Google has complete control over all internet search traffic in most of the world. They get to decide which websites are popular and which are not. This affects every person who owns a website or blog; a LOT of people. This is too much power for one company.
Amazon is just an online retailer, their monopoly only affects people who have shops on Amazon; this is not as harmful because it does not affect as many people and businesses (currently).
Same with Apple, their monopoly only affects people and businesses who want to sell apps on the Apple App store; this is a small number of people and businesses compared to the number affected by Google's search monopoly.
If you own a website, your life is being affected by Google. At a society level, Google can control the narrative of any social issue by tweaking its ranking algorithms to serve its own interests.
From first hand experience as an open source author who runs an open source project website, it certainly seems that Google has been treating me progressively worse over time.
I think you know the truth and you're saying the opposite. Maybe you own Google shares, maybe you work there, maybe someone is paying you to post comments on HN...
How can anyone believe what you're saying? We can all look around and see for ourselves with our own eyes that Google's monopoly is harming us.
Why should anyone believe Google more than their own eyes?
Even if our eyes were deceiving us, doesn't it say something about Google that we have become so distrusting of it?
So if a company earns the trust of their users (and grows very big and successful as a result), they get to claim full credit for it, but if they lose that trust, they're not responsible?
I'd trust the gut feelings of the majority of people rather than the opinions of a handful of experts... What's worse about this case is that there are no experts coming out in defense of Google; they do have financial incentives; so I suspect that they simply have no material to work with!
They cannot show proof to defend the fairness of Google's ranking algorithm because they know that any insight into how it works would conclusively prove that it's not fair. That's why Google is keeping the algorithm a secret.
Experts and authority figures have deceived people enough times that they no longer deserve any trust. It's simple game theory.
For me, the point of no return was the 2008 bank bailouts and it was made worse with the 2020 COVID bailouts...
In spite of the fact that the government had promised that 2008 would be the last bailouts.
Reserve banks of the world are printing massive amounts of money and essentially giving it to corporations (via 'loans' which are used for stock buybacks) and in doing so they betrayed the trust of every honest worker who earns a salary in fiat.
It's not that we want to rely on gut feelings. Gut feelings are simply the lesser of two evils.
And BTW, there are plenty of intellectuals who promote the viewpoint that the system is fragile and corrupt such as Nassim Taleb, Noam Chomsky, Chamath Palihapitiya and others. If you want to make sense of the modern world, just read some of their books or watch some of their interviews and presentations on YouTube. The evidence that authorities cannot be trusted is absolutely clear.
I don't think people realize how much of an effect google has had on shaping the internet over the past decade. I get the impression that most people think Google is just following-along with the trends/changes occurring on the internet, rather than being the driving/molding force. And the fact that Google is politically biased internally should also be equally worrying.
Amazon is just an online retailer, their monopoly only affects people who have shops on Amazon; this is not as harmful because it does not affect as many people and businesses (currently).
Same with Apple, their monopoly only affects people and businesses who want to sell apps on the Apple App store; this is a small number of people and businesses compared to the number affected by Google's search monopoly.
If you own a website, your life is being affected by Google. At a society level, Google can control the narrative of any social issue by tweaking its ranking algorithms to serve its own interests.
From first hand experience as an open source author who runs an open source project website, it certainly seems that Google has been treating me progressively worse over time.