Week 6 - The birth and death of Cyberspace

How large is Google’s monopoly and how does it relate to Jari Peltola’s theory?


Google was founded in 1996, has become the overwhelming dominant force on the internet. It conducts 85% of searches and nets half of the UK‘s £2.8bn online advertising. Ten years later Google become available for people to use on their phones which launched ‘Google mobile.’ Google’s search engine is undisputed with its nearest rivals with Yahoo just having 10% to of searches in the UK.

Jari Peltola believed that one of the features of cyberspace is that its made of information, offering great power to those who can manipulate information. As Google have an 85% stake in the UK’s searches it gives them great power as they are receiving a lot of information. Many people search personal topics in Google’s engines giving Google an enormous amount information on people’s lives. This therefore gives Google them the option to manipulate information which they receive through the search engines. By taking the information from searches they can see what websites people go on by tracking a person’s I.P address of someone searches information through a Google search engine . By an individual using Google’s search engines they have the ability to tell what may be happening in the person’s life.

Google’s enormous monopoly relates to Peltora’s theory as they have the ability to manipulate information given to them through people’s searches which they can then use to view their personal information.