No company has done more to change the internet than Google.
The internet used to be a source of freedom. Now that freedom only exists in edges, cracks, and outlying areas after much of the internet was monopolized by a handful of Big Tech companies. And no company has done more to change the internet than Google. What was once a useful no-frills search engine that ‘ranked’ sites by popularity became its own evil empire that defines what appears and what doesn’t.
(Full disclosure, at some point, after writing critically about Google, its search engine decided I should disappear. The same thing has happened to many conservatives, sites, and entire realms of ideas.)
And as Google expanded its reach to be a browser, Chrome, a dominant OS, Android, a range of hardware, Pixel, and Chromebooks, and ad search alliances, alternatives simply disappeared.
Google’s dream for search was eliminating the actual sites and turning results into summaries. Now it’s closer than ever to its dream with AI summaries. But now a federal judge ruled that its search is a monopoly. The verdict is decades overdue and the penalty will be more likely to inhibit the deals it cut with companies like Apple, but it’s an important step forward to rolling back some of Google’s unchecked power.
And ditto for Big Tech.
There are still few alternatives to Google Search. Where there was once an array of alternative search engines, today there’s Microsoft’s Bing (DuckDuckGo is just Bing’s results anonymized) and Brave Search. The handful of others are even smaller and more fitful. And there may be no further development in the field because everyone is racing to build their own AI empires that will spit out results through chatbots rather than providing actual links in response to queries. But at least there may be a tool for taking on Google.
And that may mean hope for conservatives and conservative ideas.
somehistory says
Yesterday, suddenly my phone, which I was using to send a text, produced the message, “google is not available.”
I wasn’t trying to use google, and was surprised at the message. Perhaps it was due to the legal problems the *giant* is having.
I can recall when ATT was broken up…into all the little bells that eventually seemed to get back together with their “ma.”
Perhaps google will be broken up into a bunch of little search engines.
What I don’t care for is that all personal control is taken away…’chat’ ‘bing,’ and ‘ai’ popping up in the middle of what I wish to read and only offering certain things.
And when I’m writing and the words are provided, as if I have no will/words of my own, no thoughts, no spelling that might be different. The web is not as useful as it once was.
Glen R. Cook says
I fully concur, I am so fed up with AI trying “HELP” when I am trying to do an elective search for a specific point. Co-Pilot can get lost.
Michael Skok says
I bet it started with Communist Red China. Google had to bow to Communist Red China when it came to writing about the democracy rallies that were held and squash in Bejing back in 1989.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Yesterday, I was watching a video on YouTube about how to replace Android w/ GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel. That way, one is still getting a state-of-the-art phone, but deleting all the spyware and getting an Android-lite OS on the phone. It’s something I may consider one day, since the next iPhone SE 4th generation would lose the home button and replace fingerprints w/ facial recognition, which is the one reason why after 8, I didn’t got 10 but instead to the iPhone SE. But now they’re changing that
I have a business idea for Mammoth Nation/Public Square/et al:: build a new phone like the iPhone or the Pixel, run a version of Replicant on it (Replicant being an FOSS version of Android), and like Apple, make all the money just in selling the phones. But no spyware. A photos app, for instance, will just store photos and provide the user the opportunity to create albums in which to organize photos, but nothing more: no facial recognition and organizing of people’s faces into groups. Similarly, there could be apps w/ the complete functionality of iMessage, FaceTime video calling, banking apps & so on. Such a phone could, but wouldn’t have to, use the play stores from Google or Amazon, and the user could from scratch decide which apps he wants to use (no forced third party apps)
Say conservatives/Republican voters bought those, then used services like Patriot Mobile, they’d have a complete ecosystem free of Google, Microsoft or Apple. No more AI trying to correct what you think. Spell-checks are fine, but only for non-existent words: don’t try changing my “nor” into “not” or “its” into “it’s”. As for browsers, offer the choices of search engines, but don’t make Google the default. And so on. Finally, try making such phones in the US, and maybe second-sourced from countries like Vietnam or Singapore
Do that, and dry up the revenues of Google, Apple and Microsoft
Nancy Albert says
Google cheated me out of $3500. I did not initiate or schedule a campaign. All I did was update my credit card, and they responded that I had no website (not true). Then I start getting billed $500 a day. One sale of a $35 product resulted. I fought for months but could not get reimbursed.
So, I decided to buy some stock in the company, since they were so deft at cheating people. I haven’t made my $3500 back and now they are going down. Drat!