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<a  href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2011/09/21/google-antitrust-senate-hearin/&service=bit.ly&source=mashable"><img style="border:none;margin-right:5px;" width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2011/09/21/google-antitrust-senate-hearin/" align="right"/></a></div><div style="float:left;margin-bottom:10px;"><img src="http://8.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Eric-Schmidt-360.jpg" alt="" title="Eric Schmidt 360" width="275" height="" class="alignright size-full wp-image-720197" /></div><div style="clear:both;"></div></div><br/>Eric Schmidt, <a href="http://mashable.com/category/google/">Google</a>'s executive chairman, is likely to mention Facebook, Apple and other competitors outside the search realm as he faces a grilling Wednesday during an antitrust Senate hearing on Capitol Hill, according to a report.

<i><a href"http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63989.html" >Politico</a></i>, which got an advanced copy of Schmidt's testimony, revealed that the former Google CEO is planning to emphasize the hyper-competitive nature of online media. 

"“We aim to provide relevant answers as quickly as possible, and our product innovation and engineering talent deliver results that we believe users like, in a world where the competition is only one click away,” reads Schmidt's prepared statement. The Senate plans to <a href="http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=3d9031b47812de2592c3baeba64d93cb" >stream the testimony</a> at 2 p.m. ET.

The emphasis on competitors is an obvious retort for Google, which is being investigated by the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee on the grounds that Google may be using its heft in search marketing to freeze out rivals. If pressed, Schmidt (pictured) is likely to point out that Google competes not only with Microsoft and Yahoo on the search front, but with Apple, Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is <a href="http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/9/comScore_Media_Metrix_Ranks_Top_50_U.S._Web_Properties_for_August_2011" >now ranked</a> number four in unique U.S. visitors with 162.4 million for August, behind Google's 183.4 million, according to comScore. Apple, which competes with Google on the smartphone front, claimed 75 million visitors, while Twitter had 33.9 million.

Aside from the competition angle, Schmidt is likely to play up Google's effect on the economy. The company claims to generate $64 billion in economic activity for small businesses. 

Jonathan Rubin, an attorney with <a href="http://www.rubinpllc.com" >Rubin PLLC</a> who specializes in antitrust cases, says that citing Facebook is irrelevant to the conversation. 

"I don't see Google's search as a direct competition to Facebook," Rubin says. "It's sort of semi-competition." 

Nevertheless, Rubin believes the government's case against Google is weak since the company doesn't charge for its services, which takes competitive pricing off the table. Rubin says that lacking the pricing angle, the government would have to make the case that Google is sabotaging rival services like Bing. Successfully arguing that Google is favoring its own properties is even murkier ground, Rubin says, since Google's search product hinges on providing the best results and being an "honest broker" (a.k.a. disinterested intermediary). That case, which the government will advance with testimony from the CEOs of Yelp and NexTag, is also not a clear-cut violation of antitrust laws, Rubin says. 

<i>Image courtesy of Flickr, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/haynes/">Charles Haynes</a></i>

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