

Google break-up plan emerges from Brussels - IBM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102208901

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blisterpeanuts
Even if this "plan" were adopted by the EU, it could never be implemented. The
U.S., with a more business-oriented Republican majority in Congress, would
consider it an attack on free trade, retaliation against European exporters
would be threatened, and Google itself would spend years fighting it in court.

Given that Google is not a monopoly and there exists alternatives to almost
every service Google offers, most of which it offers for free, it hardly seems
justifiable to break a company up simply for being "too good" or "preferred by
too many people".

It's basically a non-issue, a desperate maneuver by the socialists and their
allies to remain relevant. The European countries should focus on encouraging
innovation rather than attacking innovative American companies for being too
successful.

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adventured
If greater Europe wants an alternative to Google, it should create one. It's
that simple.

Russia did so with Yandex. China did so with Baidu.

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rustyconover
Fascinating... Seems like 1982[1] all over again. It's an interesting
observation that Europe seems to be the last bastion of what some would call
market balanced regulation, as contrasted with the US's systemic winner take
all corporate capitalism[2]. I miss FDR greatly.

[1] -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System)
[2] -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_capitalism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_capitalism)

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cromwellian
Except that MaBell had a natural local monopoly thanks to the physical
ownership of rights of way for their network. You can't make the same argument
for internet services.

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waterlesscloud
Hmm. Wouldn't the EU separating the search engine from the rest of Google be a
death sentence for the rest of Google?

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mousa
Probably.

It's tough. I get where they really do stomp out European (and any other)
companies that can't compete with a company that has tons of cash/data and
offers all its services for "free," but also I think there are lots of
futuristic interesting things Google is working on that might not be
economically possible outside of Google.

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debacle
I don't know the specifics, but I agree with the idea of separating Google's
search from Android, etc. It's exactly what happened with Microsoft.

Google is still the best search engine, and I would still choose it for every
device I own, but the choice should be there.

~~~
blisterpeanuts
Why should Google's search be "separated" from Android? Can't you use any
search engine you want? You can download Bing Search for Android, Bing Maps
for Android, and from within the browser you can browse to any search engine
you please. Or am I missing something?

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adventured
You're not missing anything. This is paternalism. The notion that some entity
or person knows better than you do, that consumers are too stupid to look out
for their own well being, and that some authority should be able to force you
to behave another way, or force you to use products you don't want to.
Politically taken to its logical conclusion you end up in authoritarianism.

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pasta_2
Before people start suggesting this is some anti-American agenda from the EU,
keep in mind there are many American companies that have been complaining to
the EU such as Yelp and Expedia.

They want to stop Google's tying practices such as using their monopoly in
search (another thing to keep in mind is that their market share in the EU is
something absurd like over 90%) to benefit other products and services. It's
not really calling for breaking up the company. Also this is specifically
about raising the temperature on the European Commission. Parliament itself
doesn't do this

