Rah, Rah, Google Under the Monopoly Filter of the US Government
May 16, 2020
Emails. Phone calls. My goodness, news reports from the Wall Street Journal (a Murdoch “real news” outfit) AND ZeroHedge, an insider’s news service.
The basic factoid is that an antitrust lawsuit is chugging along. Twenty two years after leaving the station, government lawyers are ready to board the Google train.
At this moment, anti Googlers are getting their pom poms fluffed. The pro Googlers know that the effort will be like the patient drips of water that form stalactites.
Legal processes take time, and Google will not be in a hurry. Presidents will come and go. Young lawyers will work in their government “socially distanced” spaces, then move into a law firm only to return and pick up where they left off.
Eventually there will be penalties. The penalties will be negotiated.
As the wheels of justice grind forward on government time, the Alphabet Google thing will hurtle along. Its timing is cadenced to Internet time. Lobbyists will lobby. Funds will be donated in proper ways to candidates who are into Google tchotchkes like the treasured Google mouse pad. You know the one. It has multi colored balls on it. A collectors’ item!
The reality is that Google is a government. No government can allow its citizens to revolt. Imagine turning in one’s search box for a Prime membership. Maybe both, but not one or the other.
To sum up: The legal action will chug along. And in the course of that journey, the Google will morph, evolve, and become something quite different.
Like the break up of IBM which never happened, the same destination perhaps. What if a digital Judge Harold H Green chops up Google as AT&T was dismembered. In case you haven’t checked lately, there are two phone companies and one may end up buying the other.
The telecommunications train may have completed a round trip if that happens. Sure, the T Mobile Sprint thing may become a player, but the Bell heads know the number to dial to make a connection.
Net net: Long ride, some excitement, two different time scales. One is on the slow local train; the other is the Osaka Tokyo bullet train.
Stephen E Arnold, May 16, 2020
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