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U.S. accuses Google of abusing monopoly in ad technology

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Re: U.S. accuses Google of abusing monopoly in ad technology

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Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/lina-khans-bat... For more context. A long but good read on the current FTC chairman.

Lina Khan may have written great papers but she isn't fit for the job. She harbors a hate for big tech and cannot be impartial in her dealings. See her recent attempt to prevent Meta from acquiring Within. There is no sane, level-headed case that could possibly paint this acquisition as an antitrust violation. Even most legal experts will agree that Lina Khan's case is a stretch at best. It's clear that this case is…

There is a point where changing the rules now appears to benefit incumbents, despite them being the targets here. Nobody new will be able to grow this way to compete with existing large players. If they cant acquire small things, they will just be forced to clone them, yet the smaller tier players wont be able to "just clone things."

Instagram falls into the same category. When Mark acquired it, it was tiny. He is who grew it. Facebook acquired a mobile camera app because it didn't have an app yet. Same how it acquired Beluga and turned it into messenger. Adobe acquiring Photoshop, then Macromedia. Mirosoft acquiring Powerpoint and then hotmail.com.

Re: U.S. accuses Google of abusing monopoly in ad technology

#64

I was neutral on google, they seem to be very low key, so they fly under the radar. Then I started to see their little ads tricks and the story on how they "acquired" google maps aka terra vision and yes , wouldnt put it beyond them to use every trick in the book they can get away with.

Life is not Netflix.

I am firmly aware of that, however, keep in mind I did not see the movie yet.

So far, my opinion was based on reading about it, the blogs are often controversial, but I habe a tendency to conclude I will not trust Google on this matter for now.

Re: U.S. accuses Google of abusing monopoly in ad technology

#65
post #50
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/lina-khans-bat... For more context. A long but good read on the current FTC chairman.

Lina Khan may have written great papers but she isn't fit for the job. She harbors a hate for big tech and cannot be impartial in her dealings. See her recent attempt to prevent Meta from acquiring Within. There is no sane, level-headed case that could possibly paint this acquisition as an antitrust violation. Even most legal experts will agree that Lina Khan's case is a stretch at best. It's clear that this case is…

Legal opinions vary. Certainly Robert Bork would agree with you. He would also probably agree with your vicious libel of Chair Khan.

Those who really care about the development of particular technologies typically don't welcome consolidation in related industries. It wouldn't have been good news for electric cars, if Tesla had been acquired by GM in say 2008. Why the unhinged invective against Khan?

Re: U.S. accuses Google of abusing monopoly in ad technology

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As an American it may just be attitudes. The last two administrations didn’t do much to Google, Democrat or Republican. But the idea of big tech being a wonder that unequivocally makes life better and doesn’t need oversight seems to be falling apart. Both for good (privacy) and bad (‘kill section 230!’) reasons.

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Re: U.S. accuses Google of abusing monopoly in ad technology

#68
post #15

https://archive.ph/vJYU2 I hope something comes of this, but other than a change in administration, what's new on this in the last decade? Hasn't Google essentially controlled most of online advertising for eons? In fact, perhaps more recently Facebook/Meta has chipped into that market more than how things were 8-10 years ago. I was part of an acquisition that Google made in the ad-tech industry back in 2011 and ther…

In 2017, Lina M. Khan, at the age of 27, published Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox. It said everyone was getting antitrust wrong, and there were other ways giant conglomerates were harming competition. Traditionally, unless the consumer was harmed through short term price fixing, just about anything was allowed to fly. The paper took the legal world by storm, and two years ago, she was nominated, confirmed, and appointed…

Standard Oil kept the price of oil nice and low.

Re: U.S. accuses Google of abusing monopoly in ad technology

#69
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh no, there's a default web browser on Android? Jeez, that's seriously abusive. I am sure that consumers hate that.

Microsoft's anti-trust case was around just this kind of behavior. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor... .

That is too reductive. U.S. v. Microsoft was all about how Microsoft had strong-armed O.E.M.s into not shipping anyone else's browser. That's not the same as having a default browser.

Re: U.S. accuses Google of abusing monopoly in ad technology

#70

Will likely result in some sum of x millions in fines. This will make zero difference in Google's control over search and anything related. We all seen this movie multiple times and end is always the same..

Not for an antitrust lawsuit. The remedy for antitrust is divestiture; if found guilty and the judge assigns that penalty, Google can't just pay their way out of it; they'd have to shut down / slice off into an independent company (probably) DoubleClick and some other acquisitions.

Think less "EU fair practices violations" and more "Ma Bell breakup." The difference is that the EU lacks criminal authority (or jurisdiction or, like, an army to extrajudicially invade the United States) to jail Sundar Pichai, but the US absolutely could if the company is found to be an illegal trust and he fails to take steps to remedy the situation.

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