Google to be Targeted in Antitrust Investigation?

[Zingam]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]I wish I could direct you to the bile poured out against MicrosoftIt's not the fact that it is the most widely used because competitors are unfairly held back with pre-selected settings at install etc.Sure people can use another search engine if they want, it's as easy as going to Bing's website - but isn't that exactly the same as saying you can download Firefox if you don't like IE?One law for all or its not a law at all.[/citation]

No because you cannot use anything but Windows to actually do any work!!!

Oh, yeah! There is Linux. Well, I use it as a toy. I install it every year to check if it finally supports my system. And each time I am happy to see that there is some progress and something new but there are least 2-3 pieces of hardware that are still not supported so I'm forced each time to go back to Windows.

 

[Guest]

google has my vote and is my friend.
come google i'd vote for you , at least you would have a competent gvmnt here in Ireland

If not governing, i'd buy google internet/fibre straight away.
Lets get rid of the monolisthic bodies of our time and replace it by our only friend .

wow I didnt know i was a fanboy.

 

[Guest]

It's impossible to be a successful, large company and not run afoul of some government goon with a gun who thinks its his moral responsibility to make sure you aren't producing *too many* good products at low cost. After all, we all need to be protected from the EVIL GOOGLE EMPIRE.

Remember the last time Google dropped a bomb on someone, or rolled over their house with a tank? Yeah... damn Google. Go government!

 

[milktea]

The GOV just wants a piece of the pie. Politics and Businesses goes hand in hand.

 

[gm0n3y]

The government is just doing their job here. Google is dominant enough that an investigation is warranted. Google just needs to open up all of their services through APIs (which they have been doing for the most part) and its hard to see how other companies can complain. So far I haven't heard of Google committing any of the shady dealings that M$, Intel and others have. Google doesn't even patent troll.

 

[xerroz]

I hope Google gets dethroned and gets fined the shit out it

 

[hoofhearted]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]I wish I could direct you to the bile poured out against MicrosoftIt's not the fact that it is the most widely used because competitors are unfairly held back with pre-selected settings at install etc.Sure people can use another search engine if they want, it's as easy as going to Bing's website - but isn't that exactly the same as saying you can download Firefox if you don't like IE?One law for all or its not a law at all.[/citation]

So by this logic you are saying that when you go to www.google.com you should get 3 or so search choices (search with bing, search with google, or search with yahoo)? Funny, but no. Not the same. In fact, quite the opposite. MS owns the OS and ships it with IE (BTW, which defaults to Bing).

 

[hoofhearted]

Honestly, the OS (Windows) should not have a web browser integrated into it or come with one pre-installed, etc. It should come with only TCP stack, and maybe a folder called webbrowsers (similar to how they did online services for ISPs) and have in there, Chrome, IE, Firefox, installables.

 

[rhino13]

There simply is not enough of an entry cost to search engines for this to stick.
Google could start another search company right now to compete with itself and avoid this lawsuite, but I think most folks already know how bogus this is.

 

[ready4dis]

I completely agree with hoofhearted. Microsoft is the one using it's OS to boost it's browser and search engine scores, yet calls foul when google pre installs it on their cell phone, when microsoft cell phones use bing by default... how is that any different? Most users use windows, all windows installs default to bing, how is it that google is forcing people to physically change their search engine to google?

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]ericburnby[/nom]Oh, and how many programs have you ever installed that also wanted to install the Google toolbar? I always found that funny as it seems almost every single program/utility I've ever downloaded/used asked me to install Google. Is it because the developers of the program actually like Google? Is it because Google is giving them hosting for their downloads? Or maybe Google is paying them to (like Intel was doing to "convince" companies to use their products instead of AMD)?[/citation]
How many programs are there that install the yahoo toolbar, or the ask toolbar,...?

 

[IzzyCraft]

Google is a monopoly take at look at the acquisitions over the past few years they changed from expansion to denial of other services buying up competitors that's like the usual actions of any monopoly. The only difference is after the gilded age in the US the DOJ really ramped by the idea of a monopoly only to when it starts to hurt the customer which lets these massive crops rise up.

 

[geminireaper]

[citation][nom]joytech22[/nom]I don't care if they monopolize the world with Google products, it's like the biggest, friendliest company out there!If Google became a ISP I would be with them in a snap, because they have the money to start a massive fibre network.Hell, they should be the ones funding the NBN in Australia right now so I can jump into the fibre crowd.[/citation]

Google is starting an ISP however they arent the first in the US to make a HUGE fiber network..that would be verizon with verizon fios.

 

[agnickolov]

I'm surprised nobody here understands anti-trust laws. It's not about there being a monopoly or not -- that's not unlawful at all. It's about a company unfairly exploiting its monopoly in various ways to stifle competition and in the end harm the end customer. Things like product tie-ins (the Microsoft IE case), the famous Intel "rebates" on condition of not using their competitors' products, and in Google's case only allowing YouTube results in Google searches (if proven). The only reason Apple gets away with its OS X tie-in to Apple hardware for example is because they don't have a market monopoly on PC computers (even though a certain clone outfit wanted to bring them to court on that count not too long ago) -- no matter how much they claim Macs are not PCs. If the DoJ believed that marketing speak, Apple would be guilty under anti-trust laws.

 

[virtualban]

Google offered us 1 GB of free e-mail storage when it did. Back then, even with tech advancing, yahoo and hotmail were offering 2 to 6 MB, even lowering it from time to time, or "old users get 4 MB, new users get 2 MB". I guess if it was not for google we still would be having mail storage in the range of MB, maybe 15 to 25, and for everything else we would need to pay. It's completely normal, companies want to make a profit. What is not normal is google, offering something better, for free or apparently free, something that the users followed, wished for, also got. If google makes it's revenue in other ways that the user does not mind, or prefers in comparison to the competition, the provider of these preferred services wins, and of course the provider of the not preferred services loses.
Google is bringing gigabit internet to homes. In a few years we will be saying: if it was not for google, we would still have internet in the range of few mbps.
Who is holding back MS and Yahoo from providing the competitive products searched by the users? Who is holding back ISPs from providing the speeds requested?
Youtube was free prior to google, and is meant to be free. This kind of service is really meant to be free for the end user. If youtube competitors struggle, maybe they are not doing it right. But, if I search in google videos or even bing videos, I get a lot of free results from all over the internet, not just youtube, which shows there are competitors, and there will always be even if a few of them can't manage to survive.
I am a fan of google earth *wink* *wink*

 

[eddieroolz]

Hell yes. Google deserves to be whipped by antitrust regulators, at least as much as Microsoft experienced back in the 90's.

To the people saying Google earned its place as king: you could say the same about Microsoft. How many people are even aware that other search engines exists? Very little. Plus, with Google's near-monopoly in the internet advertising scene, they're as guilty of privacy invasion as they are anticompetitive.

Google needs to be broken up.