@mosxu – still on the ship, but it’s not the same sea anymore.
The real navigation now is in AI waters, and the DOJ’s pending remedy (as covered in the Digiday piece) confirms what many of us have sensed; that Google’s dominance isn’t just historical, it’s actively evolving across tightly integrated verticals (Search, Chrome, Android, AdX, DFP), and any remedy that doesn’t treat this as a holistic system will fall short.
Movement for an Open Web is calling for a merged technical oversight committee because the search and ad tech monopolies are so interwoven. Their warning? Google can easily route around siloed remedies via technical means; just like it did with DoubleClick. So unless the court goes deep and coordinated, this could end up a symbolic shakeup, not structural change.
In parallel, as I mentioned in the original thread, AI search models (like Perplexity) are already disrupting the funnel. And brands like Apple and Samsung aren’t waiting around; they’re shifting default behaviors and, by extension, the ad ecosystem. That’s the real long game; who owns discovery in the age of LLMs?
If Judge Mehta delays or goes light, and Google appeals through 2027, the AI-driven landscape may have already calcified a new form of monopoly, just harder to regulate next time.
So yeah, still on the ship, but now charting a course with owned data, direct channels, and relevance in the AI layer. That’s what’ll matter when clicks give way to citations.
Curious, how are others here adapting strategies? Are you chasing citations in AI, or still optimizing for page 1?
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