Indeed, in December 2009 the New York Times published an opinion letter by Foundem co-founder and lead complainant in an anti-trust complaint against Google, Adam Raff, which likely brought the term to the broader public.
[1] On October 11, 2009, Adam and his wife Shivaun launched SearchNeutrality.org, an initiative dedicated to promoting investigations against Google's search engine practices.
The use of search engines to access information through the web has become a key factor for online businesses, which depend on the flow of users visiting their pages.
[9] Beginning in 2006 and for three and a half years following, Foundem's traffic and business dropped significantly due to what they assert to be a penalty deliberately applied by Google.
At the time at which Foundem claims the penalties were imposed, it was unclear whether web crawlers crawled beyond the main page of a website using iframe tags without some extra modifications.
I don't think that's a coincidence.”[11] Most of Foundem’s accusations claim that Google deliberately applies penalties to other vertical search engines because they represent competition.
[13] The following table details Foundem's chronology of events as found on their website:[14] Google's large market share (85%) has made them a target for search neutrality litigation via antitrust laws.
[12] After two years of looking into claims that Google “manipulated its search algorithms to harm vertical websites and unfairly promote its own competing vertical properties,” the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted unanimously to end the antitrust portion of its investigation without filing a formal complaint against Google.
[16] The FTC concluded that Google's “practice of favoring its own content in the presentation of search results” did not violate U.S. antitrust laws.