As you may recall, antitrust regulators from the European Union fined Google about $5 billion in July, charging that the online giant has illegally abused its power in the smartphone market. In an analysis of this situation, I compared Google's case to Microsoft's earlier antitrust cases, highlighting the ways in which each is similar and dissimilar.

Google has 90 days to respond to the ruling. And it has shown a willingness to make the changes that the EU requires, in sharp contrast to Microsoft's earlier and more belligerent reaction to its own antitrust cases. That's smart, given the history of Microsoft's "lost decade" and that Google's monopoly power today far exceeds that of Microsoft in its own heyday. Google has so much more to lose.