FTC

NPR/WFAE host Tim Collins of Charlotte Talks hosted a very good hour-long radio show on net neutrality this morning featuring CDT's very able Andrew McDiarmid, promoting net neutrality/Title II regulation, and me opposing formal net neutrality/Title II regulation.

• It was a fresh and informative overview for the average listener.
• The podcast link is here.  Please add comments if you wish.

What those who follow this blog would find most amusing, was my defense of Google from the sand-blasting it has gotten from the extreme left for its attempt with Verizon to be constructive in trying to find a workable framework/compromise on net neutrality for the FCC.

In one of Google's worst misrepresentations about privacy to date, Google's Head of Product Development for Google Enterprise, Matt Glotzbach, told the FT that Google did not believe that its new gmail feature -- that ranks emails automatically based on what Google's algorithm judges are the most important emails to be read first -- would raise any privacy concerns. "We're not creating any new information, we're leveraging information that is already there."

Unbelievable. This is grossly deceptive and untrue.

Google has purged Google Places of all Yelp local business reviews in Google Places -- per TechCrunch: "It is confirmed, Google has changed the classification of Yelp's reviews, according to a Google spokesperson. Until further notice, don't expect to find Yelp in the "reviews" section..."

Good satire like this is rare and precious. 

Don't miss The Onion News Network's new spoof of a Google phone that is paid for with "automated whisper advertising."  

• It even spoofs how Google Buzz could send automated ads to your contact list using an automated version of your own voice!

The comedy news clip is only 2 min 34 seconds... after a 15 second ad. 

• The clip's a riot. Enjoy.

  If you want to see what I think are the best ~dozen Google comedy videos please visit my sister website www.GoogleMonitor.com and click on the humor section and then click on any of the dozen video links there.

  • My personal favorite is the Big Honkin video Google Roommate -- Episode I.

   

   

In a big positive and under-reported Google privacy precedent, Google now has agreed to a new important privacy protection principle that people should be able to opt out of having their homes included in Google's StreetView. Just yesterday in Germany, Google went live with a new StreetView op-out offering for Germans.

First, if it is a good consumer protection principle and option for German citizens, why shouldn't it be a good policy and freedom for all citizens to enjoy in the 23 countries where Google has rolled out StreetView?

Google's self-interested proposal with Verizon on net neutrality legislation publicly spotlighted to many for the first time, Google's Machiavellian manipulation of Washington for competitive advantage, i.e. proactively seeking regulation of Google's competitors while ensuring Google remains unfettered by any regulation.

To help you better picture how Google leverages its search advertising monopoly via anti-competitive search discrimination in favor of Google information, products and services... and to better connect Google's monopolization strategy with the myriad of current Google actions to embrace and extend its monopoly... please see this one-page chart/PDF: "Google-opolization Through Anti-competitive Search Discrimination." 

For those who really want to understand Google's strategy and how it all fits together, please read and study this one-page chart/PDF, because much valuable work and insight has gone into providing everyone with a big picture conceptualization of Google's monopolization of digital information distribution and the Internet itself.

Google now has 93.8% of U.S. revenue share of search advertising as Google has taken ~20% of the search advertising revenue share that they did not have a year ago.  Google continues to relentlessly gobble up massive search advertising revenue share from its only two significant competitors, Yahoo and Microsoft, in part because:

• Google's relevant revenues are 20x bigger than Yahoo's and 57x bigger that Microsoft's; and
• Google is growing its huge base so much faster -- +24% to Yahoo's -8% and Microsoft's +13%. 

Given that these revenue share calculations are relatively easy to do (explained in detail below), and that the key revenue numbers are publicly available, it is amazing how no one in the press that reports on Google antitrust issues discuss revenue market share, which is what really matters in antitrust investigations trying to prove monopoly power.  

The fateful policy decision by the FTC/DOJ to exclude privacy as a factor in antitrust enforcement has fostered a perverse market dynamic where many online advertising companies now effectively compete on the basis of who can most take advantage of consumer privacy fastest, rather than compete on the basis of who can best protect consumer privacy. 

37 States are now involved in a "powerful multi-state investigation" of "Google's Streetview snooping" per a press release from investigation leader, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who released a new follow-up letter to Google asking for more information and clarification of its representations to date. 

The letter shows the investigation is very serious. Its prosecutorial exactness strongly suggests that investigators believe Google has not been forthright in its answers to date and that it could be covering up material information to the investigation.