Cancer and Google's Monopoly: It's the Remedy that Matters.

As readers know, I was recently found to have cancer. (And do I intend to tie everything back to cancer until the end of time? Maybe. Branding, I am told, is everything. Who else do you know that has an entire newsletter focused on whining about both technology and their own health. Right — no one. Branding!) Approximately two weeks ago, I had a significant portion of my insides torn out and rearranged in order to remove the cancer. It was, and continues to be, an unpleasant experience. And while I do not lament the missing bits — they were traitors, siding with the cancer against the rest of me — I do lament the necessity of their removal. What has this to do with Google being a monopolist? Just a reminder that the diagnosis is only part of the battle. It is the remedy that really matters.

There were three basic options that my treatment could have taken. I chose, in consultation with my doctors, the one that we agreed was most likely to actually cure the cancer and allow my body to get back to as close to normal as possible. It was not the easiest treatment, but it is the one that provides the best long-term prognoses (and hey, so far so good — still not dead!). The short-term is unpleasant, more unpleasant than the other options, but that is a price I am fortunate to have the space to pay. Unpleasant as it has been, it was the right choice for my long-term health.

The judge in the Google case has a similar decision as my surgeon — do the least in order to preserve the immediate quality of life, or do the most in order to preserve the chance for long-term health.

Google was found to be a monopolist in search and certain forms of search advertising. They were further found to have used their bought and paid for status as the default search engine in Apple products and Mozilla browsers to cement their monopoly. To be overly simple, Google purchased enough of the text-based ad market providers to gain the money required to be able to buy off potential search competitors like Apple and shut the door on others like Bing. While they had (with the emphasis on “had”. These days, Google search is pretty close to the equivalent of blindfolded monkeys tossing darts at the internet) a good product, they also leveraged their monopolies to ensure that no one could challenge them. The question now is what to do about them?

What the judge should do is break up the company. They should force Google ads and Google search to be separate firms and break up the ad division into sperate companies. In addition to banning any of the new companies from entering into the kinds of default agreements they currently have, breaking up their ad monopoly will go a long way to limiting their economic power and introduce competition back into a market important to how the internet works. Multiple ad companies will drive down prices and potentially introduce consumer friendly innovations (okay, these are ad people we are talking about, so that last isn’t likely, but it would at least be possible. It is entirely impossible as things sit today). It is the best solution for the long-term health of the internet.

But in the same way my surgery has made sleep just this side of impossible for me, breaking up Google will come with pain. There will be a period of adjustment, Google will fight it tooth and nail, dragging the case out, and some incumbents will be harmed who do not necessarily deserve to be harmed. I don’t, as a result, expect the judge to take that step. That would be a mistake — our judges need to think more like doctors and less like a fraternity. The lawyers for Google do not deserve deference. They are defending an illegal monopoly that is at the root of significant harms to the economy and society. They are closer to cancer cells than fellow surgeons (Though don’t irradiate them. That would be wrong.) in their effect. We don’t need to pay attention to their opinions now that they have been proven to have been wrong, and we don’t need to respect the company that committed the crimes. We shouldn’t be focused on the short-term disruptions but rather on long-term health.

I am not a happy person right now. My ground state runs from sore to pain, sleeping is incredibly difficult, both my diet and my actions are limited by the new reality of my post-surgery body, and people are getting tired of my cancer jokes. I know, however, that this was the best route for me, and I know that when I fully heal, I won’t miss the cancer or the ungrateful parts of my innards that were harboring it. I promise you that, no matter the short-term discomfort, we won’t miss the Google ad monopoly either.