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The case for why Google should be regulated as a public utility

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Re: The case for why Google should be regulated as a public utility

#11

Post by ALittleLight »

One Google quirk I've been thinking about lately is the times when you search for something and the thing you want is the top advertised and organic result. Seems like a waste of money.

An example, if you search for "heroku" then you get an ad for heroku, which, yeah, is what I was searching for, but heroku is also the top result and obviously what I was looking for. Heroku is paying Google to provide Google with the search result that Google should've (and does) already identified as the right result.

I assume the reason these ads exist is because if they didn't competitors would take them, but still, it feels like an odd arrangement very much to Google's benefit where companies pay Google up prevent competitors from taking their traffic.

Re: The case for why Google should be regulated as a public utility

#12

Post by snack_man »

ArtDev wrote: post #6

Let's get cable internet regulated like a utility first. Then afterwards we can talk about competing services on the internet. Anti-competitive behavior should be addressed but let's get our priorities straight.

Why not both? This kind of incrementalism can cause stagnation.

Re: The case for why Google should be regulated as a public utility

#14

Post by ocdtrekkie »

ArtDev wrote: post #6

Let's get cable internet regulated like a utility first. Then afterwards we can talk about competing services on the internet. Anti-competitive behavior should be addressed but let's get our priorities straight.

Cable internet providers are relatively inept local monopolies in some, usually the least profitable parts of their service area. They are comparatively harmless to FAANG monopolies, which have global scale and the ability to bully entire countries into complying with their business models.

Tech companies have invested massive amounts of money in lobbying and paid media to convince you to worry about ISPs so you give them more power.

Net neutrality, HTTPS everywhere, etc. all centralize power with Big Tech and gate out their competition from behaviors they already employ. And often even the journalists evangelizing them are directly on Big Tech public policy influence payrolls.

Like, I hate Comcast and AT&T as much as the next guy, but I'm forced to do business with neither (there are three residential wired Internet providers in my area) but nobody on the entire planet can escape Google.

Re: The case for why Google should be regulated as a public utility

#15

Post by beders »

Google is a private corporation that runs various free services, i.e. you are the product.

You agreed to their terms and services.

If you don't like that, you can use a competitor. As long as there's an open internet infrastructure, there's no anti-competitive behavior. Everyone can be a google competitor of one of its services. Case in point, DuckDuckGo etc.

If you want to regulate something, start with the ISPs and restore net neutrality.

Re: The case for why Google should be regulated as a public utility

#16

Post by ThrustVectoring »

ALittleLight wrote: post #11

One Google quirk I've been thinking about lately is the times when you search for something and the thing you want is the top advertised and organic result. Seems like a waste of money. An example, if you search for "heroku" then you get an ad for heroku, which, yeah, is what I was searching for, but heroku is also the top result and obviously what I was looking for. Heroku is paying Google to provide Google with the…

Those ads have very good click and conversion metrics, if you're not sophisticated it looks like a good idea to cannibalize your organic traffic that way.

Re: The case for why Google should be regulated as a public utility

#17

Post by panarky »

ArtDev wrote: post #6

Let's get cable internet regulated like a utility first. Then afterwards we can talk about competing services on the internet. Anti-competitive behavior should be addressed but let's get our priorities straight.

Regulation priorities:

1. Organized disinfo like this https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/11/qanon-facebo...

2. Cable and telco monopolies that charge extortionate prices for slow internet

3. Facebook

4. Scam robocallers

5. Microsoft forcing Teams, Edge, and dozens of other apps on users by installing them with Windows security updates

Re: The case for why Google should be regulated as a public utility

#18

Post by tempsy »

I would argue Visa and Mastercard and payment processing at large as the top priority by far.

It's crazy that we've given up control as a society of the only mechanisms for electronic payments in an increasingly cashless world to unregulated private entities who continue to jack up fees as often as they can get away with.

Makes everything 3-5% more expensive. Ridiculous.

Re: The case for why Google should be regulated as a public utility

#19

Post by MereInterest »

narag wrote: post #4

Even if anticompetitive behaviour is clear, I wonder if a USA government would take action against them. Has such a thing happened before? I mean fighting a company that gaves the USA an advantage in a global market, as opposed to local monopolies.

Yes.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt#Trust_busti...

Re: The case for why Google should be regulated as a public utility

#20

Post by xnx »

ALittleLight wrote: post #11

One Google quirk I've been thinking about lately is the times when you search for something and the thing you want is the top advertised and organic result. Seems like a waste of money. An example, if you search for "heroku" then you get an ad for heroku, which, yeah, is what I was searching for, but heroku is also the top result and obviously what I was looking for. Heroku is paying Google to provide Google with the…

It's also the best way to get accurate data on how many searches for "heroku" there are. Without an ad running, you only get estimates.
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