Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#151

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 3:54 AM UTC

dvtrn wrote: post #52

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Googler, that's a sentiment I have never heard expressed, nor have I felt anything even remotely like it myself. My guess would be that most people would feel a lot better about the company if they could see how the sausage gets made. At least, judging by the reactions of my family members when they ask me concerned questions and I explain how things work, that's what would happen. That being said, it will be in…

As a Googler, that's a sentiment I have never heard expressed I've seen a lot of Googlers coming here lately, professing to be Googlers and stating "this hasn't been my experience". Asked genuinely: as someone inside the company-with much better access to sentiment, opinion and company culture than I could ever hope to have, is Google truly that open and transparent to employees that you actually had an expectation t…

Yes. At least in my part of the company, people are very open about the things that make them unhappy or that they think are stupid. Probably the most-hated thing is how certain migrations are handled. There has also been dissent about certain anticipated large acquisitions, the most egregious of which fortunately did not go through. I have heard statements like, "I don't know why we/they are doing this" many times. I have also heard from current and former Googlers who think very negative things about leadership's approach to product development.

I've heard all this and more. But one opinion I have never heard is that increased visibility into our operations would make people trust us less or dislike us more. I cannot see how anyone could believe that who is familiar with both the internal workings of the company and the external views of it.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#152

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 3:56 AM UTC

JoshMnem wrote: post #103

Jach wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you post a screenshot of this popup? Never seen it in years of Firefox use and lots of Google searching. Maybe one of my plugins blocks it.

It was an annoying popup for years. I don't see it now when I search, but I've seen it recently. It looks like they also make other browsers pay for ads while they post their own ads for "Google's Official Browser" at no cost: https://imgur.com/a/exzor1l

[deleted]

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#153

Post by tyingq » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 3:56 AM UTC

The 2012 leaked memo from the last time they tried this: http://graphics.wsj.com/google-ftc-report/

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#154

Post by alayne » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 3:57 AM UTC

DannyBee wrote: post #149

dpoochieni wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW: Before the preceding comment apologizes and distracts from the real issue, the WH involving itself in the issue is very different from the prosecutor meetings described by the previous comment.

Given that this amazingly nameless "white house advisor"and title is clear spin for their narrative in the same way the "top competition counsel" thing is (and proven wrong by totally trivial fact checking), do you have evidence or anything to back up that this was not a standard meeting?

Do you think you might have a conflict of interest here?

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#155

Post by soup10 » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 3:59 AM UTC

benologist wrote: post #53

In the last ~year Google has admitted to accidentally-but-knowingly stealing $75 million from Adwords customers, and settled a case they had fought four years for $11 million to avoid revealing what happens to a banned Adsense account's unpaid revenue. There is likely several hundred million dollars of fraud just in these two 'edge cases' they ignored handling for decades, so it's definitely time for someone to dig d…

lets not forget their latest and greatest of releasing chrome for free until it saturated the market and became a monopoly then maliciously making changes to reduce the effectiveness of adblockers like ublock origin

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#156

Post by User23 » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:00 AM UTC

monocasa wrote: post #97

fyoving wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one interpretation by interested parties another would be that enforcement lawyers are always aggressive and those who make the decision in the end would have to weigh the odds of winning in court and unanimously they decides not. Regardless, the FTC would have had a much better chance than the DOJ as they have specific broad powers more suitable to this case.

Google was also very positively connected to the Obama administration. It was some googlers that stepped in and turned around healthcare.gov for instance. I've heard a lot of rumors that they gave a lot of data access to the campaigns too.

Google engineers also built Obama's campaign software. The relationship was far tighter than most people realize.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#157

Post by justAnotherNET » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:00 AM UTC

justinph wrote: post #44

Dear Justice Department: Take a look at google AMP and how they use it to strong-arm publishers by linking it to search placement. You'll find some stuff.

Google is a bottom bitch to the "intelligence" agencies. Their supremacy will be protected at the highest levels by all the unseen orgs in our gov.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#158

Post by dehrmann » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:04 AM UTC

KirinDave wrote: post #79

d1zzy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would this have any relevance to FB and Amazon? I realize a lot of people on HN don't like what these companies are doing with their data, but this lawsuit is not about privacy at all so I don't see how it relates to those 2 companies.

Amazon is not a "trust" in the strictest historical definition, but it's a amoral and terrifying company with incredible reach that frequently can and does snuff any chance any competitor has of using anything else. If Google is bad for using AMP to try and drive publishers to AMP hosting, then how is Amazon not even worse for ramming crazy terms down publisher's throats while buying or undercutting every other shipp…

> Amazon is not a "trust" in the strictest historical definition

Yup. Amazon can legitimately respond to trust and monopoly allegations with "Walmart, Azure, GCP, and Netflix."

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#159

Post by ehsankia » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:05 AM UTC

KirinDave wrote: post #71

Distressingly absent from this list is the company that cheerfully collects and sells even more data that Google about the average American's life and collects MUCH more of their money: Amazon.

What they do with Amazon basics is ripe for antitrust. Using purchase data to find profitable products, and making a basic version of it which they then rank at the top.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#160

Post by swalsh » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 4:06 AM UTC

Imagine what competition in the search space would do for adword prices. I have no idea how one would go about breaking up google search, and the infrastructure/IP behind it. Or changing consumer habits, but there would be a lot of beneifts to everyone.