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Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

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Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#211

Post by summerlight »

atomical wrote: post #178
summerlight wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I work for Google as well and I have a somehow opposite opinion here. Working here means you gotta fight through extremely complicated, thorough (and sometime bureaucratic) privacy, security and legal reviews by daily basis. Those teams have a real power to block any launches they don't like; Google give them the power not because of good-will but it's more about decreasing a risk of significant revenue…

Is this sort of compliance testing needed in countries with authoritarian leaders?

It's mostly about western world regulations, especially those from EU.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#212

Post by bencollier49 »

kortilla wrote: post #189
nsomaru wrote: post #174

I was the biggest Google fan ever. I recommended all their products to everyone I know. Gone are those days. I now trust Microsoft (heh! M!cr0$0ft, anyone?) more than Google which is strange given I grew up rebelling against MS’s technical desktop hegemony. I wonder when Google decided “doing evil” was okay. I wonder how the SWE’s and other senior people in this thread feel about working for a company that many now c…

Would it make you feel better if I told you Google pays really well and offers nice perks for SWEs? It’s worth it to a lot of people to have a path to early retirement, even if it means the destruction of the open internet.

I think you're being downvoted because your post is too nuanced.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#213

Post by threezero »

daenz wrote: post #7

Can someone knowledgeable in this area lay out some of the potential anti-trust points that could be shown by the probe?

Just one point, but I know that we submitted a complaint to the DOJ about Google’s sudden maps and street view API pricing changes. Their “free until there’s no competition, then we take all of your money” business model fits in the antitrust regulations. We’re hoping they include that.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#214

Post by paganel »

davesque wrote: post #187
hueving wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He gave no facts about the whitehouse advisor.

Notice the "if". My point was that his working for Google shouldn't matter if those conditions are met. Whether or not they were met is another matter.

So, just to put this straight, he/she didn’t give any factual informations about the White House advisor.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#215

Post by SomeOldThrow »

fyoving wrote: post #69
justinph wrote: post #44

Dear Justice Department: Take a look at google AMP and how they use it to strong-arm publishers by linking it to search placement. You'll find some stuff.

People don't seem to understand how this stuff works in the US, Google has full editorial control over their search results protected by the first amendment and that right was affirmed in court time and time again: https://searchengineland.com/another-court-affirms-googles-f... If you don't like their free no lock in service go elsewhere, and that's why there is no sherman act case here, which is why if the DOJ actua…

This is not a first amendment issue, this is leveraging a monopolistic market share to force technologies like amp on customers.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#216

Post by threezero »

KirinDave wrote: post #70
0xcde4c3db wrote: post #34

Questions from someone who doesn't know a lot about antitrust law, in case someone knowledgeable cares to chime in: To what extent does antitrust law require specific intentional or knowing conduct? Is there some "knew or should have known" standard that would require Google to explain why they didn't anticipate or investigate some suspiciously favorable placement of Google products/services/affiliates? Or can Google…

It requires no intent, and iirc the argument of Standard Oil before their censure was precisely that they didn't mean to stifle trade, they were just better than everyone else at it. The Supreme Court said they didn't really care why or how, they cared that it was a monopoly in fact. But historically anti-trust suits have usually been about what happens when negative sentiment towards American mega-corporations grows…

Amazon could very well be the next target. Their practice of driving out smaller resellers in a category and then jacking up prices could be looked at as an antitrust issue.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#217

Post by month13 »

joemag wrote: post #51
rayiner wrote: post #33

While I think an antitrust suit against Google would be a waste of time, they really need to stop recommending Chrome every time you do a Google search with a different browser. Just stop, that will not play well to a jury.

Similar thing drives me nuts in GMail for iPad. Every time I open a link, it asks me to download chrome. I say no thanks, and uncheck the default “remind me later” option, yet few weeks later it happens again. Been going on for a year now.

YouTube for iOS does something similar when clicking a hyperlink; it'll give you a popup for what browser, Safari or Chrome, even if Chrome isn't installed.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#218

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

netwanderer3 wrote: post #206
fyoving wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't seem to understand how this stuff works in the US, Google has full editorial control over their search results protected by the first amendment and that right was affirmed in court time and time again: https://searchengineland.com/another-court-affirms-googles-f... If you don't like their free no lock in service go elsewhere, and that's why there is no sherman act case here, which is why if the DOJ actua…

Indeed. Many people fail to grasp that in the grand scheme of things, this is unlikely to change anything. Google has always been at the center of the tech industry. Some of its services are not only important to the public and vital for the U.S. economy, but also very critical to national security as well. Rest assured that efforts will be spent to ensure Google will continue to remain at this position in the forese…

>Google has always been at the center of the tech industry.

Are you showing your age?

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#219

Post by SomeOldThrow »

sdan wrote: post #49
justinph wrote: post #44

Dear Justice Department: Take a look at google AMP and how they use it to strong-arm publishers by linking it to search placement. You'll find some stuff.

AMP is just the start. I won't be surprised if we find out Google is promoting websites for using Google Analytics.

If Google we’re truly committed to building a search engine that is useful they would give the user control of ranking. I hope one day we see a search engine not driven by ad incentives....

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#220

Post by [deleted] »

paganel wrote: post #214
davesque wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notice the "if". My point was that his working for Google shouldn't matter if those conditions are met. Whether or not they were met is another matter.

So, just to put this straight, he/she didn’t give any factual informations about the White House advisor.

[deleted]
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