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The European Commission has been in a constant fight with Google for well over two weeks now, but is this case against Google something Android enthusiasts should be alarmed about? To answer that previous EC cases against tech industries were examined. It is not the first time that the European Commission has targeted a major tech company after an alleged conspiracy of competitors. 15 years ago in the early 2000’s, Microsoft was accused of monopolistic practices for bundling its own Internet Explorer browser with Windows (Microsoft’s operating system), these accusations quietly ceased on April 15 when the European antitrust regulators started targeting Google for homologous reasons. The European Union’s commissioner for competition, Margrethe Vestager, has stated that Google is relying on monopolistic practices with how the company makes use of its Google Shopping service. But as if this wasn’t enough, Google is also under investigation for the control it has over Android, the company’s own mobile operating system.
All of these accusations and allegations come about because of how Google manages the search results to divert internet traffic to its own services, including YouTube, Google+, and Play Store. The charges might sound worse than they actually are, but the fact that the allegations may likely not be held up doesn’t mean that they won’t hurt Google. These trials and investigations are known to take years and just as Microsoft suffered through a similar case for 20 years, Google might face these issues for a long time too.
Google responded to the accusations by indicating that consumers not only get recommendations for apps and other services through its search engine and stated that every day, more people resort to social networking sites to fulfill their research needs. “People are increasingly using social sites like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter to find recommendations, such as where to eat, which movies to watch or how to decorate their homes”. Google is known to be the leading search engine and one of the most well known sites worldwide, which could be ruled as a monopoly when only talking about search by itself. Google has little power when speaking about social web, even if the company has tried to gain more power in the area, Facebook is still the main site in the social web, closely followed by Twitter and Instagram among others.