26
votes
Google sued by US Department of Justice in antitrust case over search dominance
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- DOJ to file antitrust lawsuit against Google
- Authors
- Lauren Feiner
- Published
- Oct 20 2020
- Word count
- 709 words
One angle I haven't seen discussed yet: if Google is compelled to stop promoting Search via deals, then that could spell disaster for Mozilla. They depend on their search deal far more than Apple or others do.
I hope they don't become collateral damage in a messy legal battle.
That's definitely a really good point. I posted a comment the other day about just how dependent Mozilla is on that search deal.
They posted a reaction to the suit. My reading is that they're a little concerned.
It's important to note that various people involved with the case believe it's being rushed for political reasons (some have resigned over it).
Bringing a weak case could end up helping rather than hurting Google.
The state level investigation could end up having more teeth.
I agree wholeheartedly. When you come across headlines like this. Trump admin consulting with DoJ about Google - Kudlow Makes you question motives....
Hopefully this does not cause the State Attorney Generals to take the foot off the gas
Official DOJ release: Justice Department Sues Monopolist Google For Violating Antitrust Laws
And the actual complaint (PDF, 64 pages).
Google's official response blog post: A deeply flawed lawsuit that would do nothing to help consumers
What a bunch of fuckers, how can they lie so much, I'm so angry right now.
To help develop this conversation and for other readers, can you point out specific lies?
Hasn't happened before. The DOJ has been "signaling" this for a while, that is why it feels like 'old news'. Also at the state level there has been movement going on for awhile.
This will lead to major changes. Probably not AT&T level, think Microsoft level. But it would be interesting to see what happens.
This would make interesting timing for Apple's long rumored search engine to make an appearance.
Wouldn't it be more strategic to wait this out? Why help Google's case?
What happened with Microsoft? I wasn't aware that the government had ever stepped in to chastise them.
Also another link that is helpful in understanding the impact. ‘Crush Them’: An Oral History of the Lawsuit That Upended Silicon Valley
IIRC, the only real major concrete thing that happened with this settlement was that they had to open up the API documentation for some of their Win32 libraries. It was very much a slap on the wrist.
I'm sorry, but the idea that this lawsuit somehow "made room for competitors" for web browsers is complete bull. What made space for other browsers is that Microsoft essentially abandoned Internet Explorer and didn't bother to support newer web technologies, so IE essentially became 'the tool with which you download a real browser'.
The soft power that was flexed against MSFT seemed to have a real net effect. The 00's and the early 2010's saw MSFT flounder and stall against competition.
That's coincidence, nothing more.
From your own link:
In reality there are plenty of reasons why Microsoft was floundering at that time period. Bill Gates wanted to transform Windows into the next generation of operating systems with some really unique features and rather famously failed to actually produce it. Transitioning to Steve Ballimer didn't really help them much, and Microsoft only recently started to really flex their muscles in the cloud and with various web services, which is where their greatest competitors began.
I guess this is regarding Internet Explorer?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.
I was very aware of these issues in that era, and this did have an effect. The Internet Explorer dominance seemed unbreakable at a time, and suddenly that was not the case anymore.