[mortoc]

That's the wrong lens to use. Determine monopolies based on the view of a potential competitor.

Say I'm a new search engine startup that has some better tech than Google has, we invented a better wheel. How hard would it be to compete on merit?

[scarface_74]

That’s not how unfair monopolies are judged in the US. It’s based on harm to consumers.

As far as how hard is it to compete, it’s not the governments job to force people to use your alternate search engine. Choosing another search engine is literally just a click away.

[bitpush]

Exactly. It has never been easy to search stuff using non-Google search engines.

You like traditional search engines? Use bing, ddg.

You like AI powered ones? ChatGPT, Perplexity

You want to pay for your search? Kagi

You want to plant trees each you search (!)? Ecosia

There are soooo many choices. But people choosing Google out of free will seems to be a bad thing for Google.