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

rankscience.com

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

#31

Post by rosstex »

xnx wrote: post #20
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.

This is quite an interesting idea. Hm.

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

#32

Post by adoxyz »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #14
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…

If you live in an area where Comcast has a monopoly, or a pretty strong implied monopoly you pretty much have to do business with them. Most places in the US have at most two ISPs, one that offers reasonable speeds and the other for compliance that offers piss-poor speeds, but hey it's offered so all is well.

You're never forced to use Google. Google has a huge Internet footprint, but you can absolutely use the Internet without Google.

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

#33

Post by sjroot »

beders wrote: post #15

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…

Bingo. Every device that I can think of allows you to choose a default search engine. It would be very easy for me to use something other than Google; they have no anticompetitive hold on how I explore the Internet and discover new services.

This article is written by someone who would personally profit from Google’s regulation. It’s an ad for his company disguised as virtue signaling.

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

#34

Post by nine_k »

jeffbee wrote: post #2

When someone describes search results as “unbiased” you know right there and then they fundamentally do not understand the act of searching.

Maybe they meant "not directly biased by deliberate bad actors or by outright selling a top position"?

That is, certain biases are less user-friendly than others.

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

#35

Post by kevmo »

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 a digital protection racket.

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

#36

Post by ryanb »

auganov wrote: post #29

I love how few actual proposal there are out there as to what the government should actually do. That is - not just "regulate" or "break them up". I'm talking specifics. Once you start making concrete proposals it becomes increasingly obvious just how hard it is to come up with something that won't make everything worse.

1. There needs to be guidelines for what Google can and can't do with search.

Ex: Only 25% of the screen real estate can go to Google-owned ad products for allowing it to continue as a monopoly.

2. YouTube should possibly be broken out as a separate company and it shouldn't get favorable placement and treatment in search results

3. Businesses need to have more control over how their businesses appear when users search for them directly

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

#37

Post by LordHeini »

beders wrote: post #15

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…

I would argue that for example Googles push for AMP is anti competitive behavour.

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

#38

Post by sjroot »

agentdrtran wrote: post #25
beders wrote: post #15

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…

"If you don't like that, you can use a competitor." This ignores the tremendos cost to creating a search engine - DDG is the only one that has been able to even make a dent in Google's monopoly.

DDG, Yahoo, Bing, are all valid alternatives. Why does Google get screwed after the enormous investment they made (with time and money) to index pages on the internet?

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

#39

Post by MattGaiser »

auganov wrote: post #29

I love how few actual proposal there are out there as to what the government should actually do. That is - not just "regulate" or "break them up". I'm talking specifics. Once you start making concrete proposals it becomes increasingly obvious just how hard it is to come up with something that won't make everything worse.

Or all the impacts down the line. If they decided to basically seize Google, they would be telling investors that long term investment doesn’t work as the government will come along and ruin it.

Watch as companies like Google rapidly stop any innovation spending and become high dividend stocks built only to pump out cash.

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

#40

Post by tetrometal »

The last thing I want is for government to become even more involved with managing what information I receive or how I receive it. We need less of that, not more.

Also, please use competitors such as DuckDuckGo. It's not hard, and they're not bad. It's unconscionable to me that we would resort to government force before taking the obvious step of just not interacting with Google.

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