Texas demands Google documents for antitrust probe

The Texas attorney general's office has demanded Google turn over a broad range of internal documents as part of an antitrust review of the search giant, including its formula for determining advertising rates, according to published reports. Google search documents

The investigation seeks information on the company's closely guarded algorithms that run its search engine and AdWords, Google's system for displaying ads with keyword search results, according to a letter sent in July 2010 by attorney general Greg Abbott's antitrust division and first reported on Tuesday by Bloomberg News. Investigators are seeking documents related to possible "manual overriding or altering of" search result rankings, according to the report.

The investigation is also focusing on Google's shopping services sites Froogle, Google Product Search, and Google Shopping. The 13-page letter reportedly also seeks documents related to search rivals Yahoo and Microsoft, as well as complaints regarding purchasing and placement of ads on Google.

For more on this story, read Texas AG demands Google search, ad documents on CNET News.