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> If Google was seriously abusing its “gatekeepter” status, you’d expect to hear billions of complaints about anti-competitive behavior in those billions of sea
by dieterrams 16y ago
> If Google was seriously abusing its “gatekeepter” status, you’d expect to hear billions of complaints about anti-competitive behavior in those billions of searches.
Ah, because people are never duped. Google's done an incredible job creating a do-gooder image for itself, which shuts off people's warning systems. (For contrast, consider Microsoft's long-standing reputation for being ruthless, especially in the 90s.) To be sure, I don't think it's all image, but you'd be a fool to think do-gooder sentiments are the driving force behind that company.
Since Sullivan is so interested in pointing out cute similarities, here's a serious difference for you: Google is insanely profitable and has an extremely effective positive feedback system for acquiring power. The Gray Lady, meanwhile, is on the verge of collapse.
The problem is power, and there isn't nearly enough concern over how much of it Google has. Good on The New York Times for trying to raise it, I say. I don't know if I agree with their proposal, but this is a conversation that we need to be having.
And by the way, it's not really about Google as such. If it were Yahoo or Lycos or whoever else in Google's position, the same arguments would apply.
- credo 16y ago>> If Google was seriously abusing its "gatekeepter" status, you’d expect to hear billions of complaints about anti-competitive behavior in those billions of searches. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1518545 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1518545 for one case where the (French) govt ruled that Google was abusing its monopoly power in the ads market.
- sahaj 16y agobut you'd be a fool to think do-gooder sentiments are the driving force behind that company so what is the driving force behind google? you say power. what do they want the power for? they want to tell you how to live your lives? they want to tell you how to raise your kids? so far the political policies they've supported aren't bad... free speech, equal rights, etc.
- c1sc0 16y agoLycos? How cute! I agree that the problem is power, but I'm not convinced regulation is going to do anything. On the one hand we have network effects at play creating major power hubs (The Kingdom of Facebook) but on the one hand we also have blogs run by local city-state tyrants like Techcrunch. Yes, stupid blogs are about power too. Should government regulate major blogs like Huffpost of Techcrunch because they have the power of shaping opinion in respectively the field of technology and liberal thought?