“DOJ Urges Federal Judge To Break Google’s Search Grip.” How interesting it would be to focus group the previous headline to a broad swath of the American people, young ones in particular.
That is so because in urging U.S. District Judge Amit Metha to allegedly “Break Google’s Search Grip,” we’re witnessing DOJ lawyer David Dahlquist look far into the past.
In Dahlquist’s words, “We’re at an inflection point. This court has an opportunity to remedy a monopoly that has controlled the internet for today’s generation and restore competition for decade’s to come.” Yes, Dahlquist is looking backwards. To see what’s true, contemplate the fruits of a search on Google’s Chrome web browser in April of 2025 to a similar one from April of 2022.
If it’s true that a week is an eternity in politics, then it’s something quite beyond that in business. As for three years, in business that’s another lifetime. Just considering Nvidia alone, exactly three years ago it was generally unknown. Its shares were trading at $19.52, ahead of a sickening plunge of 73% that took its shares as low as $11 in October of 2022. Then November happened…
November 30, 2022 to be specific. That’s when ChatGPT was released to the public, only for Nvidia’s shares to go on a tear, one that pushed the former afterthought to “Magnificent 7” status, including Nvidia at times holding the title of the world’s most valuable corporation. What a difference a month makes, not to mention the years since the last day of November in 2022. In short, the shocking advances in AI that revealed themselves in ChatGPT changed everything for Nvidia, which as the principal creator of the advances that gave such quick life to AI, became the face of an all-new age of technological advance.
Ok, so what does the Nvidia digression have to do with Google and its hugely popular web browser? The answer can be found three paragraphs ago: compare yet again what a search would reveal in April of 2022 versus 2025. The comparison ably answers the DOJ’s charges of monopoly lobbed at Google. As evidenced by the differences that one would see today relative to three years ago, it’s more than apparent that Google decidedly does not have a monopoly on web browsing. Not even close.
The seeming challenge for Dahlquist is his age. A graduate of law school in 2001, it’s no reach to speculate that Dahlquist interacts with the internet in ways far different than young people. Market data supporting the previous assertion can be found in the latest funding round for OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
While the valuation of Nvidia has skyrocketed since November of 2022, so has it for the creator (OpenAI) of ChatGPT. The non-profit that is soon to be for-profit is valued at $300 billion. About the previous number, investors didn’t arrive at it because Google possesses a monopoly in search, or when it comes to interaction with the internet more broadly.
As evidenced by how different a search on Google is in 2025 versus 2022, it’s more than apparent that Google recognizes what a backwards looking Dahlquist and the DOJ plainly do not: something as short as a day in business (11/30/22 to be exact) is another century. In other words, the difference in search results on Google in 2025 versus 2022 is evidence that if Google is a monopoly, it’s something lost on younger internet users increasingly comfortable with language model “chatbots” over “search,” along with the corporation being accused.
