While Microsoft reviled as monopoly, Google takes control of Net searches

Monopolies, we’re told, are a bad thing, and few of us would disagree. Raise the issue of Microsoft’s hold on the personal-computer operating system market, and you’ll often hear a diatribe against Bill Gates. Monopolies put too much power into the hands of a very small number of people. Though a monopoly can arise through the workings of the free enterprise system, once entrenched monopolies are by their very nature anti-competitive.

Well, there’s another huge monopoly that is currently totally ignored. Or rather, its competitive nature gets little mention though the company itself is currently the darling of the press, with…