Live data from Hacker News

Google is a monopoly – the fix isn't obvious

theregister.com

21–30 of 524 posts

Re: Google is a monopoly – the fix isn't obvious

#21
post #12

What comes after will be better. Maybe not as integrated, but better as far as options go.

It's almost like monied interests own the papers and want to protect their investments

I've never understood this take because it's possible to make money regardless of the direction that the share price moves.

Re: Google is a monopoly – the fix isn't obvious

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, I agree with your first sentence, but I don't think I follow the rationale. What are you trying to say?

regulation in the EU may no longer work independently from regulation in the US thus US laws they need to collaborate and compromise, they are weakening western tech dominance

The US Department of Justice isn't exactly an EU regulator.

Re: Google is a monopoly – the fix isn't obvious

#23
Google’s deal with Apple is def problematic but apart from that I really don’t think it’s a monopoly.

Google leadership (according to public info) was in a panic about ChatGPT and rightly so. It was eerily similar to what Google once was at its inception: a no bs way to get better answers to your questions.

Luckily for Google, hallucination is a significant issue. Just “GPT it” is already in the modern vernacular. Google is in serious danger of becoming Facebook: only used by boomers (now millennials) while the new gen gets their adds on Insta, TikTok and could soon be served Llm generated product reviews and comparisons with link to buy from ChatGPT.

Re: Google is a monopoly – the fix isn't obvious

#24
post #6

I think Google can win this easily by using the public opinion against the regulators. They just need to say that they are gonna start charging for all their services because without the level of integration they have it doesn't make sense to keep running businesses that otherwise would lose money.

"...gonna start charging..." In a world where the competition's price for most of those services is "free", charging for used-to-be-free stuff sounds like a sure-fire suicidal business strategy.

They don't have to actually do that should Google bbebroken up. They can still use that as an argument to rouse public support against a breakup.

Re: Google is a monopoly – the fix isn't obvious

#25
post #6

I think Google can win this easily by using the public opinion against the regulators. They just need to say that they are gonna start charging for all their services because without the level of integration they have it doesn't make sense to keep running businesses that otherwise would lose money.

Do you honestly think that would have any effect beyond Gmail users? (those would really hurt) But otherwise I don't think an average non-tech person would be likely to notice a difference between Bing and Google. And ms, ddg, Kagi and perplexity would love to see lots of people actually looking for alternatives. Docs/sheets/pages/whatever wouldn't change since they're supported by the paying users. The rest, Google…

I’d pay for consumer tier (which we’ll pretend was the former free tier) if I got proper customer service number I could call. I don’t use it enough to pay for a business tier

Re: Google is a monopoly – the fix isn't obvious

#26
post #6

I think Google can win this easily by using the public opinion against the regulators. They just need to say that they are gonna start charging for all their services because without the level of integration they have it doesn't make sense to keep running businesses that otherwise would lose money.

The public would have been against breaking up Standard Oil because they kept oil cheap.

Re: Google is a monopoly – the fix isn't obvious

#27
post #12

What comes after will be better. Maybe not as integrated, but better as far as options go.

It's almost like monied interests own the papers and want to protect their investments

Are you talking about The Register here? That's a fairly strange accusation for a news outlet that goes out of it's way to be provocative to the entire industry.

At least it used to - I haven't kept up much recently.

If you know better then please tell - but I'm not clear at this point whether you have an informed opinion - or whether you have no idea what The Register is.

Re: Google is a monopoly – the fix isn't obvious

#28
post #11

Part of the problem is that tech products tend to be natural monopolies. If you split android off Google, it will probably just lose out against iOS in the West and some Chinese Android version elsewhere. As the article says, that's not necessarily better.

Google has collected multiple businesses in its conglomerate structure that gives it far too much power and control over society beyond the simple monopoly charge.

YouTube, Search, Email, advertising, are all controlled by the same people and that is a problem for freedom and the economy.

Post reply on HN