This . . . I just . . . I'm sorry, much of the #Google lawsuit seems premised on the notion that people's fingers are broken.

Maybe people *have* tried other products and . . . just like #Google? Am I the only one who fiddles with the seat settings before driving a car?

Sure, data matters. Still, if Google itself started with no data, how did it . . . convince people . . . to use it in the first place?

Remember Excite, Lycos, and Infoseek? Yeah, me neither.

You know what they could have really used? PageRank.

Fun fact: Larry Page offered to license PageRank to Excite for $1.6 million and some stock. The only condition was that Excite agree to actually *use* the PageRank algorithms.

Excite turned the offer down.

The ominous talk of "preset default status" and "undeletable" apps is cribbed from the EU's talking points.

It's dumb when it's said over there. It's dumb when it's said over here.

Unlike them, however, we're cutting off our nose to spite our face. https://www.forbes.com/sites/wlf/2018/07/18/europes-antitrust-demagogues-shake-down-google/#fec55f048d9e

Governments: use companies' internal emails to make lousy antitrust arguments.

Companies to their employees: "Be careful what you say. Govs use our words to make lousy arguments."

Governments: "Ha! Got you! J'ACCUSE!!!"

Oh God. Oh no. Won't someone, PLEASE, put a stop to all this innovating.

Me: A search engine is free. I don't shell out any cash for it.

DoJ: Didn't you know?! It's a deal with the devil! You pay with [non-excludable] personal information and attention!

Me: So . . . it's free.

Wait, sorry, you said this is an antitrust complaint?

Oh, I see, we're going to talk about browsers now. To show how static tech markets are, remind everyone about Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

"Consumers are dumb, lazy."

Welcome to the Brave New World of antitrust arguments.

Another mobile operating system has about half the domestic market. But hey, its business model is slightly different!

In other news, Coke has a monopoly on colas that are a little less sweet than Pepsi.