I'm doing the unthinkable, I cut half my Google usage. No more music, no more photos, no more Android Chrome, significantly less Google search.
It's happening, although I feel like anti-consumer practices hurts Google more than Apple. Maybe my original claim about not needing anti trust is a bit simple.
This is a really bad take. The amount of Google's power and control isn't something a handful of HN users switching to Firefox can fix. Most people literally don't realize there's alternatives. There's a silent majority feeding the Google beast, and they aren't going to switch from the defaults. Tech industry members can set the tone, we can spread good behavior to our friends and family, but the government is needed to move the majority.
Bear in mind, everyone hates Microsoft (seems like sometimes anyways), they did face antitrust law, and still in 2020, they're one of the world's most powerful and valuable companies, and everyone still uses Windows at work. Which is to say, if we want to take Google down, it needs to come from every direction, and it needs to be incredibly harsh. And once Google is no longer running the web, stronger privacy and consumer protection laws need to be passed to make sure it's understood that behavior like Google's will never be tolerated again.
That same process can be reversed.
But don't forget that they used their - for all intents and relevant purposes - unlimited budget to bundle it everywhere.
They were also advertising it on the front page of their search engine - a spot no one else has been able to reach AFAIK. I guess there's a lot more.
If this isn't monopoly abuse I have a hard time seing what is.
Or how when I signed into a Google account once for five minutes on my iPhone in a private Safari window and immediately got an email from Google inviting me to set up Chrome on my new iPhone...