7 ms·

Non-clickbait title: Google might prefer divesting $22B AdSense business to avoid antitrust litigation.

echelon 7y ago
That's hardly a deep enough cut. Take away Android, or better, Search. Either of those business units can survive on their own. It makes Google far less of a monopoly and breaks up the pervasive spying (at least insofar as it isn't one company tracking everything).
- badtooling 7y ago
  Honestly taking away android would make it a game changer. More open, less invasive. I might even stop wishing for linux on phone or a wp revival.
  - izacus 7y ago
    There's already an open, less invasive forks of Android - LineageOS being the biggest of them. It's easy for a company to be formed around them and continue development. Cyanogen was one of them.
  - Mirioron 7y ago
    And you wouldn't use it, because it would probably just die.
    - echelon 7y ago
      Like Ubuntu, Firefox, Raspberry Pi, Wikipedia, Bitcoin...
      - Mirioron 7y ago
        I think the chance that a commercial company is going to spin off into a community-driven non-profit is pretty low. Or at least their chance of success is going to be low. The examples you gave built up their communities over time.
      - convFixb 7y ago
        - Ubuntu: Subsidized by Mark Shuttleworths personal fortune. - Firefox: Most all revenue is in the form of indulgences from Google. - RaspPi: Broadcom sockpuppet. - Wikipedia: OK, can't argue with this one. - Bitcoin: Money laundering, pyramid schemes and currency speculation can hardly be called an 'open source project' IMO.
        jfoster 7y ago
        I agree with Bitcoin being used for shady stuff, but could you explain how it's used for money laundering? My understanding of money laundering is a process of making shady money look less shady. Putting it through anything in Bitcoin will make it look more shady, won't it?
      - protanopia 7y ago
        Like Ubuntu Phone, Firefox OS, etc.
- izacus 7y ago
  Android (the OS part, the one you want opensourced) is pretty much not making any revenue (which is easy to see on the earnings report). So what you're basically saying is that government should decree to destroy Android as a product and let Apple take over the whole marked with its completely proprietary and DRM locked OS (which is also not earning any money by itself without the rest of Apple corporation to feed it).
  - kryptiskt 7y ago
    A spun off Android Inc would be free to make lucrative deals for browsers, search, media and maps and stuff and would have the Play store too. It would do just fine.
    - jdhdjsujwg 7y ago
      Then why didn't that happen naturally? People calling google a monopoly don't see that the future if innovation is megacorps and small businesses that try to ascend to selling out. This world where a business sticks to one problem domain is just a fantasy, it's the software version of a mom+pop. In the world of grownup companies it's Amazon vs. Apple vs. Google vs Walmart vs. Tencent vs. Facebook and maybe eventually the Europeans will decide they miss having clout as more than consumers on the world stage and then there'll be a European megacorp too.
      - tsimionescu 7y ago
        That is exactly what people calling Google a monopoly see, and that is what they want to prevent. As a rule, Big corporations do not innovate - they form cartels and sit on their products extracting rent. We have already seen the severe drop in innovation in the mobile space, now that the market is settled.
        Mirioron 7y ago
        >That is exactly what people calling Google a monopoly see, and that is what they want to prevent. I guess we will soon just use Chinese-made software too then.
- CommieDetector 7y ago
  Sounds like communism to me
- shadowgovt 7y ago
  How does search survive on its own?

That's hardly a deep enough cut. Take away Android, or better, Search. Either of those business units can survive on their own. It makes Google far less of a monopoly and breaks up the pervasive spying (at least insofar as it isn't one company tracking everything).

badtooling 7y ago
Honestly taking away android would make it a game changer. More open, less invasive. I might even stop wishing for linux on phone or a wp revival.
- izacus 7y ago
  There's already an open, less invasive forks of Android - LineageOS being the biggest of them. It's easy for a company to be formed around them and continue development. Cyanogen was one of them.
- Mirioron 7y ago
  And you wouldn't use it, because it would probably just die.
  - echelon 7y ago
    Like Ubuntu, Firefox, Raspberry Pi, Wikipedia, Bitcoin...
    - Mirioron 7y ago
      I think the chance that a commercial company is going to spin off into a community-driven non-profit is pretty low. Or at least their chance of success is going to be low. The examples you gave built up their communities over time.
    - convFixb 7y ago
      - Ubuntu: Subsidized by Mark Shuttleworths personal fortune. - Firefox: Most all revenue is in the form of indulgences from Google. - RaspPi: Broadcom sockpuppet. - Wikipedia: OK, can't argue with this one. - Bitcoin: Money laundering, pyramid schemes and currency speculation can hardly be called an 'open source project' IMO.
      - jfoster 7y ago
        I agree with Bitcoin being used for shady stuff, but could you explain how it's used for money laundering? My understanding of money laundering is a process of making shady money look less shady. Putting it through anything in Bitcoin will make it look more shady, won't it?
    - protanopia 7y ago
      Like Ubuntu Phone, Firefox OS, etc.
izacus 7y ago
Android (the OS part, the one you want opensourced) is pretty much not making any revenue (which is easy to see on the earnings report). So what you're basically saying is that government should decree to destroy Android as a product and let Apple take over the whole marked with its completely proprietary and DRM locked OS (which is also not earning any money by itself without the rest of Apple corporation to feed it).
- kryptiskt 7y ago
  A spun off Android Inc would be free to make lucrative deals for browsers, search, media and maps and stuff and would have the Play store too. It would do just fine.
  - jdhdjsujwg 7y ago
    Then why didn't that happen naturally? People calling google a monopoly don't see that the future if innovation is megacorps and small businesses that try to ascend to selling out. This world where a business sticks to one problem domain is just a fantasy, it's the software version of a mom+pop. In the world of grownup companies it's Amazon vs. Apple vs. Google vs Walmart vs. Tencent vs. Facebook and maybe eventually the Europeans will decide they miss having clout as more than consumers on the world stage and then there'll be a European megacorp too.
    - tsimionescu 7y ago
      That is exactly what people calling Google a monopoly see, and that is what they want to prevent. As a rule, Big corporations do not innovate - they form cartels and sit on their products extracting rent. We have already seen the severe drop in innovation in the mobile space, now that the market is settled.
      - Mirioron 7y ago
        >That is exactly what people calling Google a monopoly see, and that is what they want to prevent. I guess we will soon just use Chinese-made software too then.
CommieDetector 7y ago
Sounds like communism to me
shadowgovt 7y ago
How does search survive on its own?