Tech | December 13, 2008 | 21 comments

Could Google control the Internet? Google dodged a monopoly lawsuit by three hours

source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/109341-doj-ace-google-dodged-a-monopoly-lawsuit-by-three-hours

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Sons_Of_Liberty
Newsflash: the Feds think Google (GOOG) has a monopoly over search advertising. (Ya' think?)

"So it's a good thing Google ditched its controversial ad partnership with Yahoo (YHOO), because the search juggernaut was just three hours away from being sued by the Justice Department, according to the ace antitrust litigator brought on by the Feds to investigate the deal.

"We were going to file the complaint at a certain time during the day," Sandy Litvack told AmLawDaily, a legal blog produced by the American Lawyer magazine. "We told them we were going to file the complaint at that time of day. Three hours before, they told us they were abandoning the agreement."

Google had little appetite for a legal battle with the Justice Department, so the company bailed on the plan, leaving Yahoo out to dry.

"We're of course disappointed that this deal won't be moving ahead," Google's top lawyer David Drummond wrote. "But we're not going to let the prospect of a lengthy legal battle distract us from our core mission. That would be like trying to drive down the road of innovation with the parking brake on."

And what a distraction it would have been.

Litvack revealed that the Feds were poised to charge Google with violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibits deals that restrain or try to monopolize trade.

"It would have ended up also alleging that Google had a monopoly and that [the Yahoo deal] would have furthered their monopoly," Litvack said.

Litvack played coy when asked whether the Justice Department's willingness to sue Google signals that the company might find itself in the Feds' antitrust crosshairs again.

No matter. He didn't really need to come out and say it. It seems clear that if Google continues to grow its search ad market share, it's facing a date with antitrust destiny.

Google may feel lucky to have have dodged a bullet this time. Next time, the company might not so fortunate."

Like most everybody today, I use Google to find Oracle information. Google is right at my fingertips and I usually find exactly what I want from a trusted source in just a second. Millions of other people agree, and my referrer statistics show that Google is the only search engine that matters for technical queries.

Google does not like "link farms" and there was a court battle raging about whether Google fighting-back by assigning their pages a pagerank=0 (PR0), and sending the site to the Netherlands of the result list where it is never seen again.

In the court case, the KinderCare web site suggested that Google was "defaming" them by giving them a PR0, and suggested that Google (because they control the web) has a social obligation to be fair and impartial.

That's the question. Has Google become the de-facto glue that ties the Internet together?

Google's defense is that, after all, Google is just another web site, and they should have the right to do as they please. If you don't like Google, just use another search engine. Never mind that over 80% of my professional technical queries originate from Google (according to my referrer statistics).

Think about it. If the courts rule that a monopoly does not have an obligation to the public, Google would get unimaginable power. In the USA, there is a long-standing tradition of regulating monopolies and the anti-trust laws were very effective at reigning-in the Robber Barons. Unchecked, could Google wind-up "owning" the web?
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21 comments // Could Google control the Internet? Google dodged a monopoly lawsuit by three hours

  • Sredisul
    • 0
      Sredisul  

    • "Hell if google makes an operating system I'd probably ditch my mac." ~ddhboy

      I agree. I have already switched my browser to Chrome, as well as my email, have my AIM go through my gmail, use is as my primary browser, I'm just waiting for them to start being a cell phone company similar to ATT.

      "...it gives them access to your computer to display ads and track your computer habits." ~TomBeaker

      True, but A) sometimes those adds can be somewhat useful. B) if you're not doing anything illegal, then what do you have to worry about being tracked?

    • 4 years ago
  • ReebokShoes
  • Sredisul
  • ash_theory
  • flyingkick
    • 0
      flyingkick  

    • Decisions made by a small number of people at Google can drastically change the way we all use the internet.

      Google has no reason to care about net neutrality or fairness, they only care about keeping their shareholders wealthy.

      That's why it's extremely important to keep huge corporations like Google in check.

    • 4 years ago
  • TomBeaker
    • 0
      TomBeaker  

    • Google is a monopoly in the same way as Yahoo was a decade ago.

      I switched to Google in its early years because it had more relevant results. But in recent years its results have become dominated by adverts rather than content. So if a better search engine comes along I would probably switch. Of course like Microsoft, Google would buy any promising competitor before I find out about it.

      Google only gives away its software because it gives them access to your computer to display ads and track your computer habits. Once they see everything you do, they can tailor ads to you and charge advertisers more.

    • 4 years ago
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  

    • They stop Google but let the Oil companies run free.

      I think Google is fare more responsible than Oil Companies with what they are wanting to do.

      How about the internet itself or cable? These bills are outrageous. They pretend to care about monopolies when in reality they don't care but for the ones that don't work in their favor.

    • 4 years ago
  • pjacobs51
  • juicie
    • 0
      juicie  

    • LOL, tru... I like the layout of the search; most novel thing they've got, almost as good as tabbed browsing... but can't ever find what i'm looking for... more like drool

    • 4 years ago
  • Sons_Of_Liberty
    • 0
      Sons_Of_Liberty  

    • Cuil? LOL!

      Most Embarrassingly Overhyped Launch

      Few Internet startups have seen the kind of hype that Cuil managed to build leading up to its launch. The search engine, started by some former Googlers, promised to be “bigger, faster, and better” than the giant G. It was built on “contextual” search that would change the way the Web worked, we heard. Tech blogs went ga-ga with coverage anticipating the mysterious new entity.

      Then the site actually went up, and the expectations went right down. Laughable results and overwhelmed servers combined to kill the Cuil buzz faster than you can say “Sergey Brin.” These days, Alexa data shows the search engine seeing less than a single percent of Internet users visiting its site, compared to Google’s roughly 28 percent.

      Bigger than Google? A bigger failure, perhaps. Guess Cuil isn’t so cool after all.

    • 4 years ago
  • juicie
  • odysseyx
  • flyingkick
    • 0
      flyingkick  
    • odysseyx:

      The service they provide is free, but they direct you to sites that can profit from your visit.
      So if they wanted, they could direct you only to certain sites they have a deal with, which is where it would get shady.

      It's like having the monopoly on a free public transit system that only takes you to the Gap or Wal-Mart.

    • 4 years ago
  • ddhboy
    • 0
      ddhboy  

    • You would find very little who would be sympathetic to the government's antitrust suit, since most, if not all of google's monopoly systems are free like google earth and youtube. Hell if google makes an operating system I'd probably ditch my mac.

    • 4 years ago
  • eodaniel
  • KeithdaSneith
  • cheller1820
    • 0
      cheller1820  

    • This is interesting and all - but onto more pressing matters, why is Google in Korean right now - and no, I didn't change the language.

    • 4 years ago
  • Dmitri_Molotov
  • Social_Fuzz
    • 0
      Social_Fuzz  

    • People wouldnt use google if it were bad at what it did. Theres oportunity for other web search providers. They just dont do it half as good as google. Google also has come up with a lot of "Freeware" projects that help a lot of people, and have a good philosophy.

      Google is brill!

      If anyone does end up owning the web its much more likely the government or telecoms when they build a free broadband network then regulate what passes in and out.

    • 4 years ago
  • Sons_Of_Liberty
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