Comments on: Google Monopoly? http://websense.thekarchergroup.com/google-monopoly Observations, Ideas and a little common sense about the web industry... Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:33:01 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Geoff Karcher http://websense.thekarchergroup.com/google-monopoly/comment-page-1#comment-4527 Geoff Karcher Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:37:12 +0000 http://websense.thekarchergroup.com/?p=574#comment-4527 I agree with you Will, we need to let the market determine this! It's no place for the government to step in. The market has a choice to make, privacy or the conveniences that Google offers. Right now we seem to be choosing convenience. I suspect it won't always be that way! I agree with you Will, we need to let the market determine this! It’s no place for the government to step in. The market has a choice to make, privacy or the conveniences that Google offers. Right now we seem to be choosing convenience. I suspect it won’t always be that way!

]]> By: Will Anderson http://websense.thekarchergroup.com/google-monopoly/comment-page-1#comment-4517 Will Anderson Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:41:40 +0000 http://websense.thekarchergroup.com/?p=574#comment-4517 I find Google to be quite the fascinating animal. In the past I have tended to side on the anti-monopoly interventionist side of things but in this case I see no need for Government to get after Google. Where I see Google as different than say Microsoft is the nature of their advantage. Microsoft was able to build a very defensible position from which they could strangle competition by virtue of their customer’s high switching costs. I do not believe that these exist for Google. Google has the best mainstream search technology (at least from my layman’s perspective). This is the source of their advantage. If they lose that position they will start to lose market share in ad revenue. Things on the web move too quickly for people not to latch onto a new search product if it produces markedly better results. I do not think that Google is cutting off innovation. I think that they have learned from past tech giants that allowing open access to various products and allowing people to build on top of them actually improves rather than inhibits their competitive position. I certainly worry about Google and their effect on privacy but that can and should be controlled through legislation. There is no question that Google is dominant in online ads but it is hard to argue that they are damaging the market when their pricing is largely (again from what an outsider can see) based on an auction. They do not seem to even try to dissuade people from using other service people just flock to them because they are better. Microsoft is often anti-competitive but the argument cannot be made for Google. If the Justice Department takes any sort of action against them it is just punishment for being better than everyone else. In the end I think that Google’s position in the world is actually somewhat tenuous. You hate to bet against them but I actually have my doubts about whether they are going to be around in 20 years. They have one great technology that makes money and if they lose the lead in that they are done. I have been following Google for a while now and while I would tend to be on the left wing interventionist I find Google to be quite the fascinating animal. In the past I have tended to side on the anti-monopoly interventionist side of things but in this case I see no need for Government to get after Google. Where I see Google as different than say Microsoft is the nature of their advantage. Microsoft was able to build a very defensible position from which they could strangle competition by virtue of their customer’s high switching costs. I do not believe that these exist for Google.
Google has the best mainstream search technology (at least from my layman’s perspective). This is the source of their advantage. If they lose that position they will start to lose market share in ad revenue. Things on the web move too quickly for people not to latch onto a new search product if it produces markedly better results.
I do not think that Google is cutting off innovation. I think that they have learned from past tech giants that allowing open access to various products and allowing people to build on top of them actually improves rather than inhibits their competitive position. I certainly worry about Google and their effect on privacy but that can and should be controlled through legislation. There is no question that Google is dominant in online ads but it is hard to argue that they are damaging the market when their pricing is largely (again from what an outsider can see) based on an auction. They do not seem to even try to dissuade people from using other service people just flock to them because they are better.
Microsoft is often anti-competitive but the argument cannot be made for Google. If the Justice Department takes any sort of action against them it is just punishment for being better than everyone else. In the end I think that Google’s position in the world is actually somewhat tenuous. You hate to bet against them but I actually have my doubts about whether they are going to be around in 20 years. They have one great technology that makes money and if they lose the lead in that they are done.

I have been following Google for a while now and while I would tend to be on the left wing interventionist

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