I’m really not in love with the headline, which is admittedly The Verge’s own. The judge didn’t say he was going to “investigate” Google independently. Judges don’t have that power. He said he’d “get to the bottom of” the spoliation question later. He’s saying that Google had better be prepared to deal with this issue much more fully in trials to come, but for purposes of this one, he’ll settle on giving the jury an instruction about permissible inferences.<p>In other words, Google had better be ready to receive the mother of all sanctions motions (possibly sua sponte).