What harm does Google's monopoly on the search engine market cause to users? Is there a way to rectify the monopoly?



In 2020, Google was

sued for allegedly violating antitrust laws in the search engine market, and the ruling was handed down on August 5, 2024. Judge Amit P. Mehta of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, who presided over the case, ruled that 'Google has violated antitrust laws.' Regarding Google's monopoly, the official blog of the search engine ' Kagi ' explains 'the disadvantages suffered by users due to Google's monopoly' and 'ways to correct Google's monopoly.'

Dawn of a new era in Search: Balancing innovation, competition, and public good | Kagi Blog
https://blog.kagi.com/dawn-new-era-search

◆Strengths of Google Search
Kagi points out that Google search consists of three main functions: ' search index ,' ' user index ,' and ' advertiser index .' Each function has the following characteristics:

Search index
Google automatically collects and indexes information on countless web pages. To improve the functionality of this search index, Google implements measures such as 'ranking web pages,' 'requiring website administrators to insert code so that Google's crawlers can correctly retrieve page information,' and 'requiring website administrators to optimize information using Google Search Console to ensure the verifiability of their websites.'

For website owners, inserting code and managing the Google Search Console are costly operations, but website owners do so without receiving any money from Google because it is in their business interest to be properly included in the search index.

・User index
Google predicts 'web pages that users are likely to view' based on users' search history and reflects this in search results. In addition, the search results also display 'advertisements that users may be interested in.' Kagi calls the personalized optimization information that Google creates based on users' behavioral history a 'user index.'

To ensure such optimization for each user, Google requires several companies to 'adopt Google as the default search engine for their products.' For example, Apple receives about 3 trillion yen in fees from Google every year in exchange for adopting Google as the default search engine for its own browser, Safari.

Apple receives 3 trillion yen a year from Google as 'fees for adopting Google search' - GIGAZINE



・Advertiser Index
In addition to search results based on the search algorithm, Google's search result page also displays search ads that can be displayed by paying Google. Google generates $150 billion (about 21 trillion yen) in revenue per year from ads displayed in search results.



◆Why is it difficult to beat Google?
Google provides search functionality for free. When competing with large sales platforms such as Amazon, you can adopt the strategy of 'selling products at a lower price than Amazon,' but in the case of Google, since it provides search functionality for free, it is inevitably impossible to provide services at a lower price than Google. For this reason, it is very difficult for emerging search engines to take market share from Google.



◆What disadvantages do users suffer from Google's monopoly?
As mentioned above, Google Search is free to use, but users are burdened by the mismatch between search results and the desired information caused by search ads. For example, if a user searches for the words 'best headphones,' the top of the search results will not be a page introducing the best headphones, but rather the page of the advertiser who paid the highest price. In addition, Kagi lists the following disadvantages to users:

The search results you see are limited to those that follow Google's algorithms.
You have to view many ads before you get to the search result you want.
・Google collects personal information such as search history
You are shown search results that don't match your needs

How to fix Google's monopoly
In order to rectify Google's monopoly, it has been reported that the Department of Justice is considering issuing orders to Google such as 'selling its mobile OS business (Android),' 'selling its Chrome business,' and 'selling its advertising business (Google Ads).' However, Kagi points out that 'these sales orders will not lead to true innovation, diverse competition, or better outcomes for consumers.'

US Department of Justice considering 'breaking up Google' - GIGAZINE



Kagi is calling on Google to 'allow fair access to the search index' as a solution to promote innovation and diversify competition. According to Kagi, building a search index requires a huge amount of funding and takes a long time. Kagi argues that if Google were to provide fair access to its search engines, it would gain benefits such as 'intensified competition in the search engine market,' 'improved privacy protection features,' and 'improved search quality.'

◆ Forum is currently open
A forum related to this article has been set up on the official GIGAZINE Discord server . Anyone can post freely, so please feel free to comment! If you do not have a Discord account, please refer to the account creation procedure article to create an account!

• Discord | 'Have you ever suffered any disadvantages from Google's monopoly?' | GIGAZINE
https://discord.com/channels/1037961069903216680/1282631038459183176

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