Chapter 10

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/03/BUBB1DONJ2.DTL&type=tech

Summary:
This article talks about a case by Watchdog against Google Inc. Watchdog states that Google is abusing their market share dominance, however Google states that their practices are designed to benefit users. Google doubled its market share in online video to nearly 80 percent since 2007. A report states that after Google put the Google Map in, the market share for onetime leader MapQuest has dropped from 57% to 32% and now Google controls 51% of the market share. Google stated that, the reason for MapQuest’s downfall was because they did not add features such as street view or bike directions while Google did.

Connection:
The connection between chapter 10 and this article is that the article talks about Google becoming a monopoly. Monopoly is when there is only one company for that industry. However, you may be considered a monopoly when you have obtained control in many industries, for example like how Boeing did back then. For this case, Google took over several industries, such as Google Map or Google Finance. Google may not have total control in each and every one of these industries, but they possess so many that it makes them a monopoly, similar to Microsoft.

Reflection:
I think that Google has earned its right to achieve monopoly. They did not abuse their powers and forced us to use their site. We chose to use Google Map when we need to plan a trip to some place we have never been to before. And it is also our choice that typing google.ca is more convenient than typing yahoo.ca. Also, it’s like a trend in fashion, when something’s hot, people talk about it. And that becomes their source of advertisement. Also, it is more convenient when you just have to access one website to obtain many different programs such as maps, emails, search engine, and finance.