What is Google’s prerogative to maintain Internet dominance?

Google boasts a large share of the search market to the extent that it is often said that searching on the Internet is done by google. The Knuckleheads’ Club, founded by a group of engineers to raise an alarm about this situation, points out that Google has the prerogative of the Internet.

According to Knuckle Heads Club, all search engines rely on a system called a crawler that periodically searches documents and images on the web and automatically database them. Search engines run crawlers and make copies of all sites so they can respond quickly to user searches.

Since the crawler accesses the site, numerous search engines may press the bandwidth or overload the server if they constantly crawl. Therefore, site administrators must narrow the number of search engines that allow crawlers. As a result, some search engines, especially the Google crawler, are often allowed. This is the privilege of Google pointed out by the Knuckle Heads Club.

In response, the Knuckleheads Club criticizes how Google has an edge, saying that a large-scale crawling of only Google is not a bad or illegal situation, but it is a significant problem. Since it is a clear market failure, it is argued that governments must intervene to break the Google monopoly.

Jacques Marril, the founder of Knuckle Heads Club, discovered this problem while working for Bandcamp, a music delivery service. The bandcamp operation required attracting a lot of people to Google search, so when the Google crawler caused a problem, Marill had to be busy solving the problem. However, if another search engine crawler causes problems, Bandcamp says it has blocked the crawler.

He became suspicious of the nature of the search market, so he changed his job to another technology company not directly related to Google, wrote a report that summarized the Google problems, submitted it to the US Congress, and started his activities, such as meeting with an antitrust subcommittee investigator. .

In 2020, the Knuckle Heads Club was established to investigate Google monopoly issues and to make policy recommendations. In an interview about his activities, he also said that Google has a great power in society, and that he believes that this power must not be controlled democratically, that is, with the power of a small voice. Related information can be found here.