Oddbean new post about login | logout Poll: Should Google be broken up by the government? As they are a political actor, that got federal funds. Or should we honor free markets, and the only way to get rid of their political influence is voluntary opt-out? nostr:nevent1qqs227wazgxhqweujlw9lqxc4zq637d4e7mz2y2ca8kcve3y03lcpkgppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qyghwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnhd9hx2tct3jjzq
I choose to ignore and bypass Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc and use alternative solutions (mainly FOSS where possible).
this is the way
No, absolutely not. However all protections should also be removed from their company. Let's the markets run.
solid
As with so many other questions (vaccines, big ag, etc), I don't think an ideal policy would take direct action against the dangerous actors We just need to stop subsidizing them
for sure
Why is Google a target for monopoly and not Apple? USA is not a free market. It is a market under regulatory capture. Stop goverment subsidies and bailouts, stop monopoly by regulation. Easier said than done of course, but supporting a rotting structure just delays the inevitable. "WhO wiLl BiuLd ThE ROaDs?" Who built the blockchain? Humans are best equipped when not in the noose of the State.
agreed 100%
I frankly don't care if that happens. It's not like the choice is "free market" VS "controlled market" right now. It's "controlled in their favor" VS "controlled in someone elses favor". Like you said they are political actors with artificial advantages. I would rather have a free market, but since Google is not playing by "free market rules" anyway, and have deep ties to three letter government agencies, I won't advocate for it but couldnt care less if that happened to them. Live by the sword, now you die by it. I'll still keep opting-out either way
good take, thanks
I'm sort of in the middle on this. I think their anticompetitive behavior needs to be stopped. Google should be forbidden from entering into agreements to become the default search engine and should be forbidden from making Play Services mandatory on any Android device. Beyond that, I think the problem is a bit more organic. Most browsers use Chromium to some extent. This is mainly because it's the most secure browser engine. The flip side to this is that web standards have become such a monster that creating a secure browser is a massive undertaking almost on the level of an operating system. In the course of normal web browsing, we are constantly loading and running random code, and you'd better hope it's confined well. This high barrier to entry means few viable browser alternatives emerge and monopolies are all but inevitable. Separating Google from Chrome might seem to solve something, and maybe it does solve something, but I don't see how it improves the situation that caused the browser monopoly to begin with.