To clarify: I think the reason Google control search is that the public likes Google, so there's no political will to enforce the law. It's starting to crack now with the "google search is bad now" narrative, along with the classic "google is spying on me" -- together, they've emboldened Biden's justice department enough to bring multiple suits.

I think Google's attitude of free products (Gmail, Google Maps, Android, and Chrome especially) has won it insane amounts of goodwill, and that's all that's keeping them at the top. Having worked at Google, I find it incredibly hard to believe that they have any sort of fundamental technical advantage when it comes to building a search engine. I didn't work on search and obviously didn't look for the secret sauce, so that assessment is based on company culture and attitude alone.