Algorithmic Imperialism

Algorithms are cute answers to How? questions in life.
(Replace "cute" with efficient, smart, advanced, etc. in your context)

• At the simplest level, they are called rules/conventions - shake hands to greet.
• More complex ones may be called techniques - how you can create cubical bubbles.
• A number of them get published widely - Collected Algorithms in ACM, Randomized Algorithms.
• The ones whose complexity is worthy of intellectual property, become patents - Bell's telephone.
• Some others, even when trivial, get patented.
• Some of them become standards - USB 3.0 - or are shared in unpatented form for wider adoption - Blowfish encryption.

In short, algorithms are remarkably powerful and at the core of most useful things in life. If (absolute) power corrupts, one question is if algorithmic power can corrupt, and can lead to problems like Imperialism.
To make good algorithms, you often need 1) intelligent people, 2) access to existing algorithms and 3) some technology. Depending on your area of interest, the quality and quantity of the above will vary - for example, making an auto-flushing toilet differs from making a small flying vehicle to take humans to Mars.
So, if an organization can hoard lots of intelligent people, has plenty of access to existing art (often exclusively), and enough money to procure technology of choice, it can generate more algorithms and in the current patent regime, can even hoard them. The effects of positive feedback can be quite strong, until governments and regulations set in.

But, the risk I want to bring up is one of perception. Some companies may provide one or two good algorithms which capture mass appeal, and can ride the wave of future products with sub-optimal algorithms - For example, Cisco may not make the fastest most power-efficient routers for a particular customer's need, but a CIO will be hard-pressed to buy routers from a much smaller company, even if it were very stable now. Even though a new search engine may provide a more efficient solution for some customers' needs, how likely is that they will abandon their current favorite search engine?

There really is no algorithmic marketplace where the wisdom of crowds could be put to test. Most people rely on the media to winnow out the best choices for them. But, algorithmic brands could blind people and gently imperialize them.

Would like to see some data that shows why we should not worry about this.