Google: Monopolist in the making

Alleged crime? "We don't think it's right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN,” pleaded Marissa Mayer, vice president, Google.

Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft general manager of the Internet Explorer group, countered, however, "Whatever behavior happened in the past, the guiding principle we had is that the user is in control."

The U.S. DOJ appears to be in agreement. CNET reports:

Microsoft's soon-to-be-released Windows Vista operating system does not appear to raise antitrust concerns, federal and state prosecutors said (last) Tuesday in a court filing. In a periodic joint status report, required as a part of Microsoft's 2002 antitrust settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and state plaintiffs, the government attorneys said a technical committee charged with overseeing the software giant's compliance had found no outstanding issues after "extensive testing" of Vista and Internet Explorer 7.

Google is a consummate competitor; Bill Gates noted at the recent TechNet Innovation Summit that competitors always want to see Microsoft limited:

'Hey, if you can castrate some guy's product, why not,' as cited by CNET.

More than 3 billion search queries were conducted at Google last month, representing a 50%+ share of search.

In “Google: The Anti-Microsoft” I ask “Why Google love, but Microsoft hate?”:

Life was simple when Microsoft ruled (monopolized) the tech roost: Just hate Microsoft!

Many, of course, persist in hating Microsoft. More, however, many more, LOVE Google!

Is Google really on a selfless, world-serving mission to organize its information and make it universally accessible to all its inhabitants with no ulterior motives, OR:

Is Google not a ruthless, profit driven corporation, as is Microsoft? 

If a monopoly is a market containing a single firm, Google has put forth its monopolistic desires.

We are in the search business, so we need all of the information… ultimately our goal at Google is to have the strongest advertising network and all the world’s information, that’s part of our mission. 

South East Asia Director, Richard Kimber:

We're going to continue build out our business here, broaden the range of services that we have and leverage off the leading position that we have in this market, where we account for about 80 per cent of the search traffic and we're the number one website in Australia.

When you turn to Asia, we're looking to build out our franchise within the Asia Pacific region. So within Asia there's still a long way to go on the Internet and lots and lots of countries to explore.

Google wants to win big in everything it does and it wants to do everything big: print advertising, radio advertising, TV, video, payment processing, software applications…

What's next from Google? Google asks, and responds:

It's hard to say. We don't talk much about what lies ahead, because we believe one of our chief competitive advantages is surprise.

Google may just have a monopoly surprise, soon.

TAKE THE POLL: Should Google rule the world’s information?