There are two arguments, one is about Search as a monopoly the other is about that power as it relates to other parts of the value chain.

Google search is fundamentally better than DDG (for most purposes) because it has massive advantages that make it effectively unassailable. For example, I stopped using DDG because I rely on reverse image search. FYI DDG does not have its own crawler, it gets data from other sources. And it won't get reverse image search unless it does it itself ... which I doubt will happen. Maybe. And of course Yahoo is not a search engine either, it's not really an alternative at all.

In order to compete with Google effectively, you'd have to build your own crawler etc.. It's essentially impossible. The number of engineers, data centres other components ... my gosh man.

Consider for a moment that Google is a massive cash printing machine. Do you not think that VC's would be lining up, piling billions of dollars into competitors in order to take a piece of the action?

Why is nobody - not even intelligent actors with a lot of cash to burn - investing in the most profitable business model of our era?

Because the barriers to compete are absurdly high.

It's a monopoly.

And if it is - then we have to be very concerned about their relationship to adjacent layers of the value chain because of their ability to subsidize products to put others out of business.

So you're aware that in free trade deals between nations, part of the deal includes measures to bar state actors from participating in some economies, and also, rules against 'dumping'. This is because if a nation state actor wants to, they could subsidize their own industries, wipe out competition in other nations, and then let their industry dominate.

The same applies in value chain monopolies.

Standard Oil didn't have 'better oil' or better practices than other Oil companies - they used control and ownership of the railroads to increase prices on their competitors and put them out of business. In a truly competitive landscape, there would be no Standard Oil.

When Microsoft uses their ownership of the OS to put all other 'Office' solutions out of business, is that good for consumers?

By the way - MS is still printing money hands over fist in Office Software. They are making billions. They are a de-facto standard, arguably a monopoly there. Why aren't investors lining up to create competitive solutions? (Because it's an unassailable monopoly).

If Google decides to get into your line of business, and you are small, they will absolutely wipe you out if they want to, and it has nothing to do with having 'a better product'.

Also consider for a moment how many of Google's other business parts could stand on their own as businesses?

Google Analytics? Android? Chrome? Google Docs? Maps?

They are all all money pits, strategic investments (i.e. 'moats') by Google to ensure the dominance of Google Search.

How could a mobile OS vendor compete in a market where Google is using billions from one market, to dominate a different one, like mobile OS? They can't. Maybe in China, wherein there are non-market factors to protect their own makers.

For the same reason that governments have mostly separated the transport of electricity from electricity production, for the same reason we have net neutrality, Google Search should possibly be pared off from the other businesses.

Amazon is using massive profits from AWS to put retailers out of business. Amazon is not hugely profitable, but their AWS business unit is, ergo, the retail unit is probably losing money.

How can retailers compete against Amazon, which is effectively selling at a loss? They can't.

Consumers generally don't win when a de-facto or real monopoly in one market, uses that power to wipe out competition in others.

There is essentially no real competition in search, nobody is putting money in it. Same for office software. Given how much money is being minted in those markets, it's a sure sign of monopoly.