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Google Says Microsoft Is Driving Antitrust Review
GovTechGuy writes "On Friday we discussed news that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott opened a probe into whether Google ranks its search listings with an eye toward nicking the competition. Google suggested the concerns have a major sponsor: Microsoft. In question is whether the world's biggest search engine could be unfairly disadvantaging some companies by giving them a low ranking in free search listings and in paid ads that appear at the top of the page. That could make it tough for users to find those sites and might violate antitrust laws. Abbott's office asked for information about three companies who have publicly complained about Google, according to blog post by Don Harrison, the company's deputy general counsel. Harrison linked each of the companies to Microsoft."
Google has its hand in anti-trust proceedings against Microsoft as well. What goes around comes around.
It can well be argued they are. Monopolies don't have to have 100% of the market to be a monopoly, but geeks exhibit bad cognitive dissonance in with regards to that. MS never had 100% of the desktop computer market. Apple has been around since long before the anti-trust issue and Linux has a small share too. So if all you need is for a competitor to exist and sell some products, well there you go, then MS is not a monopoly and all that whining about them needs to go away.
However if you subscribe to the actual law on it, then you can be a monopoly without total control, and thus MS indeed could be a monopoly even though they only have a commanding majority, not a complete lock.
Guess what? Google is the same way. They are the way that people get their information these days. People don't "search" for things, they "Google" them. They have become the de facto search engine for most people. That very well does make them a monopoly, or at least I should say could. Ultimately if they are or not and if they are abusing it is a question for the courts.
Sorry, but this idea that people seem to hang on to of Google being this little company fighting the good fight against the giants is a false romantic notion. Google is massive and they are powerful. Hell they got in a fight with China. They are not some poor underdog, and I would argue they ARE a monopoly in the search world. I can't name a single person I know (including me) that doesn't use Google exclusively for searches.