Google has an immense amount of
power. Is there more I need to say? They are the number one search engine in the
world. Most people use it. I’m sure some have switched to Ecosia and
some people still prefer Bing but Google has an IMMENSE lead over both of them.
90% of online search is done through them. But they’re not only a search engine!
They’re also a media database in Youtube/Google
Images, they have a map of the world via Google Maps which has 24/7 access to
your GPS, and they have home devices controlling temperature, lighting, and some
even lock or unlock doors. It is argued
that some of these devices listen in on your conversations when they aren’t meant
to… but that’s for another blog post!
Google
makes ridiculous amounts of profit… one of the many ways they make income is
through advertising services. Whenever a person makes a google search, the
first couple of searches that come up discretely say “Ad” on it in a green bar. These first couple of searches are companies
that have paid money in order to appear “first” on Google’s search results. This would be what video game players call a “play
to win” scenario because humans are lazy and will most likely pick the first
site they find that has what they are looking for. As stated by CBS News: “Google this year will
control 31% of global digital ad dollars, according to eMarketer estimates,
crushing a distant second-place Facebook. And many smaller advertisers have
argued that Google has such a stranglehold on the market that it becomes a
system of whatever Google says, goes — because the alternative could be not
reaching customers.”
President
Theodore Roosevelt spent his entire time in office attempting to make
monopolies in business impossible.
Although he did not achieve his full goal, google as proof, he did a
very good job at it and earned himself the nickname/reputation of a trust buster. This is important because it is the exact
thing the governments of the world are attempting to do to Google due to their “stranglehold”
on the market. If Google were to
disappear tomorrow, a good portion of the internet would go with it! European regulators have fined Google north
of 5 BILLION dollars due to their spinoff acquisition Andriod, which is the
most used phone UI in the world, forcing phone hardware creators that used the Andriod
operating system to install google apps.
This means that more people will use all of google’s products instead of
searching for possibly better options in the market app wise. For example: choosing to use Waze instead of
Google Maps to get around.
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| Pres. Roosevelt in a political cartoon about trusts |
The United
States is on Google’s case too and are probing them to see if they are truly
too big. If the probe returns that they are,
Google will have to divide into separate, smaller companies to allow for an
even playing field, as Teddy Roosevelt did in his time as a president.
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