Google has a near-monopoly because it grew out of a natural monopoly; their product was so much more innovative that people flocked to use it and they have managed to maintain their technological lead by constant reinvestment.

An enormous difference, and one of which you are definitely aware, is the existence of legal monopolies for many network infrastructure providers, as well as lobbying of state governments to limit or prevent the building of publicly-owned network infrastructure in many jurisdictions.

I'm not locked in to using Google in any way other than by consumer preference. I use Bing as well but frankly I find it an inferior product.