What will be interesting about this story - eventually - will be the arguments on each side as to the point where a private commercial service becomes a public good requiring additional regulation et al.

While I see this specific filing as largely a political play it’s not without apparent merit so likely will get taken up and drag on and on and on... A state level adversary has sufficiently deep enough pockets and available legal depth to take G on. A battle of behemoths! Just think of the myriad of lawyers grinning all the way to the bank...

And, quite frankly, once I’d read the above quoted (and the unquoted rest) description of G in the filing’s Intro - and stopped ROFLMAO, which took some time and which recurred more than once - well, sharing was the least I could do...

This could be MEGA. Google's monopoly has sucked hundreds of billions out of the Internet - money that comes eventually out of the pockets of the public. It has destroyed businesses and stifled innovation - anyone starting up and trying to promote a product or service over the Internet has virtually no chance of success without deep enough pockets to feed Google. Unbiased search is vital to the whole world and too important to be left in the hands of a company whose results are designed to increase it's own profits rather than present the best results to the searcher.

Other US states are considering the same. This might be due to lack of action by the US Federal government taking action (as has been either speculated or promised for the last 10-12 years).

I haven't read the filing yet but I hope this includes more than just internet search. Google monopoly in other areas like the app store (which those include search) and strangle hold on devices like phones (no straight forward way during setup to choose other search and app store options) needs to be address.

The same goes for Apple and its walled garden you can never escape from.

At least this is a start (but a decade+ to late)

Sure, and Windows is a public utility because it has 87.5 percent of the computer OS market. Facebook must be a public utility because it has about 75 percent of the social-media market in the U.S.

Now that the can is open, enjoy identifying the worms.

Yes Windows is a monopoly but it doesn't hold businesses and people hostage to the same degree.

While most people get Windows because that is the default install on PCs they are not beholden to Microsoft for everyday searches like everyone else has been trained/forced to do on Android and Apple phones.

Windows doesn't require 30% from every purchase on the app store (not that they didn't try with the Windows Store but I think it is like 12% and most developers do not use it). It is very easy for services to not use the Windows store and offer their products/services directly.

Sure, and Windows is a public utility because it has 87.5 percent of the computer OS market. Facebook must be a public utility because it has about 75 percent of the social-media market in the U.S.

Ever heard of the term 'Gatekeeper'?

Search is too important to be in the hands of a profit obsessed company that takes hundreds of billions from the Internet. Money that ultimately is paid by ordinary families.

Producers of products and services pay for enquiries to mega middleman companies that buy ads on Google, and, purely coincidentally, sit high in the SERPs as well, crowding out these same producers. It is the only way most of them can get business.

So the consumer not only pays for the product or service, but also the profits of the megacorp middleman, plus the cost of the numerous google ads necessary to produce a sale.

A fully regulated, or completely independent, search environment is essential if costs are to be reduced for consumers and new businesses are again allowed to flourish.

"...fully regulated, or completely independent..."

Kind of sounds like there's an oxymoron in there somewhere. :)

There never has been a "level playing field", ever. But there has always been loss leaders to get players invested to the point they can be encouraged to play so they can be later fleeced until they bleed.

That's why it is essential that schools should actually teach history instead of the fad of the moment.