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Jesus, yes, how did I have to scroll down this far before I read "ATT was a government monopoly"? Google doesn't have a monopoly on anything. They have the be

Jesus, yes, how did I have to scroll down this far before I read "ATT was a government monopoly"? Google doesn't have a monopoly on anything. They have the best search engine, but I can switch in seconds. Likewise the rest of their products all have very well established and really quite functional competitors. That I don't use, cause I like the big G, but I could if they annoyed me too much.

amelius 9y ago
The whole issue of Google being a monopoly is silly. Fact of the matter is that they have a huge influence on the entire economy, and this influence is orders of magnitude greater than any other company.
- Shivetya 9y ago
  follow the money. they are a monopoly if it can generate penalties and further the careers of politicians with regulatory powers.
  - cobbzilla 9y ago
    You're describing regulatory capture, and it doesn't require a monopoly at all, merely deeply-entrenched players with effective lobbyists. Many, many industries engage in regulatory capture without having a single monopolist, e.g. pharma, defense, even say the SF housing market.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Yeah, the whole "monopoly" word brings stuff to mind that is more a distraction than useful.
- gozur88 9y ago
  "Orders of magnitude"? That's a stretch. I doubt Google has as much influence as major broadcasters.
- maverick_iceman 9y ago
  >this influence is orders of magnitude greater than any other company. This is silly, Facebook and Amazon's influence is comparable, if not more. And I'm not even talking about the banks.
ellyagg 9y ago
But new and small businesses can't switch where they go to raise awareness, which always seems to be an underappreciated consequence of Google's monopoly. You either have to buy Google ads or do SEO, and if you SEO, Google can pull the rug out from under you at any moment and you have no recourse.
- jhall1468 9y ago
  Consumer protections are for the consumer, not businesses. Plenty of companies have managed to get brand awareness without Google. If you build your business to be entirely dependent on a single point-of-entry, then your business can have the "rug" pulled out by whatever the owner of that point is.
  - yazan94 9y ago
    Not to be pedantic, but can you name any?
    - warcher 9y ago
      Mine. I don't advertise through google and our SEO isn't anything special. Est 2010, thanks kindly.
- lallysingh 9y ago
  There are lots of competing vendors for display ads. You can also advertise on facebook and Bing. For search ads, I donno. If 1 tv channel was by far the most popular, would ads on it make them an illegal monopoly for businesses that wanted to advertise?
  - notatoad 9y ago
    In the context of deciding whether google is a monopoly or not, splitting the advertising market into "search ads" and "display ads" feels pretty artificial. Google has a monopoly on search ads in the same way that McDonald's has a monopoly on the Big Mac.
- 9y ago

amelius 9y ago

The whole issue of Google being a monopoly is silly. Fact of the matter is that they have a huge influence on the entire economy, and this influence is orders of magnitude greater than any other company.

Shivetya 9y ago
follow the money. they are a monopoly if it can generate penalties and further the careers of politicians with regulatory powers.
- cobbzilla 9y ago
  You're describing regulatory capture, and it doesn't require a monopoly at all, merely deeply-entrenched players with effective lobbyists. Many, many industries engage in regulatory capture without having a single monopolist, e.g. pharma, defense, even say the SF housing market.
digi_owl 9y ago
Yeah, the whole "monopoly" word brings stuff to mind that is more a distraction than useful.
gozur88 9y ago
"Orders of magnitude"? That's a stretch. I doubt Google has as much influence as major broadcasters.
maverick_iceman 9y ago
>this influence is orders of magnitude greater than any other company. This is silly, Facebook and Amazon's influence is comparable, if not more. And I'm not even talking about the banks.

ellyagg 9y ago

But new and small businesses can't switch where they go to raise awareness, which always seems to be an underappreciated consequence of Google's monopoly. You either have to buy Google ads or do SEO, and if you SEO, Google can pull the rug out from under you at any moment and you have no recourse.

jhall1468 9y ago
Consumer protections are for the consumer, not businesses. Plenty of companies have managed to get brand awareness without Google. If you build your business to be entirely dependent on a single point-of-entry, then your business can have the "rug" pulled out by whatever the owner of that point is.
- yazan94 9y ago
  Not to be pedantic, but can you name any?
  - warcher 9y ago
    Mine. I don't advertise through google and our SEO isn't anything special. Est 2010, thanks kindly.
lallysingh 9y ago
There are lots of competing vendors for display ads. You can also advertise on facebook and Bing. For search ads, I donno. If 1 tv channel was by far the most popular, would ads on it make them an illegal monopoly for businesses that wanted to advertise?
- notatoad 9y ago
  In the context of deciding whether google is a monopoly or not, splitting the advertising market into "search ads" and "display ads" feels pretty artificial. Google has a monopoly on search ads in the same way that McDonald's has a monopoly on the Big Mac.
9y ago