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.
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. 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.
Despite 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.
The Justice Department contends Google’s claim that it dominates the market by supplying the best search engine is a canard. 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.
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.
By 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.
Regulators allege the company’s deals ensure Google’s automatic access to billions of queries that provide data for its search engine while boxing out Bing and DuckDuckGo from getting information that could help them improve their results.
The tactics have created a toxic situation allowing Google to cram more ads at the top of its search results, increasing its profits and Alphabet’s stock price, according to the Justice Department. That practice requires consumers to dig ever deeper to answer their questions, something that regulators believe could be avoided if rival services were able to collect as much information as Google does through its lock-in agreements.
Google insists that consumers could easily switch their default settings to another search engine.
The company also argues that it does face competition from evolving technology: Microsoft, for example, is baking artificial intelligence from its business partner Open AI into its Bing search engine. That move in early February prodded Google to start equipping its search engine with AI-fueled results too — a sign that the company says shows competition continues to thrive.
