Google ad costs, not its alleged monopoly, irks businesses

When asked about Google, Bryan Clayton voices a familiar lament among small business owners. “You keep getting squeezed further and further down the search results page,” says Clayton, CEO of GreenPal, a company that operates an app to help homeowners find lawn care. “As a startup, you don’t have a million-dollar advertising budget. The Justice Department sued Google on Oct. 20 for anticompetitive behavior, saying the company’s dominance in online search and advertising harms rivals and consumers.

Owners such as Clayton have a different beef. What’s unfair about Google, they say, is the way it gives the greatest prominence in search results to the companies that spend the most on advertising.