This image is about the feeding chain in the dominance of search engines. However, it also captures the evolutionary process of technology companies. IBM captured a dominant position in the mainframe world of the 60s. Then along came the PC and DOS and Bill Gates and Microsoft wound up on top. I remember in the 90s as new tech startups were making attempts to challenge Microsoft it was described as the evil empire and Bill Gates as a rapacious robber baron. Google as the new David going after Goliath adopted the motto of Do No Evil. Now Google has become the dominant player on the internet acting much as Microsoft used its dominant position in operating systems to push its other products, Google has engineered its search engine to give preference to its other products such as YouTube. Google Play and News. The European Union is pushing an anti-trust case against Google and also taking up the more general cause of US tech dominance.
Google Is Target of European Backlash on U.S. Tech Dominance
A top German official called for Google to be broken up. A French minister pronounced the company a threat to his country’s sovereignty. A European publishing executive likened it to a Wagnerian dragon.
Across Europe, Google has been under fire, reflecting the broader challenges facing American technology companies. Google, fairly or not, has become a glaring proxy for criticism of an intrusive American government and concern over America’s unmatched technology dominance.
On Monday, things grew worse. Regulators pushed the company to give up more in an antitrust settlement — demanding that Google make additional changes to its secret sauce, the search algorithm.
When Google initially settled with regulators in February, it emerged largely unscathed, agreeing to make modest adjustments to its search formula and avoiding a fine. Now, the deal is in jeopardy. If Google does not acquiesce, regulators could toss out the settlement and bring formal charges, which could prompt billions of dollars in penalties and major changes to its operations.
The backlash in Europe extends beyond Google. Taxi drivers from London to Madrid have demonstrated against Uber, the American ride-sharing company that was recently banned in Germany. Apple and Amazon are being investigated over their tax policies, and regulators are scrutinizing Facebook’s proposed acquisition of WhatsApp, a messaging app.
Google, with its broad reach, is arguably facing the most pressure.
Accusations are mounting that Google unfairly exploits its dominant position in search, giving a competitive edge to its growing stable of businesses, like YouTube videos, its Google Play app store and its news alerts.
The antipathy to US tech dominance was fueled by the revelations that the NSA has been using US tech companies and infrastructure as a means for spying and data collection. Google had negotiated a tentative anti-trust settlement with the EU that required them to make only minor changes in their search engine. Now the fight is back on again.
Much has changed since Google was founded in the late 1990s. It was once viewed as an idealistic start-up whose credo was “Don’t Be Evil.”
Now, it is under attack around the globe. Over the last year, while its search engine business was being shut off by the Chinese government, its employee buses were assailed in the Bay Area as symbols of inequality and its Google Glass was drawing fire from privacy advocates.
“They’re no longer seen as innocent geeks,” said Thomas Tindemans, the chief executive of Hill & Knowlton Strategies in Brussels.
Long live the new evil empire!