Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is illegal is using your monopoly in one area to further your other enterprises.
Oh like having a grocery store and restaurant in your furniture store?
If IKEA was a monopoly then perhaps.
Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages
81–90 of 135 posts
Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages
#82So what is the resolution supposed to be? Randomize the results whenever a user searches for a vague product category that is also something that Google provides?
The article is pretty light on detail about what "favoring their own service" actually meant. Just that it appeared above Klarna's when a user searched BNPL?
It all seems vague and hard to cure. The algorithm is typically very good at surfacing the least shitty option, so if the resolution is "well you have to jumble them now" that's strictly worse for me as a consumer.
Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not like klarna are nice
Quite. At least Google delivers some value to society, despite being mostly evil. Klarna is exclusively parasitic, getting people needlessly into debt and pushing a buy now pay later mentality for luxury products.
There are helpful use cases that aren't parasitic. I use it if I want to buy a bunch of clothes in multiple sizes. I return what I don't need and don't need to splurge up front. The people who get into debt for unnecessary stuff they can't afford will find other ways anyway.
Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages
#84The problem is Google/Apple and these people that
self-identify as platforms" should probably divest from providing any 1st party services on their "platforms".
Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because of the introduction of AI overview, click-through rates are dropping like crazy. Up to 70% of Google searches now end without any clicks to third party websites. So most search users already stay completely within Google's ecosystem.
But does that apply to shopping? I have often had a look at Google shopping results but very rarely clicked one. I think when searching for an answer ai assist is often sufficient but not for where you are buying?
> I have often had a look at Google shopping results but very rarely clicked one.
Pretty sure that tab is all ads, so its all garbage, in some cases some of the results look like scams.
Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
You load google's ads and trackers?
If you use Google search or Gmail, they read everything you write, and aggregate that into data packages not just for ads to show you, but even aggregated demographic data to sell for ad targeting. Regardless of whether the ads reach you or not, you as a data point add to the count that make the package enticing to advertisers, so you're helping them sell the package anyways.
If google gives you full access to all their services for the $0.001 annually they get from you being part of an aggregate dataset of trillions of points, that's...a cause for outrage?
Ain't nobody buying user data on users who block all ads and trackers, it's worth almost nothing (what are you going to do, show them ads?). Fun aside, the reason why people get so many awful scam and malware ads when they turn off their ad-blocker is exactly because no other advertiser will bid on them, because they have no ad-profile/ad-value.
Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not like klarna are nice
Quite. At least Google delivers some value to society, despite being mostly evil. Klarna is exclusively parasitic, getting people needlessly into debt and pushing a buy now pay later mentality for luxury products.
I wouldn't say Klarna is exclusively parasitic. Where I am located, Klarna is often the absolutely best choice for payments, and I always pay up front.
Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
All of the free services are just part of the ad sales funnel. Never forget, the consumer never benefits, they are only the cattle to be fattened up. Them not launching in Europe gives the local market a chance to build up its own players. China was very successful in this thanks to the Great Firewall.
The consumer, who have never paid google a cent despite using their services daily for the last 20 years, likley spending a solid portion of their waking life on one of google's platforms, has never benefited? And you think local players are going to look at users with this comically detached worldview and be like "Yeah, we want to build services for that group of people to use"?
Has the cattle benefitted from the free food the rancher gave it? I suppose it's a question of perspective.
And yes, there's local players building that are targeting precisely those users. No data harvesting is a major selling point of many European startups. Think of Proton, Mullvad, Nextcloud as a few examples.
Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US literally just lost the war in Iran. I don't think they're actually capable of "stomping" on anyone.
Now imagine how bad European militaries are. All of Europe can't even push back a broken husk of Russia.
Don’t count out the Poles, they will fight tooth and nail to the last man, woman, and child. They will die standing before they kneel to a Russian.
Of course if the Russians make it to the German border AfD will welcome them with open arms and the rest of the German public will be too busy debating if raising the debt limit to dig their own graves is acceptable if it means limiting pensions, and if so, what are acceptable working hours for grave diggers, pension plans for grave diggers, and whom should negotiate on behalf of the grave diggers.
Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages
#90So what is the resolution supposed to be? Randomize the results whenever a user searches for a vague product category that is also something that Google provides? The article is pretty light on detail about what "favoring their own service" actually meant. Just that it appeared above Klarna's when a user searched BNPL? It all seems vague and hard to cure. The algorithm is typically very good at surfacing the least sh…
I'd imagine this is about the presence of the google shopping bar you get above the results, like this: https://imgur.com/a/1drEnrm