2015考研英语阅读谷歌的敌人

　　Google s enemies

　　谷歌的敌人

　　SINCE thestart of thisyear, Googles share price has fallen steadily asinvestors have begun to fret about its longer-termprospects. Now they have another reason to worry.On June 24th the company revealed that AmericasFederal Trade Commission had opened a broadinvestigation into its online-search and online-advertising businesses to see if it has abused itsdominant position. Some pundits predict that thetrustbusters tussle with Google could turn as bloodyas their battle with Microsoft in the 1990s.

　　自今年初以来，由于投资者开始对谷歌发展远景感到担忧，其股价稳步下跌。如今他们又有了新的担忧理由，该公司在6月24日透露，美国联邦贸易委员会为确定谷歌是否滥用了主导地位，对其在线搜索和在线广告业务展开了广泛调查。一些专家预测，联邦反托拉斯检察官与谷歌的角力可能会变得非常残酷，其激烈程度可能与1990年代对决微软不相上下。

　　The regulators move comes at an awkward time for Google, which faces a growing threatfrom Facebook, the worlds biggest social network. Facebook aims to supplant Google as themain conduit via which people access the web. On June 28th Google hit back, unveiling Google+,a social-network platform to rival Facebook.

　　世界最大的社交网络Facebook意欲取代谷歌成为人们上网的主要媒介，对谷歌的威胁与日俱增，可是恰在此时监管者又对谷歌展开了行动。在6月28日，谷歌还以颜色，发布了社交网路平台Google+，以与Facebook一争高下。

　　Googles new offering, which is still in trial form, boasts some handy features. It makes it easyto set up separate groups, thus sparing your boss from seeing your semi-clothed andinebriated party snaps. It also lets up to ten people hold a video chat together. But this willprobably not be enough to get people to abandon Facebook, which benefits from a powerfulnetwork effect: people join it because most of their friends already have.

　　谷歌的新产品具有一些方便的功能。它让创建不同的群变得容易，因此

　　不会让你的老板看到你的半裸和醉态熏熏的派对快照，同时它最多还能容纳十个人在一起视频聊天。但Facebook从强大的网络效应受益良多，这可能也不足以让人们割舍它：人们加入Facebook是因为他们大多数的朋友已经加入。

　　Still, Googles determination to keep innovating has served it well in its core business ofsearch, where it commands nearly two-thirds of the market in America and an even higher shareelsewhere . It is this dominance that has attracted regulators attention in Americaand abroad. Last November the European Commission announced a similarly sweeping reviewof Googles operations.

　　然而，谷歌不断创新的决心对其核心搜索业务帮助很大，在这项业务上谷歌几乎占据美国市场的三分之二，而在其他地区甚至拥有更高份额。正是这种优势地位吸引了美国和海外监管者的注意。去年十一月，欧盟委员会宣布对谷歌的业务展开类似的全面调查。

　　Another reason that Google is attracting moreattention is that it keeps expanding into new areas.In Silicon Valley, one of the first questions apotential investor asks a start-up is: What wouldyou do if Google moved into your space? Some of Googles new ventures have beencontroversial. For instance, regulators recently gave the company a green light to acquire ITA Software, which provides online flight information. Severalother travel companies opposed the deal, howling that it would limit competition. Googlescritics say that because it has its fingers in so many pies, from online video to location-basedservices, it must surely be tempted to give some of its own businesses an artificial boost in itsrankings.

　　谷歌吸引更多注意的另一个原因是它不断向新领域扩张。在硅谷，潜在投资者询问新创办公司的首要问题是：如果谷歌进入你们的业务领域，你们会怎么做?谷歌的一些新投资项目充满争议，比如监管者近来对该公司收购在线航班信息公司ITA Software的交易大开绿灯，其他一些旅游公司对这项交易表示强烈反对，他们咆哮说，这将限制竞争。谷歌的批评家表示，因为谷歌染指了从在线视频到位置服务的众多领域，它必定非常想人为推高自己业务的排名。

　　Google acknowledges that it makes hundreds of tweaks a year to the algorithms thatdetermine the search results it serves up. But it insists that its aim is to improve usersexperience by, for example, blocking spam and thwarting firms that try to game its system. Italso likes to point out that its rivals, including Yahoo! and Microsofts Bing search engine, aremerely a click away. Rivals retort that only Googles name has become a verb, and that thisreflects its vice-like grip on the market.

　　谷歌承认每年会对决定搜索结果的算法进行数百项修改，但坚称其目标是通过诸如阻止垃圾信息和对利用其系统进行作弊的公司进行阻扰的方式来提高用户体验。谷歌也乐于指出，其竞争对手包括雅虎和微软的必应搜索引擎与它仅有咫尺之遥。竞争对手则反驳说，只有谷歌的名字成为一个动词，这一点就反映出谷歌对市场牢固的控制力。。