Google has been accused by the DOJ of illegally monopolizing the "General Search" market. Interestingly, the government's economic witness was asked by the Justice Dept to begin his investigation in 2014, by which time Google had already become dominant, e.g., US shares of general search as of 2023 are:
- Google 88.48%
- Bing 6.35%
- Yahoo! 2.69%
This trial tactic prevents the witness from answering questions like "what should have Google have done differently, to avoid violating the antitrust laws?" But it leaves him open to the criticism that he is condemning Google for simply being better and more innovative than everyone else.
Of course, the trial is bifurcated (liability+remedy), which leaves open the very difficult question of what Justice will ask for if they win. And we all know that "if there is no solution, there is no problem" (#3 on the Coffee Mug below). Why repeat the mistakes of the earlier monopolization cases, i.e., IBM and MSFT?
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