Google's incredible power is the result of decades of regulatory failure
Net Results: US lawsuit is locking the barn door long after the data-guzzling horse has bolted

The US Department of Justice is suing search giant Google, in what is the biggest antitrust case in decades. Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images
On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice announced it was bringing an antitrust suit against the multinational search-and-everything-else giant, Google.
The legal broadside is the first significant use of US antitrust laws – which date back to the Sherman Act in 1890, the era of monopolistic robber barons – since the department’s case against Microsoft in the late 1990s.