Our elected representatives might want to get used to running into Googlers around Washington. A fresh lobbying report indicates that Google’s ramped up its efforts in this area by quite a bit.
Between April 1st and June 30th, Google spent $950,000 on lobbying activities. That represents an increase of 8.0 percent compared to the $880,000 it spent last quarter, and an increase of a whopping 30.1 percent compared to the $730,000 it spent during the second quarter of 2008.
That anti-Net Neutrality op-ed you read by a respected author? How do you know he wrote it? That grassroots organization of plain folks you hadn't ever heard of, all suddenly galvanized for a cause that, if not attained, has dire, dire consequences for everyone? How do you know it's a real organization? How do you know the organization, and the op-ed, weren't created by LawMedia Group at the behest of some well-funded clients? If they did their jobs right, you don't know.
When it comes to lobbying Congress, Google and Yahoo are relative lightweights compared to other companies. Both companies combined spent about $1.3 million last quarter--$730,000 from Google and $630,000 from Yahoo. Microsoft nearly doubled them, and Verizon, as a single company, has spent three times as much as all three.What issues were Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo lobbying legislators for?
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