Google's latest innovation: the customer's not right -- Don't competitive markets listen to customers?

Google is on the wrong side of its customers -- as aspiring monopolists often are. Isn't it a hallmark of competitive markets that companies are responsive and solicitous of customers, especially their biggest customers? Isn't competition about supply meeting demand?

• A New York Times article reminds everyone that Google's customers are among the biggest critics of the Google-Yahoo ad partnership.  
  • “Google and Yahoo claim these are auctions,” said Robert D. Liodice, chief executive of the Association of National Advertisers. “Many of our marketers don’t necessarily believe that these are real auctions.”

In a customer-friendly deal that truly offered innovative benefits to customers, customers would be flooding the DOJ with support for it, not flooding it with opposition like they are. 

• The "innovation" that Google claims is in this deal is "unpopular" with customers precisely because the innovation does not benefit customers, but benefits Google and Yahoo by granting them more market power over customers.

Google's big problem is that they "have met with marketers to seek their support." However, "The Association of National Advertisers said it had not found the companies' arguments persuasive." (per the same NYT article.)  

• If Google cannot convince its largest customers that the Google-Yahoo deal is good for competition, and their largest customers are strongly petitioning the DOJ to enforce antitrust law to protect competition from anti-competitive price-fixing and collusion, Google will have a hard time convincing the DOJ that their proposed deal is in fact pro-competitive.

Since we are talking about the subject of Google and customer friendliness, Randall Stross' Digital Domain column this weekend "Can't open your e-mailbox? Good luck" points out that Google does not have customer service. 

• Hmmm. could there be a pattern here?
• For all Google's self-proclaimed wonderfulness... why is Google so consistently customer-unfriendly?

Bottom line: One of the best indicators of market power or an anti-competitive market is if a company does respond or adapt to customers' complaints or desires.