My Google Complex

I don’t use Google. Okay, that’s a pretty contentious statement – yes I am aware that Google owns Blogger and therefore I am “using” Google even as I type this. But I try to avoid using Google for search. My default option these days is Bing, although it used to be Ask. This came up in conversation one night at the pub recently (I know, I know - but I’ve reached the age where an evening spent propping up the bar while putting the world to rights represents a wild night out), and someone asked me if I really felt that supporting Microsoft instead of Google was striking a blow for the little guy. But that’s not really the point. My stance on Google isn’t supposed to be a statement on corporate ethics – I’m sure Google is no worse than any other denizen of Silicon Valley (as opposed to its rival Silicon-enhanced Valley, where the software may not be as good but executive stress levels are much lower) - even if “Don’t Be Evil” should really be amended to “Don’t Be Evil, But If Other People Want To Be then, Hey, We’ll Take Their Money.”

Google gives the best results, has the best features, continually innovates, and has an elegant visual simplicity that its rivals cannot hope to emulate. But for one business or brand to be so dominant in any market is inevitably detrimental to the development of healthy competition, which we are forever told is both the lifeblood and the moral compass of capitalism. It may be hard to feel much sympathy for the type of ruthless digital entrepreneurs that might be squeezed out of business – they’ll just go make their money elsewhere, you may say, and do we, as "consumers", really need another search engine when we’ve already got one that fulfils all our needs? But this is not just about one fat cat hogging all the cat food. Power corrupts, and monopoly does too (as anyone who has ever put up hotels on Mayfair and Park Lane will testify). And despite the best intentions, Google undoubtedly has the power to put people out of business. Only one result can be top of the listings, and for a small firm, without the budget or the expertise to optimise their ranking, exile to Page 2 could be commercially fatal.

And what happens if Google starts acting like a bully? Would never happen, the Generation E might protest. But then I’m sure Tesco don’t see themselves as corporate bullies, and Starbucks didn’t set out to drive the independent coffee shop to extinction. When companies get too big, it’s not good for competition, it’s not good for the supply chain and, ultimately, it’s not good for consumers either.
Bear that in mind the next time you go searching.