Europe's parliament has made a statement with a nonbinding vote: Google, the body says, needs to be divided. The European Parliament doesn't actually have power over antitrust matters, the New York Times reports, but the vote says that the EU's competition commissioner should "consider proposals aimed at unbundling search engines from other commercial services" in order to boost search competition. The measure doesn't specifically address Google, though the tech giant is seen as its focus, the Times notes. Google is even more popular in Europe than it is in the US, accounting for about 90% of the search market in several countries, the paper reports.
The resolution passed by a vote of 384 to 174. In the US, many in Congress, as well as California Gov. Jerry Brown, have taken stands against the measure; consumer advocates and Google competitors have supported it. It's just the latest move against the company in Europe, where investigations are looking into whether Google engages in practices like boosting its own partners in search results. Europe's competition commission hasn't previously ordered any company to break up, the BBC reports, noting that many observers don't expect such an outcome for Google. (More Google stories.)
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