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Comment by nothis | Hacker News Reader

I don't mind google search. Let them have search, they're obviously the best at it. What I have a problem with is literally every other service they provide. Google shouldn't own the most popular browser, the most popular video streaming platform, the most popular map service, the most popular operating system and (one of the?) most popular email services. Why is a single company allowed to have control over essentially half the internet? I don't think there's a precedent to that and it's about time it's tackled.

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Why is it people care so much about Google being in many different markets but I never see anyone calling for Samsung or Berkshire Hathaway to be broken up?

Just goes to show how easy populism is to push. Google and Facebook are in the news a lot and used by the average consumer, making them the perfect scapegoats.

Meanwhile, the average consumer just sees Samsung as the TV people (actual industries: apparel, automotive, chemicals, consumer electronics, electronic components, medical equipment, semiconductors, solid state drives, DRAM, ships, telecommunications equipment, home appliances) or Berkshire Hathaway as that old rich guy that drives a cheap car (actual industries (property & casualty insurance, Utilities, Restaurants, Food processing, Aerospace, Toys, Media, Automotive, Sporting goods, Consumer products, Internet, Real estate), so not a peep is made about them or every other horizontally distributed company in the world.

> Meanwhile, the average consumer just sees Samsung as the TV people (actual industries: apparel, automotive, chemicals, consumer electronics, electronic components, medical equipment, semiconductors, solid state drives, DRAM, ships, telecommunications equipment, home appliances)

Samsung was also building military jets and artillery pieces. Imagine the media response if Facebook went into weapons production :)

I get your point, but Samsung is a manufacturer, it sells products. Google and FB can have much more impact leveraging the data they have on everyone, which is why we need as a society to be cautious and keep them in check.

> What I have a problem with is literally every other service they provide. Google shouldn't own the most popular browser, the most popular video streaming platform, the most popular map service, the most popular operating system and (one of the?) most popular email services.

So you're saying they're giving away too much good free stuff and need to be stopped?

I mean, obviously it’s not “free” to society.

> I mean, obviously it’s not “free” to society.

My mistake. I had forgotten that Google is a taxpayer funded organization.

>Google shouldn't own the most popular browser, the most popular video streaming platform, the most popular map service, the most popular operating system and (one of the?) most popular email services.

Why the hell not? Another company is free to make a better streaming platform, better map service, better browser, better email service... The government has no business telling companies which (legal) products they can or cannot create and own.

I don't mind google search. Let them have search, they're obviously the best at it.

I don't think that's a good idea, to let one company "have" search. Basically, you're letting a single company regulate discovery and information for a large chunk of the culture as a whole.

Why is a single company allowed to have control over essentially half the internet?

If that company has control of most of the discovery and monopolizes the information produced, they have one level upstream control of most of the Internet and the culture. It's like they don't just own the reservoir, but own a majority share in the river and most of the dams upstream.

What's stopping you from using Bing Search, Open streetmaps, hotmail, Firefox etc.? Google doesn't "control" anything you don't let it.

Very few people seem to host their own email infrastructure, even when using their own domain, and I find myself unable to contact businesses and individuals because of gmail's rules that almost never let my messages through.

This isn't even touching on that Amp email garbage that they're pushing.

I’m using Firefox and DuckDuckGo and it’s okay. But, for example, I naively made gmail my work mail so I’ll be stuck with that for a while. But a few idealists on the Internet going through the effort of de-google-ing their lives doesn’t change their grip on society.

It’s rather obvious and there’s a lot of google employees on hacker news so I don’t really see the point of arguing further. You’re having a giant part of the defining tech of the 21st century controlled by one company. How’s that healthy?

In a lot of ways I want better search than Google. It's increasingly for the masses, power users are increasingly unhappy.

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