> (…) split the index, which is to say the part of Google Search that scrapes the web and makes that content searchable, from the search user interface, and manage that index as a public utility that different search services could rely on and pay for, an idea that was suggested in a recent paper.

That would be incredible. I wish regulators would make Commons Enforcement a regular part of their playbook.

Commonify the monopolizers’ complements!

https://gwern.net/complement

https://mastodon.social/@robin/112933151964297678

Laws of Tech: Commoditize Your Complement

A classic pattern in technology economics, identified by Joel Spolsky, is layers of the stack attempting to become monopolies while turning other layers into perfectly-competitive markets which are commoditized, in order to harvest most of the consumer surplus; discussion and examples.

@erlend OMG this idea is so cool

@erlend Kept thinking about this. A coalition of companies could do this if they wanted. See for example how Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, TomTom formed Overture to compete with Google Maps https://overturemaps.org/

Tech knows the playbook. To disrupt an entrenched competitor, open data and collaboration is the only way.

Then the question is, why it hasn't happened yet?

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