"(bundling the browser, exclusivity with all consumer computer OEMs, etc)" Right. At the same time (10 years ago), there were many different variants of Deskt

"(bundling the browser, exclusivity with all consumer computer OEMs, etc)" Right. At the same time (10 years ago), there were many different variants of Desktop Linux available, a few different office type applications, and a ton of other open source technologies. Google is bundled with Firefox as the default search tool. Like bundled IE, you can just choose something you prefer to use. "I'm not forced to use Gmail, or Google Talk, or Documents, but I choose to because it's the best out there." If everyone used gtalk and you were forced to because all your friends are now using it, would you consider it a monopoly? So many geeks did 10 years ago in Microsoft's case. "Google built things people want to use. Microsoft built things so that you had to use them." Not true. I gave examples of valid competition out there to Microsoft's main products. At the time, the alternatives sucked, but that doesn't mean they weren't there.