Regulators also allege Google has illegally rigged the market in its favor by requiring its search engine to be bundled with its Android software for smartphones if the device manufacturers want full access to the Android app store.īy locking in Google’s search engine as the default choice in so many places, the Justice Department contends the company has made it more difficult for people to find the best results as quickly as possible. They allege Google protects its franchise through a form of payola, shelling out billions of dollars annually to be the default search engine on the iPhone and web browser such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox. The Justice Department contends Google’s claim that it dominates the market by supplying the best search engine is a canard. From Google’s perspective, the perpetual improvements explain why most people almost reflexively gravitate to its search engine, a habit that long ago made “Googling” synonymous with looking things up.ĭespite commanding about 90% of the internet search market, Google argues it faces a wide range of competition ranging from other search engines such as Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo to websites such as Amazon and Yelp, where people research questions about what product to buy or where to eat. Google’s vast legal team is expected to counter that the company has never stopped improving its search engine, executing its original mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible to anyone with an internet connection. The crux of the Justice Department’s argument will boil down to its contention that Google’s search engine has become like digital air almost everyone breathes, and that it needs to be cleaned up because the company’s tactics have polluted the atmosphere. Critics say the quality of search results has deteriorated, too, as Google used its engine to sell ads and promote its own products, like Google restaurant reviews instead of those offered by Yelp.ĭozens of state attorneys general, led by Colorado, have waded into the battle and will have a chance to prove Google turned into an illegal monopoly that’s harming consumers. Justice Department will try to prove Google has been abusing the power of its search engine to stifle competition in ways that discouraged innovation. Nearly three years after filing its antitrust lawsuit during the Trump administration, lawyers from the U.S. Google capitalized on that distraction to leap from its startup roots into an imposing powerhouse. That’s what happened to Microsoft after its antitrust showdown with the Justice Department: Distracted, the software giant struggled to adapt to the impact of internet search and smartphones. Or the legal battle could cause Google to lose focus. One possibility is that the company could be forced to stop paying Apple and other companies to make Google the default search engine on smartphones and computers. Google could be hobbled if the antitrust trial culminates in concessions that undercut its power. Today, Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., is worth $1.7 trillion and employs 182,000 people, with most of the money coming from $224 billion in annual ad sales flowing through a network of digital services anchored by a search engine that fields billions of queries a day.
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