In 1982 , the Department of Justice enclose up a 13 - year antimonopoly case against IBM . The DOJ fall back , but so did IBM . The tech landscape painting changed , and IBM was distracted and had to move lento under the increase examination . Microsoft and Apple swooped in and knocked IBM off its pole . 20 years later , the same affair happened to Microsoft . The DOJ set up an antimonopoly investigation , and ultimately Microsoft was n’t broken up . But Apple , Google , and social media companies like Facebook left Microsoft in the junk . Now it seems like it ’s Google ’s round .
The DOJ and eight state lawyer general launcheda massive antimonopoly lawsuitagainst Google on Tuesday , incriminate the lookup giant star ofoperating a monopolyin the online advertizing concern , and asking a court to break the company up .
profits or easy , Google is in difficulty . AI tools like ChatGPT pose an existential threat to the company ’s search patronage . Google.com is the most popular web site on ground , but Google needs to use everything at its electric pig to fend off competition right now — which is just what it needs to avoid doing with the DOJ breathing down its neck .
Photo: Sean Gallup (Getty Images)
If you ’ll excuse the jargon , this kind of thing is what experts refer to as a “ big problem . ”
“ When you ’re under this kind of examination and defend yourself from the Justice Department and eight very impactful province , it ’s pass to be much intemperate for you to operate and make acquisitions , ” said Jason Kint , CEO of Digital Content Next , a trade association that represent roughly 80 publishing firm , include the New York Times , Wall Street Journal , and Gizmodo parent company G / O Media . “ This lawsuit could n’t come at a worse time for Google . ”
Google did not respond to a petition for gossip .
A visual representation of what’s going on with Google right now.Photo: Thomas Germain / Gizmodo
Behind the scenes , things are pretty chaotic at Google right now . Facing a global economic downturn that ’s been particularly tough on the tech industry , the companylaid off 12,000 workerslast week , a full 6 % of its workforce . The move shattered the icon of copiousness and constancy Google has projected for the past 10 . Meanwhile , reports say Google ’s management is calling AI ’s threat to Search a “ code red ” situation . It ’s so bad that the Google yell its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin out of their professional slumber to help strategize for its scrap against the artificially well-informed enemies at the logic gate . When Google collide with the scene in the late ‘ ninety , it chop-chop made other search locomotive engine await like dinosaurs . AI driven content find could do the same to Google .
As if that ’s not enough , Google is , ironically , dealing with some competition for once . For the first sentence in well-nigh a decade , Google and Meta ’s ascendancy of the digital advertising marketdipped below 50%last yr . Amazon anda million other companies from Kroger to Disney to Marriottare launching their own ad networks . ( Which is n’t to say Google does n’t still have a chokehold on ads . )
“ We ’ve been down this route before , ” the advert executive said . “ IBM was going though an antimonopoly lawsuit when Microsoft was a modest upstart , and then Microsoft had to pay it forward in the early 2000s when they had their own causa . ”
What ’s particularly ironic is the role player that expect poised to reign the AI infinite is , somehow , Microsoft . The maker of Windows and Bing ispouring billion of dollarsintoOpenAI , the company behindChatGPT . Microsoft says it will spreadits collaborations with OpenAIacross its services in the very nigh future tense . AnAI fueled version of Bing , perhaps the bighearted challenger to Google search in two decades , is slate for this leap .
“ History tend to repeat itself , ” the advert White House gag .
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