questions about how our business works," Deputy General Counsel Don Harrison said in a blog post. Harrison was not available for further comment.

In its statement on Friday, Google pointed out that two of the companies are represented by attorneys who also work for Microsoft Corp.