Axacta - 4:25 pm on Apr 24, 2002 (gmt 0)

I have faith that the free marketplace will fill any void left by the emasculation of Microsoft - there may be a period of instability and increasing prices, but market forces will prevail.

Imho the real question is how will this affect the overall marketplace, where successful companies are penalized for being successful. Whether Microsoft is a "monopoly" is irrelevant. The only thing that will matter in the future is whether large companies can pay off the right politicians to keep the government off their backs - that was Bill Gates' mistake - he chose to ignore the politicians, (he didn't donate large sums to Bill Clinton), and Clinton's liberal buddies in the tech marketplace saw an opportunity to take him down. Does anyone honestly believe that if Bill Gates had donated large sums of money to Bill Clinton and the DNC, that Microsoft would be in court today?

The real monopoly is government, and its ability to autocratically single out maverick (non-donators) companies - they set up their "gas station accross the street" and use public money and the courts to pummel industries into submission. Think "cigarettes", think "pharmaceuticals", think "HMO's", think "SUV's" (coming soon). The money that certain states sued the cigarette industry for was supposed to be used for smoking prevention and healthcare, but it was recently revealed that fully 15% of that money has been invested by those same state governments in cigarette industry stocks!

How long will it be until some industry types contact some political types about Google "monopolizing" the SE industry? If Google increases its domination in the market look for accusations of "unfair business practices" soon to follow. Google better open its wallet to the right politicians now...