I get why people say Google’s search is just good—it’s fast, it’s free, and it works. But that’s exactly the problem. When one company owns over 90% of the search market, there’s no real pressure to innovate. They can just tweak the algorithm and call it a day. Look at what’s happened to alternatives. DuckDuckGo, Bing, even startups trying new ideas—they barely get a foot in the door. Google’s default deals with Apple and phone makers lock up the market before anyone else can compete. That’s not competition, it’s a gate. And innovation isn’t just about better search results. It’s about privacy, data ownership, different ways to find information. But Google’s monopoly means they set the rules. We’re stuck with their vision, not a marketplace of ideas. That’s the real harm.

So if Google’s monopoly is so harmless, why do they spend billions every year to keep it? They pay Apple 18 billion just to stay the default search on Safari. That’s not a company confident in its product winning on merit. That’s a company buying out the competition before it can even breathe. I hear you saying Google innovates—they do. But that’s the problem. They innovate on their terms, in their walled garden. Real innovation comes from diverse approaches, not one giant deciding what we need. When was the last time Google truly disrupted search? They refine what they’ve got, sure, but they’ve crushed more experimental models than they’ve created. You can’t have a healthy ecosystem when one player controls the pipeline. That’s just common sense.