I think the difference boils down to (a) trust and (b) power. Maybe also (c) competence. (a) Many have criticised google over the years, especially it's slogan

I think the difference boils down to (a) trust and (b) power. Maybe also (c) competence. (a) Many have criticised google over the years, especially it's slogan of "Do no evil". But the fact of the matter remains that, by and large, they have always convinced people with superior services, and been very careful not to through their weight around to force people to do business with them. They may actually be terribly evil, but their interests and those of consumers just happened to be aligned, most of the time. One example: they have never tried to block ad-blocking extensions from chrome, although it those are somewhat threatening to their business model. And despite conspiracy theories saying the opposite, it appears to me as if their search rankings are, to this day, not influenced by ad spending. Providers, on the other hand, have a long history of anticompetitive behaviour and have proven that they are extracting the profits of being dominant whenever they can (proven by the much-better offers that suddenly materialised when Google Fibre came to some cities). (b) Power: I'd argue that even for consumers, it's easier to largely avoid using google, than it is to avoid providers. It's almost a truism if you accept that there is tacit collusion in many areas where only two or three providers exist, i. e. they do not seem to be aggressively competing with each other. Almost more importantly, at least in this crowd, may be how afraid people are of the end of net neutrality. We have all seen how cool ideas (sometimes) managed to grow into something extremely useful (or fun, or beautiful). At least I am horrified of a future where this becomes impossible, because the pipe companies want to extract every penny they can, and they do it by requiring everyone, everywhere to pay them. This isn't about the money. It's about retaining the slightly anarchic dynamism of an internet where a good idea, some technical expertise and $4 for a domain registration may be enough to change the world.