Google Inc. will resolve a 20-month antitrust probe by U.S.regulators today with a voluntary agreement and a consent decree onthe company's alleged misuse of patents, three people familiar withthe matter said.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is poised to announce thatGoogle has agreed to voluntarily change some business practices andsettle allegations it misused patents to thwart competitors insmartphone technology, said the people, who asked not to be namedbecause the decision isn't public.

The FTC is expected to close its investigation into whetherGoogle, operator of the world's most popular search engine, skewsits search results to favor its own services without enforcementaction, the people said. The FTC's decision not to take action is ablow to competitors including Microsoft Corp., Yelp Inc. andExpedia Inc. and comes at a time when the European Union is seekinga “detailed commitment” on search to end its probe into allegationsthat Google discriminates against rivals.

As part of its voluntary concessions, Google will make changesin the way it uses content from other websites and allowadvertisers to export data to other platforms, the people said.

Peter Kaplan, a spokesman for the FTC, and Niki Fenwick, aGoogle spokeswoman, declined to comment on the resolution of theprobe.

The expected FTC decision was drawing criticism from Googleopponents, including the FairSearch.org coalition, an alliance thatincludes Microsoft and Expedia.

“If the FTC fails to take decisive action to end Google'santi-competitive practices, and locks itself out of any remedies toGoogle's conduct that are offered in Europe later this month, theFTC will have acted prematurely and failed in its mission ofprotecting America's consumers,” according to a FairSearch.orgblogpost published yesterday.

In another blogpost yesterday, Microsoft vice president anddeputy general counsel Dave Heiner accused Google ofanticompetitive practices, including continuing “to preventMicrosoft from offering consumers a fully featured YouTube app forthe Windows Phone.”

Microsoft has complained about the issue both to the EU and theFTC, Heiner said. Google has blocked Microsoft's new Windows Phonesfrom operating properly with YouTube, while enabling its ownAndroid phones to access YouTube, Heiner said in the posting.

“These restrictions are just one example of where we believeGoogle is impeding competition in the marketplace,” Heiner wrote inthe posting.

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