US alleges Google got rich because people stick with search defaults

Re:US alleges Google got rich because people stick with sear... by theandrewbailey on Thursday September 14, 2023 @01:18PM (#37511855)

Didn't Google have the majority share in search engines before they started paying to be the default (~early 2000s)?

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Re:US alleges Google got rich because people stick with sear... by elashri on Thursday September 14, 2023 @01:43PM (#37512243)

No according to this dataset [1] about US search engine marketshare

[1] https://datahub.io/rufuspollock/search-engine-market-shares

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Re:US alleges Google got rich because people stick with sear... by notatallshaw on Thursday September 14, 2023 @02:02PM (#37512504)

The link you've given shows Google had the majority of market share by October 2004, which is in line with what the parent comment states (at least the way I parse it).

What were they paying to be default on prior to October 2004? Smartphones didn't exist, Firefox didn't exist, Internet Explorer didn't have a dedicated UI element that led you to a search engine.

Are we talking about software that made Google the default home page? IE Toolbars? Feature phones like the Blackberry?

I was active on the Internet since the late 90s, but I only remember having to type "www.google.com" prior to 2005, but I'm certainly no means an expert.

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Re:US alleges Google got rich because people stick with sear... by qbrass on Thursday September 14, 2023 @03:38PM (#37513790)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Desktop

To be fair, I don't know if they actually had to pay anyone.

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Re:US alleges Google got rich because people stick with sear... by notatallshaw on Friday September 15, 2023 @12:58PM (#37526032)

Google Desktop was not released before October 2004 though.

And even then, what was its significance on the general desktop space? I used it heavily, but I didn't know anyone else who had it installed.

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Re:US alleges Google got rich because people stick with sear... by isk517 on Thursday September 14, 2023 @01:43PM (#37512244)

I agree, Google got rich by having the best product. Now they are staying rich because people will stick with the default as long as there isn't a head-and-shoulders about the rest better option.

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Re:US alleges Google got rich because people stick with sear... by itiro on Thursday September 14, 2023 @02:39PM (#37512967)

Google’s window of having the best product closed over a decade ago.

Payola schemes been keeping them afloat since mobile took off. App stores would have become the new default search for a solution engine.

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Re:US alleges Google got rich because people stick with sear... by greatpostman on Thursday September 14, 2023 @02:12PM (#37512633)

Chatgpt like competitors will take down google search

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Re:US alleges Google got rich because people stick with sear... by verdverm on Thursday September 14, 2023 @10:38PM (#37517594)

including Bard and Gemini?

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Re:US alleges Google got rich because people stick with sear... by hulitu on Friday September 15, 2023 @04:25PM (#37528687)

Chatgpt is a parody.

Some people need precise answers not propaganda.

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Re:US alleges Google got rich because people stick with sear... by hulitu on Friday September 15, 2023 @03:34PM (#37528123)

> I agree, Google got rich by having the best product

no. There were better search engines (altavista, yahoo). Google was the most agressive.

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