Totally different. Google has mindshare and a seemingly-insurmountable lead, but they do not have a monopoly on internet search results. I could put up the worlds crappiest search engine next weekend and theoretically be 'competing' with them. Spider a few million websites and link to them in some order and you're in the same business.
Standard Oil, at its peak, had an actual near-monopoly on most discovered sources of oil. You can't even get into the oil business unless you discover more oil -- in theory, they could have used their resources to stay on top of each oil source as it was discovered. No amount of old-fashioned ingenuity can compete with that.
Standard Oil, at its peak, had an actual near-monopoly on most discovered sources of oil. You can't even get into the oil business unless you discover more oil -- in theory, they could have used their resources to stay on top of each oil source as it was discovered. No amount of old-fashioned ingenuity can compete with that.