Whether Google is a monopoly isn't the point

Much has been made of Google chairman Eric Schmidt’s admission that the web giant might be a monopoly, during his testimony before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee. But despite the howls of outrage at Google’s size and dominance in the search market, the fact remains that — for the purposes of U.S. antitrust law at least — being a monopoly isn't illegal.

What is illegal is either acquiring that monopoly by nefarious or anticompetitive means, or using that dominant position in a way that harms the market for those services. The problem with applying that to Google is that even if you assume it has a monopoly and is being anticompetitive, it’s not at all clear how that is bad for consumers.