View Single Post
Old 11-23-2014, 01:17 PM   #27
fjtorres
Grand Sorcerer
fjtorres ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fjtorres ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fjtorres ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fjtorres ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fjtorres ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fjtorres ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fjtorres ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fjtorres ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fjtorres ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fjtorres ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fjtorres ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 11,732
Karma: 128354696
Join Date: May 2009
Location: 26 kly from Sgr A*
Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000
There really is no established antitrust issue to pin on Google now that they are sworn to search neutrality.

They don't control the supply of the product (website information).
They aren't undercutting anybody of colluding on price because the product has always been free to consumers.
There are no network effects, like with Microsoft, Facebook, or Skype.
There isn't any plausible lock-in effect at play with search.
They weren't first movers nor do they lack for competent, well-founded competitors.

All that really separates them from competitors is that consumers, especially in Europe, prefer their search engine over the alternatives.

Given the context of lawsuits and threats against them in Europe, the only obvious issue is they make a good chunk of money directing web browsers to the properties of old legacy media and they don't pay for the "privilege" of making money by helping them make money.

It could be that, much as MS back in '95, they haven't spent enough money greasing the political machinery or they didn't buy the right politicians.

Last edited by fjtorres; 11-23-2014 at 01:21 PM.
fjtorres is offline   Reply With Quote