Clicksor is a competitor to Google for advertising dollars. Clicksor delivers ads on other websites that join their network, similar to Google's AdSense product.

But check this out:

1. Search for "Clicksor" on MSN Search. Clicksor.com is the first result.
   
2. Search for "Clicksor" on Yahoo. Clicksor.com is the first result.
   
3. Now, search for "Clicksor" on Google. The site is a sponsored link at the top, but otherwise cliksor.com is nowhere to be found in the regular search results.
   

Clicksor.com is the obvious first result for a search of "clicksor", so Google is clearly massaging the results. Even more concerning is that two of the top four results read, "Does Clicksor work?" and "BEWARE OF CLICKSOR…"

This situation is analogous to AT&T excluding its competitors, Verizon and MCI, from the local AT&T phonebook unless they pay about 1,000 or 10,000 times as much as other businesses for a listing. And even if they pay, AT&T places defamatory ads immediately beside Verizon and MCI's listings. Such a practice would quickly be spotted as anti-competitive, and so too should this.

Most sites get about 60 or 70% of their traffic from (free) Google search results. Google has become the gatekeeper of information for much of the world. So to manipulate search results for its competitor is to cause serious damage to Clicksor.

As the Senate Committee on the Judiciary discusses the future of competition on the Internet, we may already be seeing a glimpse of that future.