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Is Google In Trouble?

To say that Google is the king of web searches would be an under statement, Most of us who have been on the internet at least once have been on Google. hw many other websites can claim such a feat? Google being Google has capitalised on its market dominance. From being a website Google is almost THE internet. But all of this is predicated on one thing, Google's Ad Business bringing in the money.

The BackStory

Google did start out as a search engine, but once it gained some traction Google was quick to branch out, not putting its proverbial eggs in one basket I presume. From its acquisition of Youtube and Android Google cemented itself as the one stop shop to get everything on the internet. With time most of Google's services exploded from YouTube to Gmail to Drive to Google Photos you get the idea. Google was good at making services. Google had us hooked on it's services. Don't believe me try to switch away from Google search for a week, try using Bing or DuckDuckGo, Both just as good as Google but most people can't and that because we've all grown so accustomed to using Google search that we can't really see ourselves using another search engine.

The Power Of Defaults

Think back to every smart device you've ever owned, Chances are that every or most of the devices had Google as it's default browser. This is no accident Google depends on your ignorance and your nonchalance to stay number one. The fact is that most people never change their default settings ( Except for maybe Internet Explorer).
You never even go into the settings app of your phone. So if your phone comes preloaded with Google Search you use it. Sure you might think Google wouldn't even care about a OEM not using Google as its default search engine but consider this. Apple switched away from Google to bing for it's Siri searches and Google was so concerned that it agreed to pay Apple 3 Billion dollars at the time, that figure is now 9 Billion dollars. So its obvious that Google is concerned about Google being the default search engine on phones. So much so that Google is willing to give Billions of dollars away.

Google's European Dilemma


Recently Google was found to be anticompetitive, Wow that's a big word lets break it down. As we all know Android is a free OS, Google gives it away for free and you're free to tweak it however you want. But there are a few caveats that are hidden in the fine print. One of the most attractive things about Android is its app ecosystem, the Play Store has millions of apps that you can install and for an OEM to be able to gain access to the Play Store Google insists that they pre load all of Google's apps on their devices (Hmmm I wonder why google would do that?). Interestingly enough Amazon did go the Google free route with Android and it wasn't a runaway hit.According to the ruling in the European Union this is an anti competitive move by Google in the sense that Google is smothering its competition with a pillow of internet dominance.
As per the new ruling each OEM whether they be Samsung or Xiaomi or LG who ever, they are now free to choose which ever defaults that they see fit for their devices. Quick to comply Google has decided to license out its suite of Google apps for about $40. Great your phones are about to be $40 more expensive end of story right? Well no. Turns out that most of the major OEMs like Samsung and Huawei don't really like Google, Think about it Samsung phones have a Samsung alternative to almost everything that Google has. This video explains this idea in a much better way than I ever could. Samsung and Huawei would jump at the opportunity to push their own app stores and maybe bing instead of The play store and Google search. Samsung is already doing this they are weaning their users off the play store using nifty tricks like bringing fortnite to the Samsung galaxy store first and Google is scared of losing its iOS customers which are far smaller by its Android based customers. The hits are coming and it is unclear if Google can handle those blows. Google's stock recently plunged when it missed Wall Street's expectations and this is how the stock reacts when their revenue is up 24% year over year. Tough times are ahead for Google 
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