Today the United States Department of Justice and 11 states (Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Montana) filed an antitrust suit against Google, with the focus being it’s domination of the internet search market.
I’ve been saying for years Google has been ,quite simply, a monopoly. They have their hands far to deep in far too many things and, when one looks at their dominance of the internet search market combined with the software and services they offer (the Chrome browser, the Android operating system, their ownership of YouTube, etc) they have clearly surpassed any level that Microsoft may have had dominance back when they were sued in the 90’s for similar perceived antitrust violations regarding Internet Explorer killing the market for commercial web browsers.
That was just one thing, and the government came down on Microsoft like they had committed an ultimate sin. Google, on the other hand, practically dominates people’s perception of the internet, something that has always bothered me. People happily use a browser made by Google, a phone with software made by Google, to access websites that are owned by or connect to Google, all of this harvesting data for, guess who? Google. It’s madness, madness that can’t be escaped — even this very site uses, guess what, Google Analytics and Advertising. They absolutely dominate, and not simply because of consumer choice – they put themselves heavily as the only choice, in a sense. People have to go out of their way to even learn there are other options.
This is intentional on Google’s part. They work hard, and pay great sums, to ensure they are the default search engine in browsers. They push for Chrome to be bundled with all kinds of downloads. They dominate the mobile phone market, which for many people these devices are the only way they access the internet!
The document of the suit filed today even mentions the fact that “Google” is no longer just a noun but is used as a verb to refer to performing an internet search (something I despise in principle, regardless of what company name becomes the verb — I hate genericized trademarks.)
People see all this as normal, however, and behave oddly when one doesn’t have a positive opinion of Google. They get mad when you call the company out on this stuff, and claim it’s fair and proper. Well, it looks like it fucking isn’t.
This is, quite honestly, a day I’ve been waiting for for easily over a decade. While I like many services which Google provides or owns, I don’t like the company or its practices one bit. I can not only draw a distinction between these two aspects but also, unlike the peanut gallery online, can understand that any company could in theory provide the same services and that the only reason it seems like Google is “the only company that could” is because they have made it appear that way through their sheer dominance of the way people perceive and use the web.
Mark October 20th, 2020 as a wonderful day for the internet, as Google finally gets told it’s gone too far. It may be 5-10 years late to me but goddammit it’s finally happened, and I couldn’t be happier.