Monopolies are often said to be the scourge of capitalism: Instead of having companies compete against one another and innovate to attract customers, one large company instead spends its resources pushing lobbyists to pass laws that allow it stay on top. A good example is internet in the US; Comcast and Time Warner are complete pieces of shit, but there's no one else to turn to.

And yet monopolies can serve a useful purpose. As I sat on the highway I wondered how Google Maps knows where the heavy traffic is. I figured there are two options: Either there's a governmental agency detailing traffic info that Google is pulling the data from, or it's able to estimate from motorists using Google Maps how fast they're moving, i.e. if ten people at a certain location with Google Maps open are only going 5mph, you know there's heavy traffic. I looked it up and it turns out it's the latter. But that's interesting because it assumes there are enough drivers on the road using Google Maps. And that wouldn't be the case without a monopoly. If Apple and Mapquest actually were serious competitors, the traffic info wouldn't be sufficient since not enough people are employing the service.