The big business news in our industry yesterday was that the DOJ, US Department of Justice, sued Google alleging that Google acted anticompetitively to preserve monopolies in search and search advertising. Google shouted back that this is a "deeply flawed lawsuit that would do nothing to help consumers." We knew this was coming but probably not right before the elections.
To read all the news coverage of this, I highly enjoy reviewing the headlines and groups of articles prepared by Techmeme. Also, when you want to read something from someone who understands the legal aspects of this and truly gets the search industry and business, I suggest you read what Greg Sterling wrote at Search Engine Land named "DOJ antitrust suit: Google uses contracts, market power to neutralize rivals; Google thinks it will win but the DOJ used these arguments successfully before."
DOJ complaint against Google gets the history of mobile app stores wrong or remembers it incompletely. Most or all of the carriers at one time had app stores -- which failed, because they were garbage.
— Greg Sterling (@gsterling) October 20, 2020
What will happen with this? Hard to say but this is probably the most serious lawsuit Google will have ever, this is 100% the biggest lawsuit so far in its history. I just don't know if things will change, they certainly may and I wouldn't be surprised if Google has to adjust their business and/or actions because of this legal action.
Here is the SEO forum reaction from WebmasterWorld:
All of this, is just blah blah, I bet that, at the end, nothing will happen. (same for Facebook).
At the very least, the whole process will take years.
There's plenty of examples of failed attempts, and a few high profile examples of major companies in trouble.
Something will happen, but it will likely amount to very little.
There is an election in 3 weeks. This is sure to please voters on all sides. Let's talk again next February or March, will see then how much real interest their is to pursue this.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
