The US Federal Trade Commission has launched a probe into the dominance of Google’s operating system.
Technology companies have already complained to the Department of Justice to probe whether the company misuses its Android dominance to its advantage.
Following the complaint, FTC decided to take the case, though the probe is the very early stages, the agency added citing people privy to the development.
The probe will look into whether Google’s maps and other products are given preference over rival products.
According to the report, at present the system makes it difficult for smartphone makers to put search apps from other companies in the home screen of Android smartphones.
Technology trade group Fairsearch welcomed the probe, stating that the company "has used a range of anticompetitive tactics."
Fairsearch said: "The stakes are extremely high, because Google’s behaviour impacts the entire mobile ecosystem, including map and location services, and app developers."
Currently smartphone manufacturers are offering alternative search products like Microsoft’s HERE.
According to the data from Comscore, Google sites led the US search market in August with 63.8% share, followed by Microsoft Sites with 20.6% and Yahoo sites with 12.7%.
Ask Network accounted for 1.8% of explicit core searches, followed by AOL with 1.2%.
During August this year, 17.6 billion explicit core searches were conducted with Google Sites ranking first with 11.3 billion.
