Sleepless nights as Google counts down to break-up

You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me. But we are never, ever, ever, ever getting back together. Like, ever...

Google’s a-rocking and a-reeling. It’s lost two antitrust cases, on search and its app store, but I’d be willing to bet $237 billion it’d give them both up to win the next one.

The final part of the US v Google trifecta seeks to blow Google’s Fort Knox to smithereens, by exposing and then breaking-up its colossal ad tech machine.

That will redraw the economics of the open web, turn monopoly into chaos, and open new windows of opportunity for fast-acting publishers and rivals.

Everything the regulators have unearthed over the past four years; from billion-dollar default deals, to tweaking dials and hiking pricing, has been for one mission: For Google to commandeer the $237 billion digital ad market.

But in just 26 days, a trial will begin where the US government no less will seek to take it all away and expose Google’s secret and cynical playbook for the w…