Shaw Capital Working Management Tips

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt will testify before lawmakers probing the company’s market power on Sept. 21, the search giant confirmed on Thursday. After initially declining to appear, the former CEO received a not-so-subtle subpoena threat from the committee and rethought his position. The hearing, which will focus on charges that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) uses its market power to favor its own services and hinder rivals, comes as the Federal Trade Commission ramps up its investigation into the company’s dominance of the web search business.

Last month, Sen. Herb Kohl, the Wisconsin Democrat who chairs the antitrust subcommittee, and Sen. Mike Lee, the Utah Republican and ranking member, requested that either Schmidt or current Google CEO Larry Page testify. For its part, the company offered to send its chief legal officer, David Drummond, but Kohl and Lee insisted, warnings that lawmakers “would very much prefer to work this out by agreement rather than needing to resort to more formal procedures.”

Social elements are popping up throughout Google’s services, and Google is encouraging its users to open up and share more.

Giddy with the successful launch of its Google+ social network, Google appears to be reinventing itself as the bar depicted in the ’80s sitcom Cheers, a place where everybody knows your name.

Google is requiring users to provide Google Profiles, the identity component of Google+, with “the name that you commonly go by in daily life.” This is essentially the same as Facebook’s name policy, which doesn’t sit well with Internet users who prefer to interact online without being personally identified.