• D: All Things Digital , Thursday, September 11, 2008 11:02 AM

Is Google a monopoly? Maybe not, but the search giant may be trying to become one, and Kara Swisher suggests that for that reason, regulators should take a long look at Google's proposed search advertising pact with struggling Yahoo. Such a pact -- no matter how small in scale -- would result in the pair cornering 80% of online advertising's most lucrative market. Meanwhile, Google rival Microsoft is gathering legislators, big advertisers, newspapers, and anyone else it can to keep this deal from happening.

So why should regulators be worried? Google may not exhibit the "thuggish behavior that so characterized Microsoft's monopolistic hegemony", but the search continues to announce "more earth-girding" moves. Take yesterday's O3b announcement, a joint project Google is undertaking with Liberty Global to deliver cheap Web connectivity to Africa. Though this is an "admirable" effort, it's also designed for Google to get 3 billion more users.

Elsewhere, the latest comScore numbers underscore the Web giant's dominance of the video market, with Google accounting for 44% of the 11.4 billion videos viewed in July. The next closest competitor was Fox Interactive Media, with 3.9%. In the end, Google in video, Web search, and perhaps one day, browsers and Web based services, paints a picture "of one huge giant and a lot of teeny pygmies." There's a pattern here, Swisher says, a point that regulators seem to get. "So, one has to wonder exactly when Google will."

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