So why cant google do what they want? Display links that they want. Not to display others? I run my company the way I see fit and if folks want my services fine. If not fine. People aren’t forced to use my company nor google.
Comparing a publicly traded, multi-national corporation to your or anyone else’s “company” is ludicrous.
Sure, if you own all of the stock of a private corporation, LLC, etc. you are free to run it as you see fit. But even then, the purpose of forming a separate entity rather than using a DBA may be pointless depending on how you choose to run your company. Your company may not protect your personal assets depending on how you run your company. You could be personally liable for the financial obligations of your company. Lawyers call this “piercing the veil”.
Google is not the private property of the CEO or board members. It belongs to the shareholders. And, since it has access to the markets (i.e. is publicly traded), it MUST be and IS highly-regulated.
If two independent corporations secretly collaborate in a price-fixing scheme, it could be a crime in which someone goes to jail. For example, what if all of the companies that sold gas got together and said, “Let’s double what we charge for gas.” That’s criminal. And you can’t say, well just don’t buy gas, or don’t do business with them. Because, if they are all in on it, you are still being stolen from as a consumer.
But what if those same companies merged into one?
With Google, we have the equivalent of thousands of companies rolled into one. And they have monopolies, near monopolies, or virtual monopolies in many areas of commerce. They have their hands in everything. There has to be consumer protection from fraud and other criminal acts.
You say don’t do business with them. That’s impossible. Just having a cell phone means there is a 50% chance you are doing business with them. They own Android. And even Apple, your only other choice, has numerous agreements with Google.
If you browse the Internet, you are using Google. Even if you don’t use Chrome, Android, YouTube, or Gmail, your data is visible to Google. Google hosts a large percentage of websites on their cloud platform. Many others host elsewhere but still use Google for security, authentication, web traffic tracking and analytics. Google does AI, robotics, military research, self-driving cars, Internet access, and countless other products and services in many markets. Many entire industries—whole categories of business—live or die based on how Google treats their businesses.
On top of this, much of what Google does is very secretive. How can you even know to boycott a company whose leaders are plotting against you based on your religious or political beliefs if you are totally unaware they are doing so?
Google and its leadership are probably guilty of anti-trust and fraud. It needs to be broken up.