Google Spent $1.3 Million on Lobbying, What Are They Buying?

Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, revealed today that Google upped its spending on Washington lobbyists by a mammoth 57% from the same period last year. Lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Senate Office of Public Affairs show that the firm handed over $1.3 million in the first quarter of 2010, compared with $880,000 in 2009.

"Five years ago they had no one in Washington," John M. Simpson, consumer advocate of Consumer Watchdog, told Fast Company in a phone...