Wednesday's hearing promises to be interesting, with Schmidt's testimony followed by comments from representatives for Yelp, Expedia. and shopping site Nextag. But while antitrust watchers may be during the hearing, should anyone else care?

If you're a Google user you might, since the hearings on Wednesday will examine several ways you use Google products right now. Here's a breakdown of what's being examined.

If you search for certain things in Google--such as a specific address, landmark or city--one of the first results you will see is a Google Map or a link to Google Maps. For other searches--such as weather, time, flight information, and stock quotes--you will also see links to Google products or even answers from Google right on the results page.

That may be handy for you, but the downside of Google's actions is that sites that used to get traffic from a Google search such as Mapquest, Expedia, or weather and stock information sites, lose traffic. With Google providing the answers users are looking for instead of third-party Websites, the search results for competing products are effectively demoted.