Anne Main
Main Page: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)(13 years, 3 months ago)
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Mrs Anne Main (in the Chair)
Order. Is the hon. Member for Hyndburn (Graham Jones) prepared to give way?
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
Is the Minister aware that a great many people with tremendous talent in my constituency have had to leave Northern Ireland to get jobs elsewhere? What steps does he intend to take to ensure that that ability and experience can be utilised to its full potential here in the United Kingdom? What does he intend to do to encourage and foster business?
Mrs Anne Main (in the Chair)
Order. This is a very short debate and I ask that interventions are kept brief.
Mr Vaizey
I am grateful to you, Mrs Main, and for the intervention.
What is the current position regarding search engines? It is absolutely true that the foremost popular internet search engines in this country are based in America. The top two have more than 90% of the market, and that situation is replicated pretty much across the globe, as evidenced by Google’s global market share of around 85%. On one level, the internet search engine market obviously operates in a free market environment, and in the UK there are no barriers to a consumer’s ability to switch to a preferred search engine or to stay loyal to the one of their choice. Many search engines, including the most popular, have local versions that search only UK websites.