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Eric Schmidt Testifies Before Congress

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Re: Eric Schmidt Testifies Before Congress

#61

Post by yanw »

tsunamifury wrote: post #51
yanw wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is free for users and free to anyone wanting to get in their index, so they do not owe any self proclaimed competitor anything and that is the crux of it, the law is on their side, you cannot monopolize "free" and all this politicians' propaganda is waste of time and tax payer dollars..

When you become a monopoloy in a certain industry, under american law, you do owe it to your competitors to allow them to compete on fair ground with you. This is why theaters were not allowed to be owned by studios, Car Dealerships by actual Car companies, etc.

Anti trust exists to protect costumers and when the product is free and the alternatives are free, where is the harm?

Re: Eric Schmidt Testifies Before Congress

#62

Post by mrtron »

AgentConundrum wrote: post #50

So.. who is the asshole, sitting behind (visible to the left of) the ex-FTC commissioner, that's constantly laughing, shaking his head, and rolling his eyes at what she's saying? He is extremely irritating.

He keeps staring at the camera, I almost wonder who is paying him to be there making those actions. I would bet a 6 pack of beer he is a paid lobbyist.

Re: Eric Schmidt Testifies Before Congress

#64

Post by tzs »

melling wrote: post #49

I'm going to get burned for this comment but ... Microsoft has had a desktop monopoly for 20 years. They have 90% desktop market share and people don't complain about that. They destroyed their competition yet people complain because Google has 65% market share on a product that people can leave overnight. I'm not sure why people get bent out of shape over Google.

> Microsoft has had a desktop monopoly for 20 years. They have 90% desktop market share and people don't complain about that

You don't count being fined billions of dollars over that monopoly, being forced by governments to make changes to Windows to help competitors, and being sued by several state governments and others as people complaining!?

Re: Eric Schmidt Testifies Before Congress

#65

Post by aeturnum »

melling wrote: post #49

I'm going to get burned for this comment but ... Microsoft has had a desktop monopoly for 20 years. They have 90% desktop market share and people don't complain about that. They destroyed their competition yet people complain because Google has 65% market share on a product that people can leave overnight. I'm not sure why people get bent out of shape over Google.

People have complained about Microsoft's monopoly at great length. They had an anti-trust case successfully brought against them in the US and similar cases overseas. It's an issue that people are very much aware of.

That aside, the department of justice could (if they hadn't already won against Microsoft) bring two suits simultaneously. The need to investigate one company doesn't stop you from investigating the other.

Re: Eric Schmidt Testifies Before Congress

#67

Post by miql »

AgentConundrum wrote: post #50

So.. who is the asshole, sitting behind (visible to the left of) the ex-FTC commissioner, that's constantly laughing, shaking his head, and rolling his eyes at what she's saying? He is extremely irritating.

I noticed that, too. Not only did I find that annoying, I think it was disrespectful.

Re: Eric Schmidt Testifies Before Congress

#68

Post by yanw »

melling wrote: post #49

I'm going to get burned for this comment but ... Microsoft has had a desktop monopoly for 20 years. They have 90% desktop market share and people don't complain about that. They destroyed their competition yet people complain because Google has 65% market share on a product that people can leave overnight. I'm not sure why people get bent out of shape over Google.

It's all political, all grandstandings, and an overall a welfare operation for antitrust lawyers. There is not issue here to start with.

Re: Eric Schmidt Testifies Before Congress

#69

Post by redthrowaway »

brackin wrote: post #31

For once Google are being honest and the others are being slimey. In one image they covered the sponsored ads in a box which hid the fact there is a clear differentiation between Sponsored and algorithmic results, they also say "Ads".

>For once Google are being honest and the others are being slimey.

For once? I hardly get the impression that Google is slimy and duplicitous, and their competition not so.

Re: Eric Schmidt Testifies Before Congress

#70

Post by hastalabasura »

kposehn wrote: post #57
lukeschlather wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the crux of it though. Of course Google does scraping. They'll even give you a full cache of a page if you ask for it.

A cache is a bit different though I think - that is a reference. The Yelp case was them using content in their own competing product and then not representing the source clearly. I deal with this as an affiliate all the time. I don't mind Google cacheing my web pages to increase our search ranking and help drive traffic to our site. However, if Google made a competing site about the same products and then took our re…

Not representing it clearly? When the places pages included Yelp reviews it would put the top review with a link to "View more reviews on Yelp" and very clearly had a Yelp logo next to it. Same with TripAdvisor reviews. Now the places page is only showing Google reviews with "Reviews from around the web"
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