Has Google Become too Powerful?

48 U.S. States, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico have launched separate investigations about whether Google has violated antitrust regulations. The United States Department of Justice has already begun its investigation. This investigation sprung from concerns about Google becoming too dominant in the online advertising space and as an internet search engine. There are additional concerns that Google may be behaving similar to a monopoly, buying out any competitors thus having major control of the advertising market. 

Google has a major online presence, nine of 10 online searches are conducted through Google. I use Google as my primary search engine, as do many others, it has not been an issue for many, including myself, to use Google until the company has been criticized for prioritizing its subsidiaries in search results. There's definitely concern on the part of the advertisers themselves that Google wields way too much power in setting rates and favoring their own services over others. Small businesses with low advertising budgets are suffering due to Google's high rates, they do not have a chance in advertising on Google and besides Google, there are very few options to go. Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge emphasized the importance of this issue by stating, "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".  

The consumer is not only impacted by what company is advertised first but also by how much that company had to pay for their advertisement. The higher Google's rates are, the more the advertisers have to pay, causing the customers to pay more.  Jen King, the director of privacy at Stanford's Center for Internet and Society addressed this issue by stating, "There's definitely concern on the part of the advertisers themselves that Google wields way too much power in setting rates and favoring their own services over others". 

     The Antitrust Investigation into Google will take some time and as of right now it is unknown what kind of penalties Google will face. Possible outcomes for Google are that they might be forced to change their business practices, have to pay a large amount of fines, or forced to spin off search as a separate company.