May 01, 2021 19:00:00

What are the 'privileges' that Google holds in controlling the Internet?

Google has a large share of the search market, so much so that searching on the Internet is commonly referred to as '

google'. 'Google has privileges,' said Knuckleheads' Club, founded by engineers who warn of such situations.

Google's Got A Secret --Knuckleheads' Club
https://knuckleheads.club/

Google Dominates Thanks to an Unrivaled View of the Web --The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/technology/how-google-dominates.html

According to Knuckleheads' Club, which was named with the meaning of 'what a fool ( Knucklehead ) does to go to Google', every search engine periodically retrieves documents and images on the web and automatically databases them. It depends on a system called crawling. Search engines can respond quickly to user searches by crawling and making copies of any site.

Crawling is done by accessing the site, so constant crawling by a myriad of search engines can overwhelm bandwidth and strain the server. As a result, site administrators will have to limit the number of search engines that allow crawling. This has created a situation where only some search engines, especially Google, are allowed to crawl. This is the 'Google privilege' pointed out by Knuckleheads' Club.

In this regard, Knuckleheads' Club said, 'The situation where only Google can crawl in a big way is not bad or illegal, but it's a big problem. We're complaining about our dominance. We believe that this is clearly a market failure and that governments must intervene to break Google's monopoly. ' Said.

Zack Marill, the founder of Knuckleheads' Club, learned of this issue when he was working for the

music distribution service Bandcamp. Bandcamp had to attract a lot of people from Google search, so when Google's crawlers got into trouble, Marill was all about solving the problem. However, if another search engine crawler had a problem, Bandcamp would block it.

Marill, who became skeptical about the state of the search market, wrote a report summarizing Google's problems and sent it to the US Congress while changing jobs to another technology company that is not directly related to Google. We have begun activities such as submitting and meeting with investigators of the Anti-Trust Subcommittee.

And in 2020, he established Knuckleheads' Club and is conducting full-scale investigation of problems related to Google's monopoly and policy proposals. 'Google has come to have a great deal of power in society, and that power is democratically controlled, that is, with the power of a small voice,' Marill told The New York Times about his activities. I think we have to do it. '