4 ms·

As bad as this all is, it seems like an unavoidable consequence to the nature of our economy. Do we really need separate competing: • Office Suites • Search e

As bad as this all is, it seems like an unavoidable consequence to the nature of our economy. Do we really need separate competing: • Office Suites • Search engines • link sharing sites • internet runtimes that all do roughly the same thing? Maybe we do. Maybe Google should be broken up into a bunch of smaller Google's and be forced to interoperate with smaller search companies like DuckDuckGo, Qwant and TinEye. Like MVNOs but for search engine infrastructure.

z3t4 7y ago
If you are fed up with a service/app you can switch to another or make your own.
Certhas 7y ago
Maybe not. Maybe these all are more like infrastructure companies rather than service/product providers. But then we should regulate them as infrastructure companies, too.
- firethief 7y ago
  If there were an effective browser monopoly (as this article argues for) we'd need a lot of regulation to protect us from the browser's owner's unilateral choices. But... one browser, heavily regulated, with no competition, no alternatives--is that not a nightmare scenario?
roenxi 7y ago
Need is one of those surprisingly dangerous words. We need a steady supply of potatoes, some leafy greens and mild warm weather to get through life and not much more. The standard we should strive for is to not lock any given 3rd party in to facilitate data exchanges. If I want to email someone, I shouldn't need to coordinate with Google. If I want to email a document I shouldn't need to coordinate with Microsoft and if I want to browse the internet I shouldn't have to coordinate with the Mozilla foundation. We've seen this play out a few times; data lock-in is not properly appreciated even within the tech industry, let alone outside it. The risk of making Google a mandatory part of exchanging data between two parties on the internet is serious - if they ever manage to insert themselves in the same way IE got its claws into South Korea back in the day that will be decades of foolish pain for no gain. Great idea to keep people aware of the threat. What happens if Google shut down Gmail outside the US with no warning and no big export of data? Maybe because the US government decides foreigners need a bit of prodding because of a trade war? That would be a Nasty Shock.

z3t4 7y ago

If you are fed up with a service/app you can switch to another or make your own.

Certhas 7y ago

Maybe not. Maybe these all are more like infrastructure companies rather than service/product providers. But then we should regulate them as infrastructure companies, too.

firethief 7y ago
If there were an effective browser monopoly (as this article argues for) we'd need a lot of regulation to protect us from the browser's owner's unilateral choices. But... one browser, heavily regulated, with no competition, no alternatives--is that not a nightmare scenario?

roenxi 7y ago

Need is one of those surprisingly dangerous words. We need a steady supply of potatoes, some leafy greens and mild warm weather to get through life and not much more. The standard we should strive for is to not lock any given 3rd party in to facilitate data exchanges. If I want to email someone, I shouldn't need to coordinate with Google. If I want to email a document I shouldn't need to coordinate with Microsoft and if I want to browse the internet I shouldn't have to coordinate with the Mozilla foundation. We've seen this play out a few times; data lock-in is not properly appreciated even within the tech industry, let alone outside it. The risk of making Google a mandatory part of exchanging data between two parties on the internet is serious - if they ever manage to insert themselves in the same way IE got its claws into South Korea back in the day that will be decades of foolish pain for no gain. Great idea to keep people aware of the threat. What happens if Google shut down Gmail outside the US with no warning and no big export of data? Maybe because the US government decides foreigners need a bit of prodding because of a trade war? That would be a Nasty Shock.