[HN Gopher] Google Pays $10B a Year to Maintain Monopoly, US Says
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Google Pays $10B a Year to Maintain Monopoly, US Says
Author : gp
Score : 43 points
Date : 2023-09-12 15:48 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bloomberg.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bloomberg.com)
| keymasta wrote:
| Conspiracy theory on this:
|
| Knowing they are heading up to this big anti-trust case, they
| devise the following plan. They will ensure that at least in the
| search-engine space they are not monopolizing, by making google
| worse and worse until the point that no one uses it anymore. All
| in time for their case. Legal defense by enshitification. By the
| time it happens google won't be the most-used search engine.
|
| Honestly it's not the worst idea if I was a google bigwig.
|
| </joke> (?)
|
| Honestly even though ChatGPT is dumb/on-drugs at times, it's
| really helped find information especially when asked to mention
| sources, and when prompted well (you have to know your
| requirements and be explicit). That is until the learning cutoff
| of course.
|
| But yeah - it's really hit or miss too, but between it, yandex,
| and all the cool niche ones I've mostly picked up from HN, like
| Kagi, Marginalia, etc, or weirdly enough, Bing, it seems like in
| the last few years it has changed from google being functionally
| "the way" to find info, to being a plan 'b', or 'c' .. or 'z'.
|
| Of course I'm not denying the scope of their activities in the
| world, or why the would be on trial for this, just noting that
| for me personally it's the first time it seems like there's
| `less` of a functional monopoly (for me and my use).
| pedalpete wrote:
| I'm struck by how much this seems to parallel the Microsoft DOJ
| case of 2001.[1]
|
| At the time, Microsoft was bundling IE and trying to block use of
| other browsers. However, the browser wasn't really where the
| value was, and we all ended up with Chrome, while Microsoft
| completely missed the internet era and lost search to Google.
|
| I find the timing of this interesting as we are seeing a shift to
| AI being able to answer the questions that Google once provided,
| and now the DOJ is saying Google blocking other search engines is
| anti-competitive, when that game has already been played, and the
| next game has already started.
|
| Am I thinking of this correctly? Or do you think if Microsoft had
| been able to maintain IE dominance (which it kinda did until
| Chrome anyway) the internet would have ended up being shaped
| significantly differently?
|
| [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor..
| ..
| baja_blast wrote:
| Lately I have found Google to be a less reliable search engine
| when compared to a few years ago. Whether I am trying to find an
| old meme, a piece of research or even googling errors it seems
| like the results are never what I am looking for. And it's not
| just SEO spamming since things like software errors are not
| something people try and game. It used to be I would paste in an
| error and I would get a Git Issues result for exactly what I was
| looking for, but now I just go to GitHub or Stack Overflow
| directly.
| throw1234651234 wrote:
| It also seems that search results are extremely limited. 5(?)
| years ago you would get pages of stuff that is tangentially
| related. Now it's 2 pages that seem carefully curated, but
| that's exactly the problem - you get a curated list, rather
| than a search of the whole web.
| Minor49er wrote:
| I've been finding ChatGPT to be more reliable at pointing me in
| the right direction than either Google or Bing in a lot of
| cases lately. And don't even get me started on how YouTube
| search is beyond useless
| malux85 wrote:
| Yeah I have noticed youtube search is bad - the only time it
| gives me what I want is if I search for something I have
| watched previously - Discovery is totally useless.
| ianburrell wrote:
| I think there are two use cases for search engine, to find an
| answer and to find a site. ChatGPT is good for the former and
| useless for the latter. Google is okay at the former and good
| at the latter (but getting worse). Big advantage of Google is
| that there are sources for more detail.
|
| For example, I'm looking at sleeping pads for camping. If I
| type "sleeping pad" in ChatGPT, it tells me what a sleeping
| pad is. If I type it into Google, it lists products, places
| to buy them, and some reviews. If I type "best sleeping
| pads", ChatGPT gives me a list but without details or
| sources. If I type into Google, I get a list of reviews which
| I have to read but has context.
| 1B05H1N wrote:
| They've manipulated the search results too much.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| I've switched to Kagi + Yandex. Together they provide all the
| results I seek.
| Supermancho wrote:
| I have to go to Bing. BING to get better search results. How
| embarrassing.
| 1B05H1N wrote:
| """ This first phase of the trial will assess whether Google has
| illegally monopolized the online search market. US District Judge
| Amit Mehta, who is overseeing the trial, is expected to issue a
| decision next year on whether Google broke the law. If the
| Justice Department wins, it may seek remedies at the second phase
| of the trial to break off Alphabet's search business from other
| products, like Android and Google Maps, which would mark the
| biggest forced breakup of a US company since AT&T was dismantled
| in 1984. """
|
| We'll just have to wait until next year to see what happens.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| [dupe]
|
| More earlier discussion over here:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37480271
| gp wrote:
| My mistake, I had only seen / searched for the Bloomberg
| reporting.
| skyyler wrote:
| https://archive.ph/daYRs
| [deleted]
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