[macandcheese]

Google creates an environment where you "need to use AMP" because they prioritize search results for properties that have AMP varietals - placing them in the "carousel" on top of search results. You can build a very performant static site, with terrific SEO and social share meta tags, etc. - but without AMP - and still be positioned below another property who's "regular" site is slow and full of cruft but has an AMP varietal.

[bvc35]

If this isn't a sign that Google is a monopoly, I don't know what is.

[mrep]

No, Google is the dominate search engine which is part of an oligopoly which while still not as economically efficient as a perfectly competitive market, they have nowhere near the power of a monopoly.

If Google replaced all of their search results with ads, people would easily switch to bing as bing isn't that much worse.

Facebook on the other hand definitely is "pretty much" a monopoly (but not completely) for certain subsets of the social media market due to network effects which is why they shovel ads down your throat on their platform and they are making tons of money.

[londons_explore]

Google has an unseen network effect...

Their search results are good because they do machine learning on data from all their other users.

A lesser-used search engine has less data, so even if they have smarter people and a better algorithm, the search results will probably be inferior.

[mrep]

That is fair. However, I still argue that it is not nearly as strong as it is easy for me to switch from google search to bing as most of my search results won't really change as they are basic searches but it is incredibly painful to switch social media networks as you have to rebuild your individual content and network connections for the new sight.

[mygo]

I actually have set Bing as my default search on my phone

... and let me tell you Bing is not nearly as good as Google when it comes to bringing me the right search results first.

But I got tired of Google asking me to “prove that I’m not a robot” by tapping on roads and street signs with every new search. I use incognito mode, and since they can’t track me, they either are punishing me or just automatically assume I’m not human.

[teknopaul]

Google replaced all there search results with ads a looong time ago. I blogged the first time I saw Google results had all ads on the visible part of the results page. Now often its all ads for the whole page. And you will not find any page of results that is not defined by Google's definition of what "organic" search should be. E.g amp, https, having an adwords account, hosted by them, tuned your page to their adwords requirements. etc etc.

[mrep]

Can you take a screenshot because I have never seen a page of all ads? I just did a few random searches for typical highly advertisable things and I got 1-4 ads but you could still see organic search results. Granted the "asbestos lawyer" search did have half of the original screen area full of ads but scrolling down showed most of the actual page with organic search results.

[nojvek]

In a way, Google IS the internet. AMP prioritized searches moves them to even more centralized internet where they control everything, host everything and can dump your site at their whims.