The United States of America versus Google
It is understandable that Google do not like the current anti-trust case against them (actually there are several), however their arguments about why it is flawed do not stand up. In fact, in trying suggest that the status quo protects consumers from ‘lower quality search alternatives’ they actually undermine their own core argument i.e. that they don’t have an unfair (and illegal) advantage due to their monopoly.
In his blog from October 2020, Kent Walker, SVP of Global Affairs says that;
“Today’s lawsuit by the Department of Justice is deeply flawed. People use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced to, or because they can’t find alternatives.”
In the same blog he attempts to show that it is a simple matter to change to a different search engine, while at the same time making the claim;
“This lawsuit would do nothing to help consumers. To the contrary, it would artificially prop up lower-quality search alternatives, raise phone prices, and make it harder for people to get the search services they want to use.”
So basically, what he has said is that if Google was not preselected for you then consumers would end up using lower-quality search engines while simultaneously claiming that it is really simple to change your search engine and that people actually choose to use Google. A bit of a contradiction to say the least!
Now, speaking as the founder of an alternative search engine, I can state that people choose us over Google, because of the quality and speed of our results, and the fact we don’t serve ads or harvest personal data. The largest problem we face, by far, is that users are constantly forced back to the default search engine that was chosen by their browser without them having made this choice. A typical user accesses search using 3 different devices and the difficulty in changing defaults on all of these IS a huge barrier for them, and in fact it is actually not possible with some browsers.
It will be a long time before the case against Google is concluded but, based on what I can see, I would expect that they will ultimately be forced to allow consumers a free choice over their initial default search engine. This action will undoubtedly be the biggest anti-trust case since the one against Microsoft which saw their Internet Explorer browser monopoly dismantled by opening the market to fair competition.
Originally published at https://www.betterinternetsearch.com on September 7, 2021.
