Too Big To Google

This week, Google was deemed a monopolist in how it has positioned itself as the dominant (let us repeat... DOMINANT) search engine in the world. 90% of all computer searches and 95% of all mobile searches flow through Google.

This provides Google with a MASSIVE stream of revenue and a market price control that has been deemed illegal.

Google has built the best product, but then took action to effectively eliminate the competition.

Scientific American has a great breakdown of the ruling and its impact.

If you can't compete with the best, you can't beat the best...

Searching for Cookies

What was not discussed in the suit was Google's dominance in other areas of advertising. Just as Google owns the Search market, Google also dominates the browser space, with 65% usage of Chrome worldwide and 50% in the US.

This market ownership has created the current industry whiplash of the deprecation and non-deprecation of cookies.

Google's dominance has forced the industry to react to its whims. Safari and Mozilla have eliminated 3rd party cookies years ago, but the issue was more of an inconvenience than a massive industry upheaval. When Google said they would cut cookies, the ad world shook.

Google then created the Privacy Sandbox - shifting the technology behind IDs - and the industry said "ugh, but fine" and started to adopt the tech because Google's gonna Google.

Today, with Google backtracking on cookies, they're shifting things again to questionable outcomes.

We don't know what the impact of a "consumer led opt out" might look like. Cookies could naturally go away as more and more users opt for privacy as Ari Paparo has laid out in his Marketecture newsletter. But Google may also change the playing field again with some unexpected twist.

It's Google's Field, We're Just Playing On It

Whatever the outcomes of the non-cookie deprecation, we're all sitting here awaiting Google's next move.

We don't know if the monopolist ruling with substantially change Google's Search business, and we also don't know if any potential changes will then bleed into other areas where Google is the dominant player.

We're forced to play by Google's rules because of their market heft, and only time will tell if legal limitations will inhibit Google's dominance. If Google is forced to change their practices and shrink or divest some of their platform components, the door will be cracked for other companies to grow their market share and compete with Google on a more even playing field.