Hey Google - Didn't you ever play the beloved board game of Monopoly©️?
Judge Mehta decides that Alphabet (Google) is responsible for acting in a monopolizing manner which is considered a crime against the American people.
How will this affect our beloved search engine that seems to have the answers to e v e r y t h i n g?
Keep reading!
How Did Google Take Over Search As We Know It?
The Search Engine Synonymous with 'Look It Up'
Put a finger down if you’ve never had to use the Dewey Decimal system to find a resource for your research paper. That’s you, Gen Z.
Back in my day – way before Google existed (publicly) – we relied on Yahoo©️, AskJeeves, MSN, and worse ‘Dogpile’. We had to print directions off at the library to get directions to our friends’ uncle’s pool via MapQuest. If we wanted to listen to the newly dropped single by our favorite rapper, we had to – GASP- illegally pirate the .mp4 file onto our LimeWire software and burn it onto a CD-ROM. WHAT DOES THE ROM EVEN STAND FOR?! (Read Only Memory, FYI.)
Until along came Google and our pursuit of information was never the same.
Google's Takeover of Information Exploration
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Once Wikipedia started to take off – our English teachers didn’t know what to do with us. In computer class, we’d discuss plagiarism and ‘fake news’ online that isn’t necessarily fact checked. However, there wasn’t a strong solution for scraping the hundreds of thousands additional web pages that claimed to have the knowledge the public was searching for.
Enter the search engines.
The first search engine created by a McGill University student was named Archie in 1990. Alan Emtage developed this computer program to search the World Wide Web and populate the results, such as Archives. The name was shorted to ‘Archie’ and our capabilities of surfing the web exploded.
Circa 1995 – Yahoo introduced a search function on their website allowing users to forage specific content throughout their site.
Come January of 1996 – two Stanford University students worked together to develop a tool that functioned relying on data from other websites referencing other sites. Similar to Academic research – if a source is cited as the nexus of the information it is generally marked as trustworthy. Thus relying on backlinks from other websites to prove a website’s trustworthiness. You read that right – since 1996 (the year our beloved Spice Girls released their debut single Wannabe) – SINCE 1996, Backlinks have been a RANKING FACTOR. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. Learn more about backlinks and SEO here.
By organizing and analyzing hundreds of thousands web pages, Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided on the name googol ( a 1 followed by a 100 zeroes) referring to the large amount of data processing in place. To mitigate misspellings, they lovingly named their product Google.com.
In 1998, they launched what is known as the top search engine across the internet.
The Growth of Google: Nearly 20 Years Later
15+ years later, Google still runs search on the wacky wild web. Now – search capabilities have expanded way beyond your computer room! Now we’re searching into our wearable technology – watches, glasses and mobile phones (stuck to our hands like gloves). Google’s rein has taken over much for how the public asks questions, discovers information, and requests services.
Why is the Federal Government Involved?
Ask any digital marketer and they’ll tell you “Play nice with Google or get left behind”. This mindset alone is enough for the authorities to spark an interest in a case of racketeering.
Which is why none of us were really surprised back in 2020 when the Department of Justice started looking behind the scenes to uncover The Wizard’s magic.
The Definition of a Monopoly + Google
AntiTrust Law Factors
- Market Share Dominance
- Predatory Practices
- Harmful Effects for Consumers
- Acquisitions
- Exclusive Agreements
- Use of Data
Monopoly
- Over 50%
- Lowering Prices in High Market Volatility
- Higher Prices, Reduced Quality
- Purchasing smaller companies to overtake market share
- Entering agreements to restrict competition i.e. retailers told to only sell a brand’s product
- Leveraging vast amounts of consumer data to undercut competition
- 90%
- Unjust advertising spend
- See above
- YouTube, Fitbit, Nest, Waze, Motorola, Android, AppSheet…
- Partnerships with tech providers to be the provided search app: Apple, Samsung, Firefox
- Say No More…
Care to Dive Deeper into Google's Lawsuit?
Should we take down the 'monopoly man' aka Google?
I don’t know! I’ll be honest – I’m a Google girl. I prefer a clean workspace and that’s whatI’m provided – in search, in applications, and in reliable service. I can’t complain here.
But the government has different greivances and that’s absolutely fair. The proposed resolution is expected to be decided upon soon. This solution breaks up Google’s various entities so the competing companies may gain further opportunities to boost their business – and give the consumers a greater variety in choice. Because that’s what America is about. The freedom to choose.
Thanks for reading!