I have a theory: not everything is a conspiracy.
Google dominates the market because they outcompeted other services on search function. The results were fast, relevant, and unlike anything Lycos, Infoseek, or Ask Jeeves were serving in the mid to late 90s, and early 2000s. Google was just better and everyone knew it. By 2004, searching for something on the Internet became colloquially known as “Googling.” (Note that a googol is just a big number: 10 to the power of 100. The company came up with that as a nod to the power of math. It’s not a verb. *We,* the consumer, came up with that, based on how much we were using the service.)
Since then, now two decades later, Google is now Alphabet. They have acquired and built a suite of products and services, while improving Search, at no charge to the consumer. In many cases, these products are superior (by measure of convenience) to paid products built by software companies, like Microsoft. Alphabet will continue to dominate (in any area) until a better alternative comes along that is cheaper, faster, or more useful. That’s how the free market works. Here, I’m leaving aside government restrictions such as China’s Great Firewall to both promote its own alternatives and prevent its citizens from viewing pro-democracy content (e.g. 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre).
Before you prepare your tinfoil hat, recognize the fact that consumers don’t like spending money. They will choose a free version of something if it means they pay with an abstract concept like “attention” or “privacy”. Alphabet knows this. Now you do, too.
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