Who’s Afraid of Apple, Google, Facebook?

Timothy Wu says we should be alarmed by the monopoly powers accumulated by Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Skype, Twitter, Apple, and eBay. Why he’s wrongTimothy Wu, the Columbia University law professor who coined the term “net neutrality,” is not someone to be dismissed lightly, especially when it comes to communications and media trends. In his recent book The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires — and in a related piece in The Wall Street Journal — Wu argues that just as AT&T was a monopoly during an earlier phase of communications history, companies such as Google, Facebook, and Apple now hold what he calls “information monopolies” that could be just as damaging to our society.Does he present a convincing case that this is true? Not really.In his Journal op-ed piece, Wu asks: “How hard would it be to go a week without Google? Or, to up the ante, without Facebook, Amazon, Skype, Twitter, Apple, eBay, and Google?” Just for the record, I routinely go days without using Amazon, Skype, or eBay and haven’t noticed any problems. I spend most of my time online. In any case, Wu says doing without Google and Amazon would be inconvenient. He goes on to say:To read this GigaOm report in full, see:
gigaom.com/2010/11/25/tim-wu-google-facebook/
www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2010/tc20101126_023905.htm