zlacker

>>jakobd+(OP)
> Exactly how the rest of the world feels about this is not necessarily relevant, though. Google owns the world's most popular web browser, the world's largest advertising network, the world's biggest search engine, the world's most popular operating system, and some of the world's most popular websites. So really, Google can do whatever it wants.

This is the point that company breakups start to make a lot of sense.

When Google can do something that every one of it's users hates and none of us can do anything about it, they perhaps have too much market power.

>>mabbo+Wd
But that's the catch, company breakups are extremely hard to perform especially when you're talking about such a giant company being tackled by an organization that only has ~400m in funding. Especially when they can point to the other giant companies as defense against claims of monopolist behavior. See Google using Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon as a reason for why their ad business should not be broken up in the January lawsuit.

On top of all this, a lot of users don't care, which is a problem itself, but also leads to an even harder time trying to navigate a company breakup. The convenience is too great for them, and it's too easy for the above noted companies (alongside other giants like Walmart) to shift public opinion.

>>gochi+0j
As hard as it may be, to paraphrase the ancient parable:

The best time to break up Google was 10 years ago.

The second-best time to break up Google is today.

>>kibwen+gj
You'll be very pleased to hear that it is going to happen soon with two antitrust cases against Google, one for search dominance [0] and the other for their ad business [1] with the former going to happen this year in September. So there is a start on that.

So get a front row seat and get ready for what is to come in September this year to witness the beginning of the end of a company once adored by hundreds of techies finally getting broken up to pieces.

[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/doj-antitrust-lawsuit-agains...

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/24/doj-files-second-antitrust-l...