Communications of the ACM
How Does Google's Monopoly Hurt You? Try These Searches
Without us even realizing it, the Internet's most-used website has been getting worse.
Credit: Google
Let's Google together. Open a Web browser and search for T-shirts. I'll wait.
Is the first thing you see a search result? I'm not talking about the stuff labeled Ads or Maps. On my screen, the actual result is not in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh or even eighth row of stuff. It's buried on row nine.
Googling didn't used to require so much … scrolling. On some searches, it's like Where's Waldo but for information.
Without us even realizing it, the Internet's most-used website has been getting worse. On too many queries, Google is more interested in making search lucrative than a better product for us.
There's one reason it gets away with this, according to a recent congressional investigation: Google is so darn big. An impending antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Justice Department is expected to make a similar point.
From The Washington Post
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