Microsoft CEO testifies that Google’s power in search is ubiquitous
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Re: Microsoft CEO testifies that Google’s power in search is ubiquitous
#2[flagged]
Re: Microsoft CEO testifies that Google’s power in search is ubiquitous
#3One way Google maintains their monopoly is that many websites block all bots except for the Google indexing bot.
This makes it literally impossible for anyone to make a competing search engine because millions of doors are slammed in their face. There is no practical way to negotiate access at this scale either leaving no options for small startups — e.g.: AI-based search!
One possible anti-monopoly measure would be to force Google to mask the identity of their bots. E.g.: force them to use a random IP address pool that third parties can also use without their permission.
IMHO breaking up corporations is a bit heavy-handed and not the only remedy available.
Re: Microsoft CEO testifies that Google’s power in search is ubiquitous
#4One way Google maintains their monopoly is that many websites block all bots except for the Google indexing bot. This makes it literally impossible for anyone to make a competing search engine because millions of doors are slammed in their face. There is no practical way to negotiate access at this scale either leaving no options for small startups — e.g.: AI-based search! One possible anti-monopoly measure would be…
Being only tangentially familiar with the indexing bots…what legal barriers are in place to prevent a competitor from impersonating a google indexing bot? Is it just a matter of the google bot originates from x subnet so that’s the only one webmasters allow? What’s to stop a competitor from running their own bot but sending user-agent: totally-the-google-indexing-bot-and-not-a-competitor?
Re: Microsoft CEO testifies that Google’s power in search is ubiquitous
#5[flagged]
Adobe is just as bad if not worse, and their software has historically been the only reason to suffer through windows. Now that Linux (and Mac) are closing the gap for gamers, less and less people will be forced to suffer through the flaming shit show that is Windows.
Re: Microsoft CEO testifies that Google’s power in search is ubiquitous
#6[flagged]
While that’s all potentially true, I don’t think it does anything to lessen the case against Google.
Re: Microsoft CEO testifies that Google’s power in search is ubiquitous
#7One way Google maintains their monopoly is that many websites block all bots except for the Google indexing bot. This makes it literally impossible for anyone to make a competing search engine because millions of doors are slammed in their face. There is no practical way to negotiate access at this scale either leaving no options for small startups — e.g.: AI-based search! One possible anti-monopoly measure would be…
I feel like something as fundamental to society as the internet should have a public index, no?
Re: Microsoft CEO testifies that Google’s power in search is ubiquitous
#8One way Google maintains their monopoly is that many websites block all bots except for the Google indexing bot. This makes it literally impossible for anyone to make a competing search engine because millions of doors are slammed in their face. There is no practical way to negotiate access at this scale either leaving no options for small startups — e.g.: AI-based search! One possible anti-monopoly measure would be…
Being only tangentially familiar with the indexing bots…what legal barriers are in place to prevent a competitor from impersonating a google indexing bot? Is it just a matter of the google bot originates from x subnet so that’s the only one webmasters allow? What’s to stop a competitor from running their own bot but sending user-agent: totally-the-google-indexing-bot-and-not-a-competitor?
Source addresses: the Google bot traffic comes from a small set of Google-owned IP address blocks.
Third parties bake this into things like Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules. For example, Azure App Gateway WAF has a policy category for “known bots” which includes Google but excludes your tiny AI startup.
It’s a moat built by giant corporations to keep tiny players in their place.
Google "helpfully" publishes their bot source IP addresses: https://developers.google.com/static/search/apis/ipranges/go...
AWS also provides named rules such as "bot:name:googlebot": https://docs.aws.amazon.com/waf/latest/developerguide/aws-ma...
Re: Microsoft CEO testifies that Google’s power in search is ubiquitous
#9One way Google maintains their monopoly is that many websites block all bots except for the Google indexing bot. This makes it literally impossible for anyone to make a competing search engine because millions of doors are slammed in their face. There is no practical way to negotiate access at this scale either leaving no options for small startups — e.g.: AI-based search! One possible anti-monopoly measure would be…
I feel like something as fundamental to society as the internet should have a public index, no?
The idea sounds nice but politicians controlling an index would be an abject disaster.
Re: Microsoft CEO testifies that Google’s power in search is ubiquitous
#10> The image of the chief executive of a leading tech rival — Microsoft is one of the world’s biggest public companies, valued at $2.4 trillion — saying it could not easily fight Google was striking.
Why is that striking? It's just a repeat of the playbook Microsoft used to great effect in the Activision trial. "Oh, woe is us, we've lost the console wars, we're in distant 3rd place and can't compete". They have absolutely no problem being mock-humiliated due to a supposed failure to compete if it gets them the result they need in court. (Which is the smart play, of course.)
> But in court, Mr. Nadella said that argument was “bogus” because users generally don’t change their default search engine, even if they have the ability to do so.
Oh, huh. Isn't Bing the default search engine for the default browser on Windows? I guess all those Windows users are searching on Bing then.
Though I do wonder why Microsoft gets into the news on a regular cadence about yet again having reset the defaults with a Windows update. Seems like something that they wouldn't need to bother with if nobody changes the defaults.