Google might soon have to sell its Chrome browser as part of a major legal battle with the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
Antitrust officials want to crack down on what they see as Google’s illegal monopoly over the search market.
The department will ask the judge to require measures related to artificial intelligence and its Android smartphone operating system.
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The argument is that Chrome - the most widely used browser worldwide - gives Google an unfair advantage since it funnels users directly to its search engine.
As such, antitrust enforcers want the judge to order Google to sell off Chrome because it represents a key access point through which many people use its search engine, said the people.
Currently, the Chrome browser controls about 61% of the market in the US, according to StatCounter, a web traffic analytics service.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said the Justice Department “continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case.”
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She added: “The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed.
This case has been years in the making with government attorneys meeting with dozens of companies and details not yet set in stone, the people said.
However, the antitrust officials did pull back from a more severe option that would have forced Google to sell off Android, the people said.
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Selling Chrome isn’t the only thing on the table though. Officials also want Google to share more data with advertisers, let websites control whether their content is used for Google’s AI tools, and separate Android from other Google products, like the Play Store and its search engine.
You may have noticed that Google now displays artificial intelligence-based answers above all other search results called 'AI Overviews.'
While websites can opt out of Google using their information to create AI models, it's not an option for many as doing so could lower their ranking in the search results.
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Website publishers have complained that the feature reduces traffic and ad revenue since users rarely click through to the data powering those results.
Antitrust officials are considering two proposals in response.
Google has to sell the underlying 'click and query' data and separately syndicate its search results.
Although Google already syndicates search results, the new requirement imposes restrictions like limiting their use on mobile.
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Broader syndication would also help rival search engines build up their rep, AI startups could reach higher quality and access to the data feed could enable others to build their own search indexes.
The final decision will likely come after a two-week hearing in April 2025, with plans for a final ruling by August that year. So for now, Google’s future is still up in the air.