do you use Google? and why?

[dead0man]

first monopoly trial in decades for the US starts today against Google

The United States government is taking on one of the world's most powerful companies: Google.

A court battle kicks off on Tuesday in which the U.S. Justice Department will argue that Google abused its power as a monopoly to dominate the search engine business. It's the government's first major monopoly case to make it to trial in decades and the first in the age of the modern internet.

The Justice Department's case hinges on claims that Google illegally orchestrated its business dealings, so that it's the first search engine people see when they turn on their phones and web browsers. The government says Google's goal was to stomp out competition.

"This lawsuit strikes at the heart of Google's grip over the internet for millions of American consumers, advertisers, small businesses and entrepreneurs beholden to an unlawful monopolist," said former Attorney General William Barr when the case was first filed in October 2020.

[Electric Circus]

DuckDuckGo's "bang" function is useful enough that I prefer to use that as my default search tool. I still use Google search occasionally and use a number of other Google tools and devices.

In general, I view anti-trust action toward tech monopolies favorably and think it should be used much more aggressively.

[Rand]

I don’t use the internet.

[Nutmeg]

Imagine using "Bing"

[Meclazine for Israel]

Google has the best search engine.

Microsoft Bing is hot on it's trail.

There are a few key features of Google which allow it to provide better results.

[Crumpets]

My default search engine on my personal laptop is Bing, but Google on my phone and work computer. My mom worked at Microsoft for most of my life, so I've always tended towards Microsoft products. But each has their strengths. Google searches are easier to filter, Bing's AI is the best free AI generator I've used, Google Earth is obviously awesome (bet most people don't know there's a Microsoft competitor called Earth View, formerly Virtual Earth, such was pretty comparable in quality in the early days).

[Independents for Nihilism]

One of these days I'm going to ditch Chrome and switch to Firefox with DuckDuckGo or something, but not while I have probably close to 200 tabs open across two PCs and my phone that I still need to sort through eventually, not to mention countless bookmarks.

[SWE]

I use Google because there was a point where it was well designed for what it's for and so I continue using it out of habit. It's hot garbage these days but I haven't really gotten around to trying its competitors (save for yahoo, which also sucks)

[Antonio the Sixth]

I use Google because there was a point where it was well designed for what it's for and so I continue using it out of habit. It's hot garbage these days but I haven't really gotten around to trying its competitors (save for yahoo, which also sucks)

This. I'm lazy and I'm part of the problem. Many such cases.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

#4 and #8. Google doesn't need to be an actual monopoly though in order to engage in prohibited antitrust behavior, and the government should step in there. There was an episode of The Good Wife that involved two girls who coded some software suing the in-universe equivalent of Google because they tried to sell it to that company who refused, and then that company intentionally changed its search algorithm to bury their program and causing their startup to go bankrupt. However the CEO of Not Google decided that he hated the lawyers more than he cared about the case, and thus offered to just hire them in exchange them for them dropping the case.

[Mr. Smith]

My PC is a literal Chromebook, and that's out the box.

If I ever upgrade to a more traditional PC, I'll probably use Opera and idk...maybe Ecosia, but I'm not in a hurry.

[Aurelius2]

Last time I tried DuckDuckGo a couple years ago it sucked. When it doesn't suck, I will switch. Google is getting worse with every passing year so maybe I should give it a try again.