Topic: Is Google a Monopoly...

[toasty0]

Or just a sharply run business?

[Nemesis]

What do they actually have a monopoly of?  What practices (if any) do you object to them using to gain, maintain or use this monopoly that you apparently perceive?

Being a monopoly in itself is not illegal. 

Illegality comes in how you achieved it, how you maintain it and what you do with it.

Did they achieve monopoly by some illicit means?  Are they maintaining it illegally?  In what way do they use this monopoly illegally?  Without examples of any of these there is no legal problem.  I don't know of any legal investigation of them for illegally acquiring or using a monopoly.  Do you?  If not then what if anything are you objecting to?

[Bonk]

http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/

Looks like dogpile has it down to four these days though... http://www.dogpile.com/

Whatever happened to altavista? Oh, it's still there: http://www.altavista.com/

http://www.altavista.com
http://www.ask.com
http://www.google.com
http://www.live.com
http://www.yahoo.com

Looks like it's down to five major ones now.

It has been a while since I've done a review of the search engines. Good question toasty0.

[Nemesis]

In legal terms Bonk to have a monopoly you don't need 100% market share just a dominance to the point where you can control the market.  Whether Google has achieved that is a matter of opinion and will likely stay that way unless they end up in court and have a ruling on the topic.

For a time Netscape had what could probably be ruled a monopoly in the legal sense, the key thing though is that they did not (as far as I am aware) use that monopoly in any illegal way.  Just as I am unaware of Google using theirs in an illegal manner.

Sometimes you can have a legitimate and legal monopoly by being first on the market.  Other times by being the best.  Still others by having a crucial patent or patent portfolio, though that expires and if you are not good enough your company will too. 

Google achieved its current top dog status by being the best and so far others have come and tried but the market has ruled in favour of Google.  In time that can change.  If Google truly is a monopoly in the legal sense they may then try and use that in illegal ways to stifle competition but so far I am unaware of them doing so.  Until they use their dominant position illicitly I have no problem with them being dominant though I reserve the right to switch search engines any time I find a better one.

[Bonk]

I always think of a monopoly like the provincial power corporation here (and until recently phone). There is only one choice. As long as there is choice, I figure there is no monopoly. Now the fact that people are animals and very herd minded; we can't really do anything about that. 

[Nemesis]

It has been a while since I've done a review of the search engines. Good question toasty0.

I decided to do a quick survey of your links.  To me one key thing is how much they send to you before you even search since I'm on dialup and don't want to wait around while things I don't need download.

Colossus -   It sends me to several screens worth of country listings.  No real clear statement of what its all about.  I suppose I'm to pick a country?  Okay I pick Canada and get more screens of information and I haven't actually done a search yet?    I didn't actually bother with a search after that. 

Dogpile - sends a flash animation. TWO orders of magnitude less results 

Altavista - my old standby before Google did better searches.  Still nice and clean, very little sent to me

All the Web -  pretty clean interface again 

Ask - again pretty clean.    slow on my test search and produced TWO orders of magnitude less in results than the others. 

Live Search - pretty clean  an order of magnitude less results 

yahoo -  a couple of screens of stuff to download  fairly slow but good results 

For those I didn't mention the search result, they were comparable to Google in quantity and the key element at the top of the list and farily fast.  a

[Nemesis]

I always think of a monopoly like the provincial power corporation here (and until recently phone). There is only one choice. As long as there is choice, I figure there is no monopoly. Now the fact that people are animals and very herd minded; we can't really do anything about that. 

The difference in many ways from a monopoly and non monopoly is whether the mavericks have a choice to run with the herd or not and what they have to give up if they choose not to run with the herd. 

With my quick survey it appears you can get from others what you get from Google and there is no attempt by Google to block that.  Hence either no monopoly or they appear to be staying  within the laws that regulate monopolies.

[Bonk]

Colossus -   It sends me to several screens worth of country listings.  No real clear statement of what its all about.  I suppose I'm to pick a country?  Okay I pick Canada and get more screens of information and I haven't actually done a search yet?    I didn't actually bother with a search after that. 

Colossus is not a search engine, it is a list of search engines, in answer to "Is Google a Monopoly?".

Dogpile - sends a flash animation. TWO orders of magnitude less results 

Dogpile sent flash? (firefox/noscript here...).

What flash? I don't see any there. 

[Nemesis]

Colossus is not a search engine, it is a list of search engines, in answer to "Is Google a Monopoly?".

Actually all those search engines could be there and still leave Google a monopoly legally speaking.  It matters whether Google has and uses the ability to block them from being successful.  (Like when they blocked preinstalled Netscape.)

Dogpile sent flash? (firefox/noscript here...).

What flash? I don't see any there. 

I keep meaning to install flashblock and noscript but keep forgetting.  I'm not trying right now as we had a thunderstorm pass through and my internet is pretty poor right now.  I can barely get the Dyanverse to work well enough to post short messages.

[Pestalence_XC]

http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/

Looks like dogpile has it down to four these days though... http://www.dogpile.com/

Whatever happened to altavista? Oh, it's still there: http://www.altavista.com/

http://www.altavista.com
http://www.ask.com
http://www.google.com
http://www.live.com
http://www.yahoo.com

Looks like it's down to five major ones now.

It has been a while since I've done a review of the search engines. Good question toasty0.

AltaVista is a Yahoo Search.. just look at the links in all the URL's.. Plus their link to Babble Fish.. that is a Yahoo tool as well.. they just keep the Altavista face since it is familiar to many people. All The Web is the exact same thing, another Yahoo owned and operated variant. The url's all pint to Yahoo Search, but keeps the All The Web front face.

[Nemesis]

AltaVista is a Yahoo Search.. just look at the links in all the URL's.. Plus their link to Babble Fish.. that is a Yahoo tool as well.. they just keep the Altavista face since it is familiar to many people. All The Web is the exact same thing, another Yahoo owned and operated variant. The url's all pint to Yahoo Search, but keeps the All The Web front face.

I didn't know yahoo had bought Alta Vista.  I rarely use Yahoo to search because of how long it takes to load everything.  On occasion I still go to Alta Vista.