Google NOT a Monopoly | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

It's a complex case, although I personally think Google is, in fact, a monopoly. A company doesn't have to be the only alternative in order to be a monopoly, they just have to abuse their market position, which I think they clearly do. Ask an ecommerce site owner what they think about Google's shopping results. Yeah people could use Bing or Yahoo, but they don't. Google unfairly takes advantage of that to muscle its way into everybody else's pocket. It's really no different than what Microsoft used to do in the 90's when they got smacked down. Go figure.

Thanks for posting the link.

Google also poured money and resources into building the tools that they have, so it's not out of line that they reap the rewards of their investment.  Microsoft and Yahoo were both around before Google and had they done it first or done it better or kept up with Google, then Google might not have the authority it does today.  Nobody 'stopped' Microsoft, Yahoo, or others from doing it.  Except maybe themselves. 

Post edited 8:08 am – September 12, 2012 by KyleAAA

Lena Gott said:

 I still don't think adding a shopping component to its own search results constitutes unfair business practices.  It's just smart business. 

 

I would agree except Google scrapes other sites in order to provide some of their content. The shopping thing is a prime example. It's like if somebody scraped your entire site, threw up advertising, and then started getting 80% of the traffic YOU used to get. That's what Google actually does in some cases. Why would anybody click through to your site when they could get all your content from Google at the top of the search results? You'd never make a sale even though YOU are the one who went to the time and expense to build the ecommerce store to begin with. 

Also, this is a pretty big conflict of interest IMO:

Reuters story

It would be hard to argue Google doesn't cause harm to consumers with some of their business practices.

KyleAAA said:

Lena Gott said:

 I still don't think adding a shopping component to its own search results constitutes unfair business practices.  It's just smart business.  

I would agree except Google scrapes other sites in order to provide some of their content. The shopping thing is a prime example. It's like if somebody scraped your entire site, threw up advertising, and then started getting 80% of the traffic YOU used to get. That's what Google actually does in some cases. Why would anybody click through to your site when they could get all your content from Google at the top of the search results? You'd never make a sale even though YOU are the one who went to the time and expense to build the ecommerce store to begin with. 

Also, this is a pretty big conflict of interest IMO:

Reuters story

It would be hard to argue Google doesn't cause harm to consumers with some of their business practices.

How do they steal a shopping site's traffic?  Do they do it just for mass produced products?  I guess I'm not familiar with this. For instance, I don't see how they would have scraped my custom jewelry design business website and benefited from the sales.  I made unique products.  I suppose you mean they take the content and insert their own product results?

Edward Antrobus said:

Sustainable PF said:

It can be argued that Coca Cola can't really ruin millions of businesses on a whim.

Not as they currently run things, but in theory, Coke could compile a list of of the best retailers to buy Coca Cola products. Having a top spot on that list could result in millions of dollars of extra revenue. Companies would come to rely on it to stay in business. Firms would be set up to help retailers tweak their standing on the list. And then Coke could decide to use a different method for ranking retailers to make sure that buyers were being directed to the stores with the best experience. Millions would be lost; people would go out of business. And Coke would get bad press for taking advantage of their power over retailers and ruining lives.

I doubt there are THAT many retailers that would sink entirely if Coke decided to cut them out.  They sell other products that Coke has no real influence over.  Google on the other hand affects web based businesses entirely.  Bing and Yahoo – well, check your SE traffic.  Google cuts you out and you have little chance of maintaining a healthy web based business as the majority of your clients will never find you and you don't exactly have a bunch of other products that will be found.  Coke can cut out a store from distribution and people can still find the store – not the same with Google monopoly.

I agree that Google is somewhat taking advantage of their market power and bullying blogs and websites online. Even though there are competition (like Yahoo and Bing), they come nowhere close to the number of Google users.  For online marketers, relying on Google traffic alone is a very dangerous proposition that's why the key is to diversify as much as we can.