Google, one of the most popular search engines, now has 48 states launching an antitrust investigation on the company. The investigation will focus on the advertising market and whether or not Google broke antitrust law. “In the United States, antitrust law is a collection of federal and state government laws that regulates the conduct and organization of business corporations, generally to promote competition for the benefit of consumers.” So basically antitrust law is in charge of making sure that no company gets too powerful.
Google also owns a bunch of smaller companies, which they advertise when you search for something. This causes an issue because it doesn't give other companies a chance to sell or advertise their products. When you look up something on Google, you have to look pretty far down in the search to find a company that is not associated with Google.
Another issue is the use of DoubleClick. “DoubleClick" was a company acquired by Google in 2008 which developed and provided Internet ad serving services. Its clients included agencies, marketers and publishers who served businesses like Microsoft, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Motorola, L'Oréal, Palm, Apple, Visa, Nike, and Carlsberg among others.” The problem with DoubleClick was that Google inserted exclusivity clauses into contracts with advertisers. This is a disadvantage for competing companies.
When you think about different search engines, you probably think of Google first. In fact, this may be the only search engine you can think of. This is the problem. Google overpowers every other search engine.
I used Wikipedia for the definitions of Antitrust Law and DoubleClick.
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