Week 4 Post: Civil War & Reconstruction

Last week, 48 states’ Attorney Generals’ opted to launch investigations into Google’s dominance on the internet. More specifically, they are investigating if Google’s current business practices are turning the company into a monopoly.Google has been growing ever since its launch in 1998. Since the early 21st century they have been acquiring more companies, and with it, more power. Because of this, Google has become a dominant player in the online advertising space.

This is where the problem occurs. Google has taken down basically all of its competitors, either  by buying them out or running them out of business. With no competition, Google can essentially charge its clients whatever it wants to advertise on their search engine. The best way to think about it is that the more money that businesses have to spend on advertising on sites such as Google, the more they will have to charge consumers for their products. This also causes problems for small businesses who can’t afford to pay as much for advertising as some other companies might be able to. According to this article from CBS News, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said, “When my daughter is sick and I search online for advice or doctors, I want the best ones — the best advice or the best doctors — not the ones who spent the most on advertising.” This could not be more accurate.

Options that the investigators might consider could be to have Google separate its search engine from the rest of its business. This could help to keep the company from having too much power, but more has to be done. Google has so many different assets that create enormous amounts of revenue for the company. In order to really regulate the company, I believe that those investigating the cases should be much harsher with how they choose to handle the situation.