Bill Gates on Google - Lend me your ears....

Is Google a monopolist? “I wouldn’t call anyone a monopolist,” replied Mr. Gates, who has frequently been the target of that epithet over the years. He went on to say that historically companies that become “hyper-successful” invite government antitrust scrutiny, and he placed Google in that small, elite group of technology companies: AT&T, I.B.M. and Microsoft. Welcome to the club, Google. “If governments don’t care, that’s a bad sign,” Mr. Gates said.

Mr. Gates declared himself unimpressed and a bit perplexed by Google’s recent threat to drop its search business in China to protest Chinese censorship of search after attacks apparently intended to spy on Gmail accounts of human-rights activists. “They’ve done nothing and gotten a lot of credit for it,” Mr. Gates said.

One may or may not agree with the laws in China, he said, but nearly all countries have some controversial laws or policies, including the United States. “What point are they making?” Mr. Gates asked. “Now, if Google ever chooses to pull out of the United States, then I’d give them credit.”