PageRank's patent status expired in 2019 so perhaps some Google alternatives in the search space will appear. Helping that process out with government antitrust

PageRank's patent status expired in 2019 so perhaps some Google alternatives in the search space will appear. Helping that process out with government antitrust regulation seems like a good idea. According to wikipedia: > "The word is a trademark of Google, and the PageRank process has been patented (U.S. Patent 6,285,999). However, the patent is assigned to Stanford University and not to Google. Google has exclusive license rights on the patent from Stanford University. The university received 1.8 million shares of Google in exchange for use of the patent; it sold the shares in 2005 for $336 million." > "As of September 24, 2019, PageRank and all associated patents are expired." Another option is to require Google to expose their algorithm to their clients and in particular publicly describe the bias weight system they apply to their page rank scores, which they might very well be deliberately modifying as a mechanism for social manipulation and political influence.