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For context, this relates to an earlier court ruling that Google search was an illegal because it pays others to make Google the default search engine. This isn
by jmyeet 2y ago
For context, this relates to an earlier court ruling that Google search was an illegal because it pays others to make Google the default search engine. This isn't about Android or any other thing that might separately be investigated.
So the government wants "structural relief" here meaning to break up Google. But isn't the remedy simply tp make such payments illegal? That's certainly one argument I would make were I Google's lawyers. In addition to just appealing the finding outright of course.
Now I've previously said (and I stand by this) that making such payments illegal would help Google maintain its search dominance. Why? Because Firefox, Apple, etc could no longer extort Apple to make Google the default when that's what most users want anyway.
Mozilla already tried making Bing the default. They went back to Google eventually, probably because Google paid them, but I would guess the user response was probably negative too. That's just a guess however.
Those of us who are old enough will remember the Microsoft antitrust trial and how that really went nowhere in the end. And that was for something that was profoundly much more harmful. There is such a larger barrier to entry to installing a new browser.
And that's the thing: this will take a decade or longer to actually play out. Any administration in the meantime could not have the same resolve or otherwise choose to settle with Google in some form of consent decree that limits their behaviour for a period of time.
So I don't see this going anywhere realistically.
- magwa101 2y ago[dead]
- newaccount74 2y ago> when that's what most users want anyway Not sure about that. A lot of people really couldn't care less if their search results came from Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go. If you ask them, most of them would probably say Google since that's the only search engine they know. But if you just replaced Google with Duck Duck Go, I'm sure most people wouldn't bother to switch it back. Defaults are very powerful, otherwise Google wouldn't pay billions to keep them the default.
- pessimizer 2y ago> Mozilla already tried making Bing the default. They went back to Google eventually, probably because Google paid them, but I would guess the user response was probably negative too. That's just a guess however. I doubt that people who would never think to change their default search engine would complain about the choice of search engines. Google vastly overpays for the privilege of being the default search engine because the existence of firefox protects their browser monopoly. Microsoft gets no such benefit, so I assume they wanted to reduce their payment to a more rational value 4 or 5 orders of magnitude smaller than the half-billion from Google.