Google Says It Plays Fair

In written testimony to a Senate antitrust panel where he will testify Wednesday afternoon, Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman, describes the search giant as a company facing fierce competition on many fronts, a relentless innovator in a dynamic industry and a creation of the open Internet so consumers can easily switch to competing services.

Google generates wealth for itself, he writes, but even more in total for small businesses across America. And he portrays the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust investigation of Google, begun earlier this year, as largely the result of complaints by disgruntled competitors.

Google is cooperating with the wide-ranging F.T.C. inquiry, Mr. Schmidt writes, and adds “we hope it will be conducted in a focused and fair manner so that we can continue creating jobs and building products that delight our users.”

Mr. Schmidt’s written testimony, submitted on Tuesday, will be introduced before the Senate Judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee, where he and some Google rivals will testify in person on Wednesday afternoon.

The written testimony by Mr. Schmidt makes the case that Google has been making for months as its business practices have come under increasing scrutiny from antitrust regulators in the United States, Europe and Korea. But the Google chairman lays out the company’s defense of its actions and motivations in a document that is pointed and succinct, yet comprehensive.

Antitrust regulators are investigating complaints that Google favors its own commerce services and offerings in its search results, among other allegations.

Google’s success, Mr. Schmidt writes, is a byproduct of its corporate ethos of putting consumer interests first. “Keeping up requires constant investment and innovation,” he writes, “and if Google fails in this effort users can and will switch. The cost of going elsewhere is zero, and users can and do use other sources to find the information they want.”

Mr. Schmidt asserts that Google’s search and advertising marketplace “helped generate $64 billion in economic activity for hundreds of thousands of small businesses throughout the United States.”

In his testimony, Mr. Schmidt pointed to a long list of competitors including Microsoft’s Bing search engine, travel sites like Expedia and Travelocity, restaurant review and recommendations sites like Yelp, shopping sites like Amazon and eBay, and social networks like Facebook. “Consumers,” he writes, “have a truly vast array of options â€" some search and some note â€" from which to access information.”

Turning to the antitrust investigations, Mr. Schmidt writes, “most of these complaints come from Web sites that don’t like where their site ranks on Google’s search results page or argue that in providing better answers like maps, shopping, or local results, we are hurting individual sites.”

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