News US v. Google: all the news from the search antitrust showdown

[News]

On August 5th, Judge Amit Mehta ruled in the case of United States of America v. Google, saying, “…the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”

That ended the biggest tech antitrust trial since the US took on Microsoft in the 1990s — possibly aside from the government’s antitrust case targeting Google’s ad business — but it’s also just the start of the process. Now, lawyers for Google and the Department of Justice are arguing over the ruling, as well as what to do about the company and its products.

The DOJ argued that Google struck anticompetitive deals with Apple and other companies for prime placement of its search engine. Google maintains that its dominant market share is the result of a superior product. The DOJ says options to resolve the situation include breaking up Google to separate products like Chrome, Search, and Android, but it may be a while until we hear about their full plan.

Read on below for all of the updates and notes from the case.

• Google CEO Sundar Pichai tells employees to expect a hard 2025.
• Eddy Cue explains why Apple won’t make a search engine
• Apple would like to step in to defend its Google search deal.
• Google to court: we’ll change our Apple deal, but please let us keep Chrome
• Google’s counteroffer to the government trying to break it up is unbundling Android apps
• Google responds to DOJ’s ‘extreme proposal.’
• DOJ says Google must sell Chrome to crack open its search monopoly
• Google workers to DOJ: we need protections to make your breakup effective
• Could Chrome be ready to Rumble?
• US lawyers will reportedly try to force Google to sell Chrome and unbundle Android
• Google is replacing the exec in charge of Search and ads
• How the DOJ wants to break up Google’s search monopoly
• A Google breakup is on the table, say DOJ lawyers
• The DOJ will have its proposed plan to deal with Google’s monopoly soon.
• The DOJ wants info on Google’s AI strategy to bust up its search monopoly
• Yelp sues Google for antitrust violations
• What Google rivals want after the DOJ’s antitrust trial win
• Google lost its first antitrust case, so what happens next?
• ‘There’s no price’ Microsoft could pay Apple to use Bing: all the spiciest parts of the Google antitrust ruling
• Now that Google is a monopolist, what’s next?
• Judge rules that Google ‘is a monopolist’ in US antitrust case
• Well, that’s an interesting name for it.
• As Google’s antitrust trial wraps, DOJ seeks sanctions over missing messages
• Multibillion-dollar Apple deal looms large in Google antitrust trial
• Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to be Safari’s default search engine.
• A Google witness let slip just how much it pays Apple for Safari search
• ‘Android is a massive tracking device.’
• Here’s a rare look at Google’s most lucrative search queries
• Sundar Pichai argues in court that Google isn’t evil, it’s just a business
• Google agreed to not promote Chrome to Safari users.
• Google once asked Apple to preload its search app on iOS
• It’s Internet Explorer day in US v. Google!
• Hello again from DC District Court!
• Google paid a whopping $26.3 billion in 2021 to be the default search engine everywhere
• “Chrome exists to serve Google search.”
• Sundar Pichai will testify in US v. Google on Monday.
• Google reportedly pays $18 billion a year to be Apple’s default search engine
• The Google antitrust trial has been frustratingly locked down — the NYT just filed a motion to open it up
• Read Sundar Pichai’s full email conversation about the Apple-Google deal.
• The Google trial shows that Apple’s search deal is the most important contract in tech
• Back in 2007, Sundar Pichai thought Google shouldn’t be Safari’s only search option.
• Details of Apple’s talks to replace Google with Bing and even DuckDuckGo revealed in unsealed court testimony
• Today on The Vergecast: Big Tech goes to court.
• Satya Nadella tells a court that Bing is worse than Google — and Apple could fix it
• An hour-long history lesson about Microsoft’s many failures in mobile.
• Microsoft doesn’t think AI is going to upend search competition – it thinks it could get even more locked-down.
• Satya Nadella says Bing was prepared to lose billions just to be Apple’s search default.
• Good morning from DC District Court!
• One of the documents Google wanted hidden in its trial compared the search ads business to “cigarettes or drugs.”
• Satya Nadella is testifying in US v. Google next week.
• The Google antitrust trial is opening back up… a little
• Apple defends Google Search deal in court: ‘There wasn’t a valid alternative’
• Would Safari have been popular without its Google integration?
• Should Apple add a search engine choice screen to the iPhone setup process?
• Apple’s Eddy Cue says there’s really no “valid alternative to Google.”
• The US v. Google court is starting in closed session today. Again.
• Today’s an important day in US v. Google.
• Apple’s Eddy Cue will take the stand Tuesday in the Google antitrust trial
• The Google antitrust trial is still maddeningly locked-down.
• Clickbait? In my antitrust trial?
• Here are the documents the Google antitrust trial judge didn’t want you to see
• Okay, can we see Google trial documents or not?
• Will US v. Google evidence stay public? We still don’t know.
• Justice Department and Google spar over public access to antitrust trial files
• Google quietly raised ad prices to boost search revenue, says executive
• US v. Google, Week Two begins.
• In the Google antitrust trial, defaults are everything and nobody likes Bing
• Breaking down the Google antitrust trial.
• Opening arguments in US v. Google just ended! Only ten weeks left to go.
• “We don’t have good data on actual user switching.”
• Bing is already Google’s punching bag for the trial.
• There’s still an ads case inside this search case against Google.
• What makes a search engine a search engine?
• 50 percent of Google searches allegedly come through a paid-for default deal.
• “Defaults matter, but they’re not determinative.”
• The antitrust trial against Google Search starts today — here’s what to expect
• How Google plans to win its antitrust trial
• A federal judge says three Apple executives have to testify in the government’s Google antitrust case.