Google is Not a Monopoly

A monopoly is classified as an enterprise that is the only seller of a certain product, thus having no economic competition. During the early Twentieth Century, J.D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, under the Sherman Antitrust Act, was labeled as a monopoly since it owned most of the country’s and world’s oil production and marketing business resulting it to be split into several different companies, including today’s ExxonMobil, resembles its parent. As I have analyzed it Google does not fall under this category, since almost all of their services have a handful of competitors. Even though Google offers a large variety of services, they tend to improve on a service that is already out there and consider all their services to be in beta, with Gmail as the exception, which was launch officially in 2004. Even their futuristic Google Glass, which is currently in beta, has an opposition known as Jet, which was created by Recon Instruments.

So there is no way that Google is a monopoly, with them making a service when many other corporations already offer it. Google is more of an experimenter than anything else since what they do is spread themselves in. different fields and try to improve them. Their products range from social networking with Google Plus, internet and cable provider with Google Fiber, cell phones with the Google Nexus, laptops with their Chromebook, and they even run a laboratory in California known as Google X Lab. Google actually makes the lives of their consumers simpler by syncing their data across all their devices through Gmail. This data can also be downloaded through the Google Account Activity Report to be able to manage and organize one’s information. On top of everything Google supports open source and post the codes for their Android and Chromium operating systems online as well as giving hints on how to modify and improve them for different needs.

Currently the only service that Google has, which may not have a competitor, is their augmented reality game known as Ingress. Currently Ingress is only available for Android devices and an activation code is needed to be able to play, even though the app can be downloaded through the Google Play Store. But, even this does not make them a monopoly because just like most of their other services Ingress is in beta, is free of charge, and syncs with Gmail as well as ad free. In reality the only difference that Ingress has from other video games is that it requires players to go outside and play, instead of remaining stationary in a room. So I may be that other mobile games and maybe even console games can be counted as a competitor, even though those games one way or another try to make a profit off of its consumers, whereas Google does not.

 From personal experience I actually enjoy using the services provided by Google. With Google Drive I am able to start an assignment on my phone when I am not able to use my laptop and then later on access the file on my laptop without having to send my email attachment or tether my phone. Also, with Gmail syncing my bookmarks, history, and forms from Google Chrome, I am able to access all my internet data from my cell phone, laptop, and desktop with no problem. As I have said before I see that Google actually makes everyone’s life easier by syncing the data from all their services onto one account which can be access from any device that runs almost any operating system. Google even has a sense of humor with their easter eggs and annually pranks on some of their more widely used services such as Gmail and YouTube, which adds another reason why I support them.