I've sometimes wondered about how expansive Google is becoming and the enormous amount of information they have about people/companies/everything essentially. They've been displaying interest in new industries as well (e.g. automobile, healthcare).
Does the size and influence of Google concern you? Do you think the government may have to step in at some point if Google's growth continues? Some of the things that the author reveals about Google in this article are surprising in a bad way to me.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/18/google-alarming-no-conspiracy-theorist
Google is such a widespread global company, and it has so much power over the minds of modern day people. If Google wanted to blacklist a company, they could really damage that company. I see commonly people turn to Google to solve the answer to an argument. Honestly, Google can be very helpful, however it is important not to rely too heavily on this search engine. What is "too heavily" ? Well, that's up to the individual, just make sure that you're not going crazy staring at a screen for a long time.
ReplyDeleteI find really interesting the part about competition and putting pages for google's own industries to the very first links to display in a search engine. Do you think this is unfair competition?
ReplyDeleteGoogle is a monopoly and from this article, it looks like its going to be a monody for a very one time. I really don't think government intervention would do much t help. The issue of personal data security applies to all search engines not only google. I don't know, but personally i don't find it very worrying.
ReplyDeleteIt is little scary that one company has information about such large number of people. I would not like to see every component of my life being connected to the google. If google's influence increases in other industry such as healthcare and automobiles, then government might have to step in. Not that I do not trust in google products, but rather I would see a competitive market than a monopolistic one.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I think of a monopoly, I always think of Standard Oil, the classic example of a monopoly. I believe Google will maintain some form of monopolistic power for a long period. However, as history shows repeatedly, monopolies eventually lose its power over time to competition. Contrary to popular belief, the US court didn't break up Standard Oil's monopolistic power. At the time of its break-up in 1911, Standard Oil's monopolistic power was already in decline due to domestic and foreign competition. So, I do not believe government intervention will be necessary. The market will keep Google in check. The company is already facing growing competition from Facebook, Bing, and other popular foreign search engines.
ReplyDeleteSearch engines is not their only stream of revenue though. As mentioned before, Google is currently trying to expand in to almost any market they can get their hands on because they have so much excess cash waiting around. Here is an interesting 'think-tank like' article that came out during the Detroit bankruptcy case about Google and Detroit.
ReplyDeletehttp://brandonhtomlin.blogspot.com/2013/07/what-if-google-bought-detroit.html
Google does have a monopoly over other companies. However, the intense competition in technological services might reduce its monopolistic power, in the long run. there will definitely be need for government intervention if Google grows 'too big.' i am not very confident that Google would be able to establish the same monopolistic power in other industries, regardless of the capital that they might possess.
ReplyDeleteI think that there may be an argument to be made that google's size could work against itself. As everyone has stated, no on is going to say google doesn't monopolize the search engine market (at least in the US), and as Mark mentioned, they have their hand in any market they can get to.
ReplyDeleteHowever, their situation reminds me of renowned corporate strategist Richard P. Rumelt said on growth. He was being hired to advise a large corporation on an acquisition, and after analyzing the purchase, concluded that the acquisition wasn't in the best interest of the company. He said that growth in and of itself is *not* a strategy (and made a number of good arguments why that I can't remember)
i don't see what's wrong with one company growing as fast and expansively as google is. to think that a company with tonnes of data/information is kind of crazy but definitely something valuable. i personally don't think the government should step in to regulate this.
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