Yeah, what the hell is up with people, I use bing anyway.

Maybe they should bring back AltaVista. Loved that engine...

EDIT: 1,000th post !

Isn't Google HQ in California? I don't get how the E.U. has any sway over them.

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

Isn't Google HQ in California? I don't get how the E.U. has any sway over them.

They don't.

What they can do is place political pressure on the US Government to intervene in their favour.

SquallStrife wrote:

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

Isn't Google HQ in California? I don't get how the E.U. has any sway over them.

They don't.

What they can do is place political pressure on the US Government to intervene in their favour.

Or better yet, Google can just pull their services out of *all* other countries but the US and tell the rest of the world to SUCK IT, of course they probably won't work too well on their bottom line :p

Will be interesting to see the US reaction, 68% of the market is well above the level that usually makes monopoly regulators nervous historically, and I thought the US had anti-trust laws that were there to stop monopolies getting too powerful [also thought theey took a dim view of conglomerates and the impact on competition]. I guess they haven't bothered with the IT world too much as everyone wants their country to do well etc.

When you have money and power (and your people on the inside), nothing is impossible.

(looks at the mess that is the pending Comcast-TWC merger and wonders if anything positive will ever come out of it 😐 ).

SquallStrife wrote:

Again, that seems like it is pretty free. Free to succeed, free to fail, no propping up by government. […]
Show full quote

sliderider wrote:

If one of those competing stores goes under and nobody steps up to replace it, then the surviving store can raise their prices and treat the customers like crap because where else are they going to go? That's not a free market.

Again, that seems like it is pretty free. Free to succeed, free to fail, no propping up by government.

The consumers have made their choice, and they still have the choice to search using something that isn't Google.

Also, Google's competition haven't "gone under", they're right there, just a few clicks or keystrokes away.

Except that it's not always a case of people making the choice. It can sometimes be a case of one business using unethical business practices to drive all competition out of the market. Case in point. Creative vs Aureal. Creative sued Aureal knowing full well that they couldn't win and bankrupted Aureal in the process. They then snatched up Aureal's assets for a pittance in the bankruptcy sale and effectively killed off any possibility of their technologies ever seeing the light of day again. Aureal had the superior product, but Creative had the deeper pockets and was able to spend some of that money to put Aureal under in an unethical manner. Still think that's a free market in action?

Abusing the courts is a completely different kettle of fish.

If Google was buying up ISP's and blocking their competition's IP addresses, or DDoS'ing their competition's servers, or somehow actually preventing their competition from doing business, I'd be thinking differently.

sliderider wrote:

Except that it's not always a case of people making the choice. It can sometimes be a case of one business using unethical business practices to drive all competition out of the market. Case in point. Creative vs Aureal. Creative sued Aureal knowing full well that they couldn't win and bankrupted Aureal in the process. They then snatched up Aureal's assets for a pittance in the bankruptcy sale and effectively killed off any possibility of their technologies ever seeing the light of day again. Aureal had the superior product, but Creative had the deeper pockets and was able to spend some of that money to put Aureal under in an unethical manner. Still think that's a free market in action?

YES, in this case Creative Labs had the deeper pockets so it ultimately won be default, good or bad.

I thought both companies had good products but I've always preferred the Creative Labs cards myself.

Just like I prefer Logitech mice over Microsoft's mice and prefer the Microsoft Natural Ergo KB over Logitechs KB's.

I think you are also trying to put some kind of Utopian view of how the free market should work, well, it's not a free market as much as its a Global Market place now a days.

What works well here in the US may not in other parts of the world, so US based companies have to adapt or don't enter that particular market or the game the system to their advantage.

I think all companies regardless of where they are based do this, they are trying to make money.

I think it also has to do with how much they are willing to go down a path that some would view as unethical.

Another vote for ALTAVISTA!

THAT was a very good engine back in the days, and my retro systems want it back 😎

meljor wrote:

Another vote for ALTAVISTA!

THAT was a very good engine back in the days, and my retro systems want it back 😎

YES! I thought they had a better image search than Google back then. I would get hits on Alta Vista that wouldn't show up on Google until months later, if at all. I was very disappointed when I found out they were selling out. I think they were originally bought out by Yahoo, but Microsoft somehow ended up with their Babel Fish translation page.

The very moment you've forsaken God and sinned for money, you've crossed the line. If you can build and sustain a multi-billion dollar corporation without sinning, more power to you, but what are the odds here?

Google is one of the vilest corporations currently in existence up there with Microsoft and Monsanto, and they've supported every bit of the socialist agenda, including sodomy, atheism, affirmative action, PRISM, abortion and various other secular cancers. They're willful and shameless partakers of the destruction of the civilized world and I have no sympathy for them whatsoever.

What goes around comes around.

Lo Wang wrote:

The very moment you've forsaken God and sinned for money, you've crossed the line. If you can build and sustain a multi-billion dollar corporation without sinning, more power to you, but what are the odds here?

Google is one of the vilest corporations currently in existence up there with Microsoft and Monsanto, and they've supported every bit of the socialist agenda, including sodomy, atheism, affirmative action, PRISM, abortion and various other secular cancers. They're willful and shameless partakers of the destruction of the civilized world and I have no sympathy for them whatsoever.

What goes around comes around.

"You no mess with Lo Wang!" 🤣

🤣 Intense conversation about economics, and then blam! God and sinning.... wait what? 🤣

We've got to understand that "economics" is merely a buzzword coined by a bunch of parasitic socialist lowlifes who believe they're entitled to other people's money, and they're trying to make it look as if their wicked greed has some type of legal/moral validity. They have turned money into an idol, and they're willing to do anything for it, everything, specially stealing and murdering, everything but work.

The way God intended it, you earn your way, you voluntarily exercise charity with your own money among people who really need help and that's about it.

Socialist are now money hungry sinners eh? 🤣

cause that makes sense...

I want whatever Lo Wang's smoking.

Lol I know right? That is some serious shit. 😜