[balamatom]

>Google isn't leveraging a middleman role to maximize revenue extraction from both sides of a transaction it facilitates

They're literally the middleman between layfolk an the Internet itself?

[Gormo]

"The internet itself" isn't a vendor that one obtains specific services from.

[balamatom]

Fair enough, and neither are users paying customers. It's all middleman at this point.

[Gormo]

A middleman is a specific party that mediates the relationship between two other parties. An aggregated system that everyone is using but no one in particular is in control of is not a middleman in the sense applicable here.