If google were to shut down?

I was thinking the other day after reading that the DOJ is "looking into Google" for this or that, it does not matter.

Just the thought of really trying to regulate Google seems silly at this point.

If I owned Google and had bunches of money and the Govt even came on my doorstep and started snooping around, my first reaction would be to tell them to stop, when they did not, my second reaction would be to say if you don't stop I am going to turn off google for one week for every minute past this second that you don't stop and tell everyone why we shut it down. Now Google is not this pigheaded, but could be at any moment, it is their company and they don't have to continue to run it.

The world as we know it would have severe economic effects. Many people would go belly up, loose their jobs, livelyhoods, homes, businesses, kids etc.

So at the same time they are going after Google Chrome for antitrust issues, anyone out there use Chrome, feel like they don't have an alternative? Anyone out there use another browser often?

Why is Google's search engine not an antitrust issue? Even Verizon is not close to Google in domination of a market and you can barely get away from Verizon in most places (without a sat phone).

Don't get me wrong, I love using Google, but they own searching. In most cases you can type a website address into yahoo and it won't even find the page.

Thoughts on what would happen if Google decided to take some time off cause they are pissed or just have enough money or just want to use power? Why is this not bigger than MA BELL?

My home page would stop working!

I think other search sites would fill in the hole quickly.

I would miss google news most. They do a nice job with that.

I agree Joe, just as new car companies would have easily replaced old ones and new banks would replace old ones.

But with such market domination, I guess my real question is do we want to be in a position where one company can put us through the termoil of the transition to these new companies. My guess is that it would take a few months for the transition to occur, what google can do, other companies are not able to do right now, even Yahoo's search does not even come close. Just the time it would take company owners to shift their accounts, there are so many quick shifts that would have to happen.

Perhaps even the better question is whether antitrust is even an issue, would you be ok with one company in an industry, or in govt one branch of govt, say a king vs. a pres, congress, court....or perhaps only one currency in a country. Someone could have produced a currency that did not inflate as much as the dollar? Pinecam was enough right, people could talk....

and just think, 10 years ago, "Google" wasnt even a verb.

Bing is just as good.

Bing never finds what I'm looking for. It's 90% extraneous junk I don't need and didn't ask for, and 10% stuff that's "close, but no cigar." I'll stay with Google...

I tried to use bing but find myself thinking "I should just use google"

So besides their thoughts on performance of other engines, which supports my concern, how do you feel as an entrenched member of this society, where the actions of others can greatly influence your life, to have a govt that allows Google to get so large in this industry that if they were to simply decide to stop or take some other actions, that we could have a small economic collapse and many many people could be ruined.

It just seems that we turn the country up side down daily for stuff way way smaller. Any thoughts on the antitrust issue?

I just tried bing and did 5 easy searches where the results would pop up with pefect order in Google. 3 of them were searches for the exact domain names I own which are found easily with hints on google. Bing could not find them even when I typed the exact name and extension in. Google search engines do not seem to have real competition, but our lives are strongly dependant on them. Go to advertise and you will quickly be told that Bing and Yahoo are the same engine and if you search you see the same poor results. Google is like a car and Yahoo/Bing are like scooters or bikes, more work and you just might get there. Google is something like 80% of searches. It is not even the engine itself that could be the largest antitrust issue, it is the dependancy of so many businesses and thus jobs on riding the engine.

I guess my point is that google can really do anything it wants with it's products, there is really no way to say no, because they can say NO bigger than anyone that regulates them, so like many other things....we used to not trust people would do the right thing so we put systems in place to make sure people do not get too much power, but it is 2012 and that is the way of the past, the new breed of human is better and anyone who gets into a position of power in govt or business can obvously be trusted with no checks or balances. We have evolved.

Explain how success/popularity is monopoly?

When you have a product that people in society depend on and dominate a market in such a way that you can influence the price or take down sections of the economy via your simple will, you have some sort of monopoly, I specifically explained my concern, even if I got the word wrong. Any thoughts on the topic besides the definitions.

I think others helped me explain that no one else does what Google does and most of the advertising flows through google on the net and millions of people lives are tied directly to that search engine functioning properly every day.

Perhaps you can help me and explain why previous monopolies that were broken up were actually monopolies and the reason that we broke them up is philosophically different.

I am fine personally with one company winning, I hope it is mine in the future, I use google as a consumer and an advertiser and it won't ruin me if it vaporizes, but that is not true for many....this just does not seem consistent with how we have chosen to run the country in the past.

I have no issues with success and note the difference between debating something you believe in and dicsussing something that does not seem consistent. I am working with the later here, and most of the time I post.