Is Google a MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITOR or an OLIGOPOLY?



I have looked and studied the characteristics of both and it seems to fit in both...

PLEASE HELP!

Have you researched the definitions of both those words? If you have then you'd know the answer.

Hint: Google is not the only player in their market.

I have! Monopolistic Competition is a market in which many firms produce similar goods or services, but each maintains some independent control of its own price (if it's profitable)... but that "many" is between the "few" of oligopolies and the "hordes" perfect competitors...

Oligopoly is a market in which a FEW firms produce all or most of the market supply of a particular good or service...

And yeah, Google is not the only player in their market so first I thought it was a Monopolistic competitor.. buth then I saw that, for Oligopolies there are high barriers to entry, and for Monopolistic competitors the barriers are low... that confuses me because to enter a market and be a competitor of Google isn't easy...

Oligopoly

:)

It has a close substiute therfore it can be consider as monopoly it may be Oligopoly

It is actually both, and it is possible to be both. Its general services of being a Search engine make it oligopolistic(and with 4 companies taking up the major of this market) however it offers some services that no one else provides and has full control over these make it monopolistic