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>Google is a convicted criminal that suppressed competition and is now awaiting sentencing >Google's illegal monopoly >Google's criminality is the one mitigat

>Google is a convicted criminal that suppressed competition and is now awaiting sentencing >Google's illegal monopoly >Google's criminality is the one mitigating favor As someone who switched from Firefox to Chrome a while ago, these remarks made me curious enough to research the case. The judge ruled based on "billions of dollars Google spends every year to install its search engine as the default option on new cellphones and tech gadgets". The crime of the century laid bare before our eyes. A search engine company caught red-handed paying companies to set its search engine as the default search engine as everyone everywhere knew and saw for decades. Utterly reprehensible.

paulryanrogers 1y ago
IMO buying defaults isn't as bad as Google's rigging the ad market. At least others have outbid them for search defaults in the past and in other markets.
- meowface 1y ago
  That one is definitely a lot worse and a danger of a monopoly/extremely powerful market player. I would argue that a monopoly is not inherently "bad"* but has much more ability to do bad things if it chooses to, with not much potential recourse from others. https://economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/ad-venturing-into-controversy-is-googles-auction-system-a-rigged-game/articleshow/113341254.cms https://economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/ad-v... *Strictly in an ethics and fairness sense. It might (or might not) be worse for consumers. Just worse in a kind of boring rather than nefarious or deeply harmful way.
safety1st 1y ago
Okay. If you think they should be above the law, that's who you are. Those are your values. Thanks for letting us know. I'm of the humble view that it's at least as important to enforce the law when it comes to the most powerful corporations in the world, as it is to enforce it on the average person. But maybe you see things differently.
- meowface 1y ago
  Sure, the law should be enforced against them. The law's the law. I wasn't trying to imply they should not face the full penalties the law requires, here. Obviously they should. No one is above the law. The tone of your post just carried an impression of criminality in the sense of wanton fraud or murder rather than an organization using its money to put itself in a position to make more money via consensual contracts with technology product providers and running afoul of "wait, you can't be too good at running a business" regulations.
  - immibis 1y ago
    Aren't you implying that actual fraud, as well as things like copyright infringement, would be anything more than an organization using its money to put itself in a position to make more money via consensual contracts and running afoul of "wait, you can't be too good at running a business" regulations?
    - meowface 1y ago
      Fraud usually implies deceiving someone or something.
      - immibis 1y ago
        Which is just a company being better at business than you. Selling promises and breaking them is a very good business model, in a free market without government intervention, since it makes a lot of profit. If you were good at business, you wouldn't give money to those companies. Hence, them being better at business than you.
  - pyrale 1y ago
    > The tone of your post just carried an impression of criminality in the sense of wanton fraud Oh, they also did that [1]. If a bank did this kind of stuff, perpetrators would see jail. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

paulryanrogers 1y ago

IMO buying defaults isn't as bad as Google's rigging the ad market. At least others have outbid them for search defaults in the past and in other markets.

meowface 1y ago
That one is definitely a lot worse and a danger of a monopoly/extremely powerful market player. I would argue that a monopoly is not inherently "bad"* but has much more ability to do bad things if it chooses to, with not much potential recourse from others. https://economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/ad-venturing-into-controversy-is-googles-auction-system-a-rigged-game/articleshow/113341254.cms https://economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/ad-v... *Strictly in an ethics and fairness sense. It might (or might not) be worse for consumers. Just worse in a kind of boring rather than nefarious or deeply harmful way.

safety1st 1y ago

Okay. If you think they should be above the law, that's who you are. Those are your values. Thanks for letting us know. I'm of the humble view that it's at least as important to enforce the law when it comes to the most powerful corporations in the world, as it is to enforce it on the average person. But maybe you see things differently.

meowface 1y ago
Sure, the law should be enforced against them. The law's the law. I wasn't trying to imply they should not face the full penalties the law requires, here. Obviously they should. No one is above the law. The tone of your post just carried an impression of criminality in the sense of wanton fraud or murder rather than an organization using its money to put itself in a position to make more money via consensual contracts with technology product providers and running afoul of "wait, you can't be too good at running a business" regulations.
- immibis 1y ago
  Aren't you implying that actual fraud, as well as things like copyright infringement, would be anything more than an organization using its money to put itself in a position to make more money via consensual contracts and running afoul of "wait, you can't be too good at running a business" regulations?
  - meowface 1y ago
    Fraud usually implies deceiving someone or something.
    - immibis 1y ago
      Which is just a company being better at business than you. Selling promises and breaking them is a very good business model, in a free market without government intervention, since it makes a lot of profit. If you were good at business, you wouldn't give money to those companies. Hence, them being better at business than you.
- pyrale 1y ago
  > The tone of your post just carried an impression of criminality in the sense of wanton fraud Oh, they also did that [1]. If a bank did this kind of stuff, perpetrators would see jail. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue