All your ads belong to us: time for Government intervention?

April 14, 2007 — 4 Comments

Steve Rubel calls it right on Google: “All your Ads belong to us“.

Its been said before, but I’ll say it again: when will Governments start intervening in Google’s growth? How much of the online world will Google dominate before Government says enough is enough, this is anti-competitive, monopoly behaviour? Sure, the argument against is that you can’t regulate people’s behaviour, there is alternatives to Google in all the markets in which they compete/ dominate/ control, but every day, every month, every year Google gets bigger and bigger, more and more dominant and in control: Google + DoubleClick equals a massive share of the online advertising market. Search may not be all Google in the US, but Google has in excess of 80% market share in other countries, including Australia. Is Google close to becoming the Standard Oil or the AT&T of our times? remember that they also own a big chunk of internet backbone in the US as well. Time will tell I guess, but I’ll predict that if Governments aren’t taking a look at Google now, they soon will be.