• by Derek Gordon , August 15, 2011

Remember the years when the likes of Netscape and Apple joined forces with a host of smaller, but no less aggrieved businesses to sue the bejezus out of Microsoft? Or Microsoft's antitrust battles that resulted in the famous consent decree?

Now, forces are gathering to turn up the antitrust heat on Google.  Congress, federal antitrust regulators and many of Google's rivals are arming for battle.  Ironically, Microsoft is one of the fomenters.

Early in the year, Microsoft was joined by Kayak, Travelocity, Sabre, TripAdvisor, Expedia and others in an attempt to stop Google's acquisition of ITA Software. ITA powers flight and fare searches on Kayak and others, and Google's competitors, collectively known as the FairSearch coalition, feared they would be shunted to the margins in Google search results.  FairSearch's effort to stop the acquisition through appeals to federal regulatory agencies largely failed. The coalition is now focusing on a broad range of alleged anti-competitive behaviors at Google.

For instance, FairSearch recently introduced Searchville, an animation website that riffs on the popular "Ville" series of games from Zynga (where Google is an investor).  Searchville provides cartoon strips and animated movie shorts detailing just how Google allegedly screws small business through anti-competitive shenanigans. (Note the focus is on small business -- and not the mostly huge corporations backing FairSearch.)

Though the coalition is still hoppin' mad about the ITA acquisition, it is also concerned with Google's application and use (or misuse) of the quality score in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and algorithms that allegedly seem to favor Google's best advertisers over others.

Meanwhile, Congress has scheduled committee hearings in September, and the Federal Trade Commission has opened up a formal investigation.  For Google's part, it's clearly studied and learned well from Microsoft's mistakes during its years-long antitrust battles.  Google's basic defense? It's all crocodile tears from those who were outmaneuvered in the marketplace, and are now turning to the feds to bail them out.

In my view, what's different now from when Microsoft was the prosecuted (persecuted?) is that no one is being forced to use Google search, which is, after all, completely free. That 80% or so of all searches conducted on the Web are done on Google is a testimony to the quality of the service it provides.  When Microsoft was under the microscope, it was argued that the bundling of Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system, which average people were forced to use if they bought a PC, prevented people from choosing other browsers, some of which may have been better than IE (for instance, Netscape).

Microsoft eventually settled, and the federal consent decree that was issued forced the company to offer a range of browsers when folks fired up a newly purchased PC.  It was essentially the first time the feds involved themselves in the competitive landscape that is Silicon Valley, and many people applauded the outcome.  But we've learned a lot since then.  And some of what Microsoft argued in its own defense has come true -- namely, that commonplace invention and innovation mean anyone, even Microsoft, can be outmaneuvered.

Back in 1999, no one could have imagined that Google or Apple or Amazon would come to rival Microsoft. No one.  But here we are.

Are there reasons to be concerned about Google's growing influence over search and other forms of online advertising? Absolutely. The wild success of Google Search, AdWords, Android, DoubleClick and Apps have created a Microsoft-like hegemony that will likely dominate the marketplace for the next decade or two. 

But what's also true is that there will be a Google killer sooner or later.  Silicon Valley has proved over and over again the forces of creative destruction never rest -- and that, virtually overnight, leaders often become followers before they even know what hit them.

We don't need the feds to save us from a too-powerful Google.  We've already got what we need right in Google's own backyard.