The U.S. government is taking aim at an unyielding empire: the ubiquitous Google search engine, which has become the primary gateway to the Internet.
The legal assault will get into full swing on Tuesday in a Washington, D.C., federal courtroom that will become the battleground for the largest U.S. antitrust trial since regulators went after Microsoft and its dominance of personal computer software a quarter-century ago.
The 10-week trial before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta is expected to include potentially illuminating testimony from executives of Google and its parent Alphabet, as well as other powerful technology companies. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who succeeded Google co-founder Larry Page in 2019, will be one of the most high-profile witnesses likely to testify. Court documents also indicate that Eddy Cue, one of Apple’s most senior executives, may be subpoenaed to appear in court.
case against Google reflects on allegations against Microsoft On many fronts, including the existential threat it poses to a prominent tech giant whose products are relied upon by billions of people.
The trial is expected to last until late November before the first phase concludes, after which another round of court filings and arguments is expected. Mehta is not expected to rule until early next year. If he finds Google violated the law, it would trigger another trial to determine what steps should be taken to control the Mountain View, California-based company.
While Google products like the Chrome web browser, Gmail, YouTube and online maps are all hugely popular, none have become as unstoppable as the internet search engine invented by Page and Stanford graduate student Sergey Brin. Scarce or valuable. Late 1990s.
The trial begins just weeks after the 25th anniversary of the company’s first investment — a $100,000 check from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim that gave Page and Brin were able to set up shop in a garage in Silicon Valley.
Today, Google parent Alphabet Inc. is worth $1.7 trillion and has 182,000 employees, much of it funded by $224 billion in annual advertising sales that flow through a network of digital services based on search engines. , which can handle billions of queries. sky.
Google could be in trouble if the antitrust trial ultimately leads to concessions that weaken its power. One possibility is that the company could be forced to stop paying Apple and others to make Google the default search engine on smartphones and computers.
Or the legal battle could cause Google to lose focus. That’s what happened to Microsoft in the aftermath of its antitrust showdown with the Justice Department: The software giant was distraught and struggling to adapt to the impact of Internet search and smartphones.Google uses this disruption to get rid of Its startups have roots in a strong company.
Nearly three years After filing an antitrust lawsuit During the Trump administration, Justice Department lawyers will try to prove that Google has been abusing the power of its search engine to stifle competition in a way that hinders innovation. Critics say the quality of search results has also declined because Google uses its engine to sell ads and promote its own products, such as Google restaurant reviews instead of those provided by Yelp.
Dozens of state attorneys general, led by Colorado, have entered the fight and will have a chance to prove that Google has become an illegal monopoly that harms consumers.
The crux of the Justice Department’s argument comes down to its contention that Google’s search engine has become like the digital air that nearly everyone breathes, and that it needs to be cleaned up because the company’s tactics pollute the atmosphere.
Google’s massive legal team is expected to counter that the company has never stopped improving its search engine to fulfill its original mission: to organize the world’s information and make it accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. From Google’s perspective, constant improvement explains why most people are almost reflexively drawn to its search engine, a habit that long ago made “Googling” synonymous with finding things.
Despite holding about 90% of the Internet search market, Google said it faces a wide range of competition, from other search engines such as Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo to sites such as Amazon and Yelp, where people research what products to buy or where to buy. Questions such as where to buy. Go and eat.
The Justice Department believes that Google’s claims to dominate the market by providing the best search engine are false. They accuse Google of paying to protect its franchise, spending billions of dollars a year to be the default search engine on iPhones and web browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla Firefox.
Regulators also accuse Google of illegally manipulating the market in its favor by requiring its search engine to be bundled with its smartphone Android software if device makers want full access to the Android app store.
The Justice Department argued that by locking the Google search engine into the default choice in many places, the company made it harder for people to find the best results as quickly as possible.
Regulators said the company’s deal ensures Google can automatically access billions of queries that feed its search engine, while preventing Bing and DuckDuckGo from accessing information that could help improve search results.
According to the Justice Department, these tactics created a toxic situation that allowed Google to stuff more ads at the top of its search results, thereby increasing its profits and Alphabet’s stock price. The practice requires consumers to dig deeper to answer their questions, something regulators believe could be avoided if rival services collect as much information as Google does through lock-in protocols.
Google insists consumers can easily switch the default settings to another search engine.
The company also argued that it does face competition from evolving technology: Microsoft, for example, is integrating artificial intelligence from its business partner Open AI into its Bing search engine.The move in early February prompted Google Start equipping its search engine with AI-driven results That’s true too – a sign the company says competition continues to intensify.
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