Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't. I use a mix of Google services and non-Google services, and I've never had a hard time finding a good competitor for a Google tool.
I'd love an actually decent competitor to Youtube.
Vimeo?
Missouri Attorney General launches investigation of Google
21–30 of 129 posts
Re: Missouri Attorney General launches investigation of Google
#22Yay! I am happy about this. I feel as if there are a ton of monopolies and trusts today that stifle competition. Does anyone else feel similar?
I think we should make life difficult for companies from a certain size on. These large companies kill competition and innovation.
Re: Missouri Attorney General launches investigation of Google
#23This is bizarre. It's also bizarre how the reporting on it doesn't mention how out of left field this is. Why Google? why Missouri? How come a republican is doing this? As for: The United States has lagged behind Europe in pursuing antitrust cases against tech giants This narrative is silly. The EU goes after "tech giants" partly because they are foreign, the US doesn't have that incentive.
1) Why Google?
Because media attention and it plays well with the current Missouri AG's base. e.g. pseudo-libertarian, anti-big brother, technology, coast-elites, etc.
There are no statutes in Missouri that regulate in any meaningful way the use of consumer data by technology companies. Also, actual law enforcement or regulatory investigations are rarely proceeded with press releases to the effect of "we are going to investigate you", so I would imagine this doesn't go further than said press release and Google spending some money at one of Missouri's larger law firms.
2) Why Missouri? How come a republican is doing this?
Current AG [1] is the likely republican nominee for the Senate seat currently held by Claire McCaskill. It will likely be an extraordinarily expensive and contested race with tons of money and resources flowing into the election from across the country. Despite winning statewide office in the Missouri Trump-landslide, current AG is relatively unknown. I imagine he will be using his office to make a name for himself in the coming months. (I'm not saying that is any different than his predecessors, both democrat and republican -- both have used the office as a political soapbox to propel them to their next office.)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Hawley [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_McCaskill
Re: Missouri Attorney General launches investigation of Google
#24This is bizarre. It's also bizarre how the reporting on it doesn't mention how out of left field this is. Why Google? why Missouri? How come a republican is doing this? As for: The United States has lagged behind Europe in pursuing antitrust cases against tech giants This narrative is silly. The EU goes after "tech giants" partly because they are foreign, the US doesn't have that incentive.
> The EU goes after "tech giants" partly because they are foreign, the US doesn't have that incentive.
Really? It went after AT&T before and split it up and it wasn't foreign. How do you see the "foreign" part being significant here?
Though it would be interesting to think about Google pulling out of Missouri saying "Ok, you want to sue us? Fine no Google presence there" as soon as it detects an accounts or user connecting from there it returns an error and that's that. Wonder if that is possible?
Re: Missouri Attorney General launches investigation of Google
#25Missouri 2017 State Budget: $27 Billion [0] Google Net Profit Last 4 Qs: $63 Billion Google can literally fund the state of Missouri indefinately. How does Missouri make this a fair fight? [0] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/missouri/articles/20...
A monopoly on force?
Re: Missouri Attorney General launches investigation of Google
#26Yay! I am happy about this. I feel as if there are a ton of monopolies and trusts today that stifle competition. Does anyone else feel similar?
It's an exciting time for antitrust. The movement is getting stronger on both sides of the aisle [1].
[1] https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/novemberdecember-2017...
Re: Missouri Attorney General launches investigation of Google
#27And I was just lobbying Google Fiber employees about expanding fiber (or wireless) to my hometown, St. Joseph, which is near Kansas City.
Re: Missouri Attorney General launches investigation of Google
#28This is bizarre. It's also bizarre how the reporting on it doesn't mention how out of left field this is. Why Google? why Missouri? How come a republican is doing this? As for: The United States has lagged behind Europe in pursuing antitrust cases against tech giants This narrative is silly. The EU goes after "tech giants" partly because they are foreign, the US doesn't have that incentive.
Google, along with other tech giants have become a direct threat to freedom, liberty, and even democracy in and of itself to a degree that is far far greater of a threat than even the Northern robber baron industrialists of the past. I suspect Google is just a first target because of it's vast reach and involvement in political and civic avenues. If they are not careful, they are going to have to be made an example of by essentially breaking Alphabet apart in separate legal entities not dissimilar to how AT&T was broken up into the "Baby Bells"
It's really rather scary once you start looking into what Google has turned into and once you get an understanding for just how far their reach extends how it is starting to wield its power ever more blatantly and openly. And as it becomes ever increasingly more powerful and, as others have indicated, essentially clears more profit than Missouri's whole state budget, it is also directly ties and entanglements with foreign national interests that are at odds with American ones, let alone American citizens' interests. Google has effectively become an unaccountable dictatorial supra-state entity.
There is really exponential risk to all of humanity in letting Google exist in it's current form, especially when becoming ever more influenced by values and mores and ideals leadership that may not respect democracy and self-determination. We see the evidence of that most blatantly on YouTube. Just alone that entity really needs to be declared a public utility that cannot discriminate based on anything but illegal activities. Sure there are "competitors" like there is, e.g., competition to other monopolies, but due to the unique network effect nature of the internet it is a kind of self-reinforcing monopoly.
Re: Missouri Attorney General launches investigation of Google
#29Google is a target because of their strong relationship with Obama/Clinton/democrats.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/technology/google-in-post...
Re: Missouri Attorney General launches investigation of Google
#30I haven't read Axios before, but I really appreciated that summary. I got the gist of what the lawsuit concerned and what the ulterior motive might be and there weren't 10 more unnecessary paragraphs with no real information padding it out. It's almost exactly the right amount of concise.
A politician elected on a populist platform doing things to stand up for his people is an "ulterior motive"? To me, an ulterior motive would be getting elected on a populist platform, then taking actions to benefit his own commercial interests.