Google is illegally monopolizing online advertising tech, judge rules

I've always been somewhat opposed to this, because there's already like 10 different search alternatives, and now AI is taking over, which will further weaken their grip.

Google is on top because they do the best job; I use Yandex primarily, but I switch back to google all the time for coding related questions. In terms of advertising, there's billions of views on Facebook/Instagram/X to get, in addition to all the other sites. I get they're a big player, but I worry we're just beating Google because they're down, not because it's good for the consumer.

This is not that case. This case is about how Google only serves certain ad inventory to people who use their products.

Well they certainly gained dominance by being the best and I would say they still are the best. But maybe there was some competitor that could have usurped them by being even better if not for their anticompetitive tactics. I wouldn't put money against that...

Then what is the definition of a monopoly? It doesn’t appear to be the same definition as “the exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service.” Do they exclusively control all ad inventory? Do they control all devices receiving ads? GP states that they don’t have exclusive control broadly, just within their own ecosystem. That’s not the definition of a monopoly though, so it seems like a motte and bailey calling google a monopoly.

There's really only one alternative, Bing. Virtually all the other western search engines are using the Bing api, and just slightly modify the results.

Really? Even non-technical people are waking up and seeing the 3 in web3 stands for India, OnlyFans and AI content.

As someone who runs a large platform in the music niche, every independent interesting webapp in the kpop community besides me has been killed by Google's ceaseless enshittification and I'd be thrilled if everyone who worked there had their stock options reduced to 0 to atone for what they've done to the internet.

Online advertising isn't limited to ads in search results. They can include ads everywhere and work as a platform for others as well.

> Google is on top because they do the best job

You think a court hasn't considered that angle?

I guess my argument is you can use one of the other dozen ad platforms

I use Kagi ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The courts don't use "monopoly", they use the term "monopoly power": https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui... Like this says, it doesn't strictly require a monopoly.

It's just a term that gets simplified by journalist and articles, because no one is familiar with monopoly power.

From the court filing:

> Plaintiffs have proven that Google has willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising.

You're mixing up antitrust cases. The 2020 case [0], decided in August and going into remedies in a week or so, was about search. This one is about advertising [1], a separate market that the DOJ has argued Google has also been acting anticompetitively in.

Aside from that:

> now AI is taking over, which will further weaken their grip.

Maybe you've missed that they're pulling ahead of OpenAI on the AI front?

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Google_LLC_...

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Google_LLC_...

Which uses Bing as its primary index

> Google is on top because they do the best job

Companies become monopolies often through doing their job the best. Companies stay the best because they're monopolies.

Source? I don't see any mention of that here: https://help.kagi.com/kagi/search-details/search-sources.htm...

Search "chili recipes" on bing. Now search kagi or any other alternative search engine. They all show the exact same recipes because they're using the bing API.

Technically Yandex has it’s own index, although there’s debate on whether Eastern Europe counts as western in this context

Just gave this a try, and the results were very different for me.