Google said yesterday that its fourth-quarter profit nearly tripled from a year ago, as the world’s most popular search engine continued to expand its dominant role on the Web, especially in the highly lucrative area of online advertising.

This is very good news for Google.  It also underscores how unfair it is that Google is advocating net neutrality regulations in an attempt to gain a competititve advantage at the cost of the providers of the backbone of the internet.  Google knows that net neutrality will severely impair the ability of companies, such as Verizon, to continue rolling out costly service improvements, such as FIOS.

That would allow Google, through government regulation, to capture a large share of the internet service market.  Their fear campaign pushing net neutrality holds the very real possibility of creating a Google monopoly, enabled by favorable regulations.  That is where the real fear should lie.

Should Google successfully launch an alternative network, it is is theoretically possible for them to block out competitor websites and only allow users to access websites that have paid Google to be shown to their users.

Contacted by Times Online today, a spokesperson for Google denied that it had any such plans, before adding its customary rider: “It’s Google’s policy not to comment on speculation concerning products before they are launched.”

Source: Profit for Google Nearly Triples - washingtonpost.com

[tags]Google, net-neutrality, government, regulations, monopoly[/tags]