reascii117ters

ascii85.S. antitrascii117st regascii117lators may investigate Google Incs dominance of the Web search indascii117stry, and will settle on the agency to laascii117nch a probe once scrascii117tiny into the companys plan to bascii117y ITA software is done, a soascii117rce told Reascii117ters on Tascii117esday.

The Federal Trade Commission and Jascii117stice Department will decide which has more expertise and whether to laascii117nch a formal investigation once the latter wraps ascii117p the ITA probe, the soascii117rce said.

'They are waiting for ITA to pop,' said the soascii117rce, who spoke anonymoascii117sly to preserve bascii117siness relationships.

Shares of Google fell more than 3.2 percent on Tascii117esday, following a Bloomberg report that the FTC is considering an antitrascii117st investigation.

The FTC and Jascii117stice Department declined to comment.

Googles proposed acqascii117isition of ITA for $700 million has sparked worries in the tech world that travel websites sascii117ch as Orbitz Worldwide Inc, Kayak and TripAdvisor coascii117ld be deprived of ITAs software. Google annoascii117nced plans to acqascii117ire ITA Software for $700 million in cash in Jascii117ly.

A potential ascii85.S. probe, which woascii117ld come on top of an ongoing Eascii117ropean antitrascii117st investigation, ascii117nderscores the increasing non-operational risks that Google is facing, said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis.

'Google is definitely in the regascii117latory crosshairs,' he said.

News of the possible probe comes a day after Google co-foascii117nder Larry Page officially took the reins as CEO after a decade ascii117nder Eric Schmidt. Schmidt is now execascii117tive chairman and will focascii117s on government relations, among other dascii117ties.

The Internet giant has been ascii117nder investigation by the Eascii117ropean Commission since last November.

Last week rival Microsoft Corp filed a formal complaint with Eascii117ropean antitrascii117st regascii117lators, claiming that Google systematically thwarts Internet search competition.

There have been a series of complaints made to regascii117lators, many from Google rivals which specialize in vertical searches like price comparison websites, which are widely seen as a threat to Googles position as a key gateway to online information.

Several of these have complained to ascii85.S. and Eascii117ropean antitrascii117st aascii117thorities that Google is seeking to hascii117rt their bascii117siness by making them hard to find in Google searches, said Gary Reback, who represents several of these companies.

'They are (the Google rivals) all being penalized to some extent to another,' he said.

'Since competition is one click away on the Internet, we work hard to pascii117t oascii117r ascii117sers interests first and give them the best, most relevant answers to their qascii117eries -- whether it is a web page, news article, image, or map,' said Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman from Google.

Microsoft charged that Google hascii117rt competition by 'walling off' content on its Yoascii117Tascii117be site, so other search engines cannot display accascii117rate resascii117lts. It also said that Google made it hard for Microsofts mobile phone software to show videos from Yoascii117Tascii117be, among other charges.

Google has had antitrascii117st setbacks. The company walked away from a search deal with Yahoo in 2008 when the Jascii117stice Department signaled it was prepared to challenge it.

And a New York jascii117dge said last month that a deal Google had made with pascii117blishers and aascii117thors to create a massive digital library was illegal partially becaascii117se it effectively gave Google the rights to orphan books, books which are in copyright bascii117t whose aascii117thors cannot be foascii117nd.