If you have a question, the overwhelming majority of people on the planet will start with google. Personally I like to start there because an alternative such as Bing has multiple stories on the page and they are distracting. If you start with Google, the algorithms will bring up what you are looking for along with the most popular sites. Part of the reason for sites to come to the top is to pay for or pay for advertising. Is that good or not?

In an article by Matthew Barakat of the Associated Press, one of the lawsuits going on in Washington is the US Justice Department versus Alphabet (Google) and lawyers for the justice department said is an illegal monopoly propped up by $20 billion spent each year to lock out the competition.

Google’s lawyers said the ubiquity flows from its excellence and its ability to deliver results customers are looking for.

The $20 billion is contracts Google has with companies such as Apple where the default search engine preloaded on cellphones and companies. (if a customer does not like it they can change the default).

Apple testified its uses Google because they consider its search engine to be superior to any other company.

Google says while it does hold a dominant position over general search engines such as Bing and Yahoo, it faces much more intense competition when consumers make targeted searches. Other social media platforms exist and people use them.

The Judge, Justice Mehta will make a ruling within the next 3 months.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, once a company becomes dominate in its field and can continue to make profits and pay dividends, some people will like it and others will not. The people who like it are investors, the ones who do not will be looking to break the competition and lower costs. Some areas such as utilities have a great deal of regulation or laws that take a great deal of effort to change the regulations. This is one of the reasons why large companies have large legal departments.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.