Op-Ed: FTC investigating Google ‘monopoly’ of internet searches

The US government strikes again. Unlike many cartels and corporations which act like they own the planet and are above the law, Google is under investigation for its perceived "monopoly" of internet searches.

The very selective process of US law enforcement against corporations, which is truly a laughing stock around the world and undeniably the softest corporate law system on Earth, has creaked into action and is asking Google’s competitors for information about how they feel they’ve been harmed by Google. Well, isn’t that cute. Never mind the law, try and find some accusers. Don’t ask consumers, you might get an answer related to reality. Why, you may ask, is the FTC suddenly getting interested in Google after the last decade or so? Maybe being an American company which is making money is illegal, like being a solvent American citizen? The fact is that Google has about 90% of the search market. That’s pretty close to a monopoly, even if it’s mainly because the other search engines are so staggeringly primitive, lousy and in some cases truly pathetic. Google is as big as it is at least partly because it doesn’t have any meaningful competition. Yahoo imploded, Bing is to put it mildly in need of some work, and who were the others, again? Exactly who the US government will investigate at any given point in time is always interesting, if rather predictable. The oil companies, the biggest cartel on the planet, have never been investigated for their endlessly harmful routine business and environmental practices. Monsanto, that happy little folk art company with all the lovely smiles and enchanting personalities, have never been considered worthy of investigation. The Iraq contracts investigation turned into a sort of exercise in apologetic tact, despite massive rorts and outright fraud. They’ll investigate Google, but will they ever investigate organized crime in the corporate sector, or something that might actually make a difference? Of course not. Those in the loop aren’t investigated, simple as that, and there’s nowhere loopier than Washington when it comes to regulation of any kind. You can literally destroy large areas of America, and you won’t be investigated. “We don’t want the Nanny State”, they say any time someone is at risk of being held responsible for doing something. Of course not. Nannies know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. (Who’s “we”, anyway? US taxpayers are funding these “free enterprise/libertarian" corporations, not their fantastic business acumen and stunning social behaviour skills.) Google isn’t a problem. It never has been. The motives of the FTC in asking Google’s has-been Neanderthal search “competitors” for information have to be questioned. If other companies can’t compete, should Google be singled out for “blame” for the underperformance (read abysmally inept existential idiocy) of those companies? There’s another explanation: To their eternal credit, Google apparently hasn’t been kissing enough ass. The likelihood of anyone able to read “suddenly” discovering Google’s share of the market for the last decade is zero. So why the sudden enthusiasm for an investigation? Well, there’s another Presidential election next year, and quite literally everything on six legs is running for it this time. That’s usually the reason for an uncharacteristic attack of consciousness in regulators and legislators. The public becomes relevant every four years, and the appearance of lots of government activity, however meaningless, can be expected. The “people’s champions” will read their scripts and prove they’re on the side of the rule of law with a high profile case. Just don’t expect to ever see Washington’s sponsors under investigation, ever.