The Google Squeeze

The Aggregator Paradox

Google is winning with AMP and blocking ads in Chrome: both seem bad, but aren’t they actually good for consumers? That is the paradox of aggregation.

Google, Nvidia, and OpenAI

OpenAI and Nvidia are both under threat from Google; I like OpenAI’s chances best, but they need an advertising model to beat Google as an Aggregator.

Google Fights Back

At Google I/O, Google was the opposite of defensive: the company set out to make the case that its approach made for better products that makes people’s lives better

Google Faces New EU Antitrust Probe Over Search Ad Pricing Practices

Google, the target for billions of euros in European Union antitrust fines, has been hit by a fresh EU probe over concerns it’s illegally rigging the cost of advertising on its search engine.

Google fends off news publishers' antitrust lawsuit over online search

Alphabet's Google won a ruling dismissing a lawsuit that accused the tech giant of monopolizing the U.S. online news market and exploiting its dominance in search ​to extract publishers' content without payment.

Google’s Chrome Antitrust Paradox

This Article examines Google’s dominance of the browser market, highlighting how Google’s Chrome browser plays a critical role in reinforcing Google’s dominance in other markets. While Google portrays Chrome as a neutral platform built on open-source technologies, this Article shows that Chrome is, in fact, instrumental in Google’s strategy to reinforce its dominance in the online advertising, publishing, and browser markets. The examination of Google’s strategic acquisitions, anticompetitive practices, and the implementation of so-called “privacy controls” underlines that Chrome is far from a neutral gateway to the web. Rather, it serves as a key tool for Google to maintain and extend its market power, often to the detriment of competition and innovation in the digital economy.This Article illustrates how Chrome not only bolsters Google’s position in online advertising and publishing through practices such as coercion and self-preferencing, but also leverages its advertising clout to engage in a “pay-to-play” paradigm—the cornerstone of Google’s larger strategy of market control. It also outlines potential regulatory interventions and remedies by drawing on historical antitrust precedents. Lastly, this Article proposes a triad of solutions motivated by an analysis of Google’s abuse of Chrome, including behavioral remedies targeting specific anticompetitive practices, structural remedies involving an internal separation of Google’s divisions, and divestiture of Chrome from Google into an independent organization.Despite Chrome’s dominance and its critical role in Google’s ecosystem, as well as its recent legal troubles with the Department of Justice, it so far has avoided significant antitrust action. A key reason for this inaction lies in the long-standing precedent supporting the hegemony of technology firms and the uncertainty surrounding Chrome’s viability as a standalone entity. This Article attempts to address these issues to enable antitrust actions that are essential in remedying current market imbalances. Such actions are also critical to mitigate future threats to competition from an increasingly monopolistic technology landscape, thereby fostering a competitive digital environment that promotes innovation and protects consumer interests.

Pluralistic: Web apps could de-monopolize mobile devices (13 Dec 2022) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Mobile tech is a duopoly run by two companies – Google and Apple – with a combined market cap of $3.5 trillion. Each company uses a combination of tech, law, contract and market power to force sellers to do commerce via an app, and each one extracts a massive commission on all in-app sales – 15-30%!

YouTube TV, Wiz, and Why Monopolies Buy Innovation

Google could aggregate TV, but it might not have the product capability; that’s a convoluted way of explaining why buying Wiz is a good idea

Google is getting even worse for independent sites

HouseFresh’s search traffic has fallen by 91 percent.

Google is its own worst enemy

In its bid to push AI, it’s destroying its products and trying to kill the web too

Why Do the Biggest Companies Keep Getting Bigger? It’s How They Spend on Tech

The secret of success for Amazon, Google and Microsoft is how much they invest in their own technology.

How Google is killing independent sites like ours - HouseFresh

And why you shouldn’t trust product reviews from big media publishers ranking at the top of Google.

Google Was a Lifeline for Publishers. Now Some Are Thinking of Cutting It Off.

Reddit, Politico and others are weighing how—or even if—they can work with the tech company as AI tools supplant traditional searches.

Google Was a Lifeline for Publishers. Now Some Are Thinking of Cutting It Off.

Reddit, Politico and others are weighing how—or even if—they can work with the tech company as AI tools supplant traditional searches.

Cloudflare's Matthew Prince has a plan to get Google and the AI oliigarchs to pay for your content even though many are used to getting it for free. He might have enough leverage to make them.

AI chatbots are blowing up the 30-year economic relationship publishers have had with search engines. Many think this will kill the web if not addressed. Google needs to change first. It's resisting. Cloudflare's Matthew Prince is going to try and make them.

Google, Facebook, and Amazon benefit from an outdated definition of “monopoly”

A few weeks ago, Italy fined Apple and Samsung €15 million for the “planned obsolescence” of their smartphones. The antitrust regulators allege that both companies pushed users to download software that slowed phone performance, forcing customers to buy replacement phones sooner.