Judge rules Google maintains an illegal monopoly

[Skunkworks]

I've been following this in the background for a while, but today Google lost the monopoly case. I'm interested to see what the remedy for maintaining 90% of the internet searches will be. I've heard so many complaints about the quality of search results in the past year that I can't help but wonder if the monopoly was on the downhill slide.

https://apnews.com/article/google-antitrust-search-engine-verdict-apple-319a61f20fb11510097845a30abaefd8

[Skunkworks]

Since we are on the topic of google, I remembered to share this great article - https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/

[Random Encounter]

I wonder how this will affect them down the road. Outside of email and search, they are notoriously bad at making new products and then discontinuing them within a few years. Maybe this will force them to better foster the products they develop and acquire.

[Cancer Kills]

While Google's search quality has gone downhill, the judge noted in the decision that they became the default option partly because they purchased their way in but also because they were miles ahead of their competition. There is talk from the DOJ about forcing a Ma'bell type breakup of Google. Likely their Youtube platform, search, ad sales and other divisions would be spun off into separate companies. This way, Youtube isn't tied to Adsense because they're the same company, and same for search. There is a small likely hood of this even occurring and it would be years of litigation before it ever occurs but as an investor, I would love to see this. Random hit the nail on the head, Google keeps spinning up new ideas and then dropping them in the trash or letting them coast forever. They need to refocus and if their innovation organizations were spun off into their own company, they would be forced to start turning some of these ideas into profitable ventures instead of being propped up by the parent company. Waymo has huge potential, if they would ever expand it outside of AZ/CA, same with Gfiber.

[The Grimace]

I'm so torn on Google. I still have their site set as my homepage, and I use YouTube all the time, but I feel like I'm always fighting them one way or another. Google Chrome has never been a positive experience for me, and it would be even worse without proper AdBlocking features. Using UBlock on Firefox has been a mental saviour for me. With Google continually cracking down on AdBlockers though, I want less and less to do with them.

The argument that they're so much ahead of the competition holds a lot of water though. That's part of the problem, too... and I still blame Google for that.

[Selbaek]

While Google's search quality has gone downhill, the judge noted in the decision that they became the default option partly because they purchased their way in but also because they were miles ahead of their competition. There is talk from the DOJ about forcing a Ma'bell type breakup of Google. Likely their Youtube platform, search, ad sales and other divisions would be spun off into separate companies. This way, Youtube isn't tied to Adsense because they're the same company, and same for search. There is a small likely hood of this even occurring and it would be years of litigation before it ever occurs but as an investor, I would love to see this. Random hit the nail on the head, Google keeps spinning up new ideas and then dropping them in the trash or letting them coast forever. They need to refocus and if their innovation organizations were spun off into their own company, they would be forced to start turning some of these ideas into profitable ventures instead of being propped up by the parent company. Waymo has huge potential, if they would ever expand it outside of AZ/CA, same with Gfiber.

I feel like those segregated companies would just fall under the Alphabet umbrella and really change nothing. It'd be more of the same idea as gaming companies during the NES era. When Nintendo limited them on allowed number of releases, companies (i.e. Konami) opened up new companies (i.e. Ultra) just to get around the limitation.

I agree with the sentiment that it might garner more focus on quality between the services Google provides, but it would do nothing towards the monopoly ruling and might even make it worse.