Posted on 04/04/2023 8:40:20 AM PDT by Twotone
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is going after Google once more as he joins the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit against the tech giant, claiming the company unlawfully monopolizes online display advertising.
This is the fourth time the attorney general has been part of an antitrust lawsuit against Google.
“An open marketplace encourages competition and creativity,” Ferguson said in a statement. “When Google muscles in and dominates the market, everyone loses — except Google.”
Ferguson announced Monday he is joining the Justice Department and eight state attorneys general in the lawsuit aimed at breaking up Google’s monopolization of online display advertising.
The industry developed tools to automate the process between two key groups: Website publishers and advertisers. When a user on the internet opens a webpage with ad space to sell, the tools almost instantly match a website publisher with an advertiser looking to promote its products or services to an individual user.
The lawsuit claims Google’s market share for publisher ad servers soared from 60% in 2008 to 90% by 2015. Google keeps 30 cents of every dollar in advertising that passes through the marketplace it now controls.
The suit asserts that Google’s dominance of the online display advertising market has allowed it to funnel more business through its services, resulting in websites earning less and advertisers paying more.
The lawsuit outlines how companies buy and sell online ads in enormous volumes and in fractions of a second. Online advertisers and website publishers use highly sophisticated, automated tools to get their advertisements on the computer screens of the most likely prospective buyers.
(Excerpt) Read more at mynorthwest.com ...
“When Google muscles in and dominates the market, everyone loses — except Google.”
Apple and Microsoft have muscle too.
This guy would sue his mother if he thought there was some liberal benefit.
Regarding Google’s search mechanism for products, it really sucks compared to when they first started out. Years ago if I searched for a specific item it could be found on the first page, probably the top three entries.
Today all the trash I do not want to buy are there first, cluttering up the first page. Some of the items do not even match the search criteria. I even ask for certain brand names, and other brands of the same item will crop up before the actual brand searched for.
Nothing will ever replace actual in-store shopping where a person can see, touch, feel and fully inspect an item before buying. I’ve been screwed many times on internet purchases.
It’s getting to be like Kmart where they recluttered the store every so many months to make people look for things they have no intention of buying. Amazon and eBay are close seconds. That’s why I like going downtown to a store, asking for a certain item, and knowing in a minute or two if they have it.
Exactly right.
Another lawyer smells money.
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