DISQUS

DISQUS Hello! Mathew's comments is using DISQUS, a powerful comment system, to manage its comments. Learn more.

Community Page

Mathew's comments

Jump to original thread »
Author

Google: Anti-trust case waiting to happen?

Started by mathewi · 10 months ago

Depending on whom you talk to about Google’s share of the Web-search market, you are likely to get estimates of anywhere from 30 per cent to the upper 40-per-cent range. Rich Skrenta of Topix, however, says that the true number is closer to about 70 per cent, and that anyone who ... Continue reading »

11 comments

  • Don Dodge

    2 years ago

    Mathew, Just curious...what do your traffic logs show? Mine showed 70% of referrals came from Google, which mirrors exactly what Skrenta found.

    However, I just noticed that his link to WeBsideStory was from March of 2004...almost 3 years ago. A more recent press release from them says that Google accounts for 75% of referrals in the UK...more in line with what we are seeing. Here is the more recent link. http://www.websidestory.com/company/news-events...

    In any case, there is a big difference between share of referral traffic versus market share of total searches. Either way Google is #1 so it is just academic.

    Don Dodge
    reply
  • Mathew Ingram

    2 years ago

    Mine show about 60 per cent of referrals coming from Google, last time I looked. And I would agree that share of search overall and share of search referrals are two different things -- but when it comes to questions of monopoly power, which is what an anti-trust case (assuming there was one) would look at, I think referrals would be more important than simple search itself. Of course, I'm not a lawyer -- I just play one on the Internet :-)
    reply
  • Rob Hyndman

    2 years ago

    Wot's this then? Internetlawyering without a license? Next thing you know we'll all play internetjournalist!

    Oh ...
    reply
  • Mathew Ingram

    2 years ago

    :-)
    reply
  • Andrew

    2 years ago

    You need to make sure that the corpus of site you are examining isn't demographically skewed. If you look at tech sites (or even smart people sites :) ) then you will find a lot of people using Google (and Firefox).
    reply
  • Mathew Ingram

    2 years ago

    A fair point, Andrew. That said, however, Rich's data for the New York Times and USA Today -- unlikely to be geek hotspots -- are still well over the 60-per-cent mark.
    reply
  • Andrew

    2 years ago

    I agree, those two wouldn't be geekspots, but it's important to note that this is a terribly difficult question to frame and answer properly

    For kicks, here's some statistics from the website of a regional bank with about 90 locations. These are the percent of all referrals by month for February-October.

    Just an anecdote...

    Google Yahoo MSN
    1.4% 1.1% 1.1%
    2.7% 2.3% 2.1%
    2.8% 2.2% 2.0%
    3.0% 2.1% 2.0%
    3.1% 2.0% 2.0%
    3.2% 2.2% 1.9%
    3.3% 2.3% 2.0%
    2.7% 1.7% 1.3%
    3.1% 2.1% 1.8%

    For a conflicting anecdote, my blog gets nearly 100% of its searches from Google: iwtiwil.blogspot.com

    Most of my search referrals come from Wii Tennis terms.
    reply
  • Mathew Ingram

    2 years ago

    I assume those percentages are so low because people don't tend to search for the bank, but rather go to the site directly from bookmarks or from other links, yes?
    reply
  • Ari Paparo

    2 years ago

    Being a monopoly is not illegal. Google could have 100% of search share and do nothing illegal. It is only the abuse of monopoly through pricing or tying that can cause problems. For example, if they required publishers to accept CheckOut in order to appear in search results, or if they required advertisers to buy display advertising with search.
    reply
  • Mathew Ingram

    2 years ago

    You are quite right, Ari. A monopoly is not illegal -- but using that monopoly to distort the market, harm competitors or reduce customer choice is. As I said, I don't think a case against Google would succeed, but when it does things like putting its own products above other competitors in search results or AdWords, I think it comes closer and closer to attracting such a case.
    reply
  • Carl E. Person

    1 year ago

    I am suing Google for monopolization, claiming that Google has a monopoly (a share of 66% or more)in search advertising, and that Google is using its monopoly to monopolize the monetizing of traffic for social networking websites, through its various deals with YouTube, MySpace and others.

    You are invited to read my appellant's brief on appeal to the 9th Circuit filed on November 1, 2007, the very day that the New York Post, in its financial pages, features an article about Google stating that Google was expanding into social networking websites.

    Links to my brief, the record, the NYP article and other information is located at www.lawmall.com/google

    Carl E. Person
    212-307-4444
    reply

Add New Comment

Returning? Login