Google is an Illegal Monopoly

Google is an Illegal Monopoly

Ever since reading The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher, I've been convinced Google is, to borrow Kara Swisher's own description, a "ravenous information thief." The Department of Justice won its antitrust case against Google. The verdict says Google is an illegal monopoly. The case started under Trump's DOJ and, as of August 15, 2024, the case is pending prescription of remedies.

Aram Zucker-Scharff wrote a great piece on what breaking up Google could look like. Chrome, Google's web browser, came to mind as to what do with it in the event of a break up. Aram writes:

"Chrome isn’t a business and AMP is somewhat community run right now. These aren’t really profitable components."

John Gruber of Daring Fireball presents a thought experiment on the role Chrome if it were to be spun off:

I mean, let’s say Google was forced to spin Chrome off. How would Chrome Inc. make money? Clearly, they’d make money through TAC fee payments from Google search. Also, if they split off Chrome they’d almost have to split off Android. If Google is disallowed from making its own web browser how in the world can they make an OS?

I personally wouldn't mind if it died. Chrome in respects to privacy is messy at best and a nightmare at worst. It has a bunch of defaults in preferences/settings that like Facebook/Instagram, are designed to be confusing to the user. In my view, its another example of the ravenous nature of an information thief.

Eric Schmidt Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, in a recent talk at Stanford, said the likes of companies such as OpenAI are kicking Google's ass because "working from home was more important than winning." Seemingly, Schmidt is suggesting to these young students -- future titans of the industry -- that smash and grab is a fine way to do business; just have lawyers clean up:

So, in the example that I gave of the TikTok competitor — and by the way, I was not arguing that you should illegally steal everybody’s music — what you would do if you’re a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, which hopefully all of you will be, is if it took off, then you’d hire a whole bunch of lawyers to go clean the mess up, right? But if nobody uses your product, it doesn’t matter that you stole all the content.

And do not quote me.

This fucking guy. A version of the innovator's dilemma, monopolies, especially the illegal kinds, are lazy and undisciplined in responding to their users' experience. With no real competition, Google got real unfocused. Until OpenAI showed up, it went into panic mode and piled on some AI dust on top of their shitty search. They blame "working from home" for their stagnation.

The US is considering breaking up the whole company. Maybe at least we can get a better search out of it.