"If you were looking for an emblem to represent the internet as we have come to know it, you might well visualise a Google search box. The company has been the door to almost everyone's experience of what the World Wide Web is because it has monopolised the primary point of access - search. To many, the internet is search and search is the internet. How else could we navigate millions of pages and find the information we are looking for?"
"And the power of search has allowed a plurality of sites to flourish. For a few dollars, anyone can set up their own website. If they publish content people are looking for they can be discovered for free. If you like, there is a grand bargain where content creators provide content that Google can index and Google provides them with audiences."
"Programmatic advertising (again monopolised by Google, but that's another story) then allows website creators to earn a livelihood from their work. Now, this is no utopian project. Google has made billions of dollars and often served results which are more commercially valuable for it than for the consumer. More damagingly, low barriers to entry make it easy for bad actors to create websites containing misinformation, safe in the knowledge that if they get caught they can easily just set up another."
"These websites often successfully deceive search engines into ranking them higher than genuine rivals. The plurality of information has, at times, been overwhelming, it can be hard to distinguish truth from propaganda. However, it did allow a diversity of media to grow up, with small, independent groups of journalists given a voice and the ability to challenge power. The click economy and walled gardens The search-based model of the World Wide Web works because it has a business model."
Google monopolises the primary point of access—search—and functions as the gateway to most people's experience of the World Wide Web. Search enables navigation across millions of pages and supports a plurality of sites by providing discoverability. Low barriers allow anyone to set up websites and programmatic advertising lets creators monetise attention. The model has enabled independent media growth but also incentivises commercially valuable results and allows bad actors to game rankings with misinformation. The plurality of information can overwhelm users and blur truth and propaganda. The web's search-based model persists because it underpins a viable business model.
Read at euronews
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