Topics
Latest
AI
Amazon
Image Credits:Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty Images
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Cloud Computing
mercantilism
Crypto
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
fundraise
Gadgets
gage
Government & Policy
computer hardware
layoff
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
certificate
Social
Space
Startups
TikTok
Transportation
speculation
More from TechCrunch
Events
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
newssheet
Podcasts
TV
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
meet Us
We ’re nigh two month into the Justice Department ’s landmarkantitrust case against Google — one of the great fights in technical school antitrust since the U.S. took Microsoft to visitation in the 1990s — and the revelations just keep bring juicier .
Inour last roundup , we learned how Google spent $ 26.3 billion in 2021 making itself the default search engine across chopine and how Google tried to have Chrome preinstalled on iPhones . Over the past couple of week , more of the inner workings of Google has come to brightness , including some of the hunt locomotive ’s most lucrative search queries , what the gross - parcel agreements between Google and Android OEMs look like and why Expedia has a bone to peck with Google .
Before we go into some of these tidbit …
Why the Google vs. U.S. antitrust case matters
The regime has argue that Google uses its platform and deals with spouse to obstruct out any contention in lookup or advertising , thus hindering challenger from get to the data they ’d demand to improve their product .
If Judge Amit Mehta rules against Google , the search colossus may have to change its deportment and share its APIs with third - party developers . It may also be cast out from making anticompetitive and sole deals with smartphone and computer manufacturers and wireless carrier .
Google might end up having to turn over all or most of the data it has collected to other hunting engines so they can ameliorate their products and attract more users . The DOJ has said that Google gets 16 times more data point than Bing does everyday .
Enforcers desire to show that antimonopoly law remains relevant and that even though Google is basically the God of the net , it ’s still no equal for the U.S. police force .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
The Google outcome could also have a ripple effect on other Big Tech cases . The FTC litigate Amazon in September for using anticompetitive and unfair strategy toillegally maintain its monopoly king . TheDOJ has been investigating Applefor eld over the company ’s insurance policy for third - political party apps on its devices and whether it unfairly prefer its own products . There ’s an ongoing typesetter’s case between theFTC and Facebook , wherein the agency calls on Facebook to sell Instagram and WhatsApp .
This is n’t Google ’s only antitrust type in trial decently now . The hunting engine giant last week settled a separate antitrustlawsuit with dating land site Match Group . On November 6 , Google went to visitation withFortnite Lord Epic Games . The latter hopes to prove that Google lock in anticompetitive behaviour with regard to its Android app store , Google Play , and its commission structure .
Now , onto the roundup !
A window into Google’s most popular search queries
Judge Amit Mehta ruled to make alist publicthat provide a glance of which search terms make Google the most money . The listing of popular search terms ordered by revenue includes 20 terms that were lucrative for the week of September 22 , 2018 . Information like revenue per hunt term , how many queries each of those term got , along with a disjoined list of popular search terms dictate by queries ( not revenue ) , were all couch . The list we can see is as follows :
There is , in world , little surprise here . We ’ve already established that Google and Apple have a long and reciprocally beneficial relationship , even while competing , so it ’s not surprising to see three Apple search - related question wreak in the big bucks — not least since September 22 , 2017 was the official release engagement of the iPhone 8 .
Meanwhile , queries like “ car indemnity , ” “ cheap flight ” and “ acknowledgment report ” are perennial favorites and they speak to how much Google command upright hunting — that is , seek in very specific grocery class . As for LifeLock … the gravid Equifax information breach of 2017 was a hot topic in September 2017 and LifeLock was making a big push to acquire business with people who wanted to buy identity thieving trade protection .
Revenue-shares to pre-install Google apps on Androids
Jamie Rosenberg , a Google employee who focuses on Android and Google Play , testify in Google ’s defense on November 8.He said that the competition between Google and Apple is “ as intense as it gets,”reports Bloomberg .
Rosenberg explained how Google gets manufacturers to sign a mobile app distribution correspondence ( MADA ) that want Android smartphone maker ( like Samsung or Oppo ) to pre - load a big bucks of 11 Google apps on the equipment , including Search , Chrome and looseness . They do n’t have to be the default choices , he said .
Google also has tax revenue share agreements ( RSAs ) with smartphone makers and wireless carriers ( like Verizon ) that require them to sic Google search and Chrome web internet browser as defaults . Rosenberg defended the move and articulate it was because Google apps [ like Search ] are “ good in category . ” The RSAs also motivate other company to make or betray more Android devices , he read .
Expedia complains of too many ads on search, expensive ad payments
On November 1 , Barry Diller , chair of Expedia and IAC , bear witness about his concern regarding the increasing bit of ads in search results having an shock on organic listings .
“ I must say I ’m on the border of insurrection now that Google ’s action are so punitory , not just for Expedia but also for IAC and all the players that calculate upon something of a spirit level playing field , ” wrote Diller in a missive to Google back in 2019 , according toBloomberg .
Google CEO Sundar Pichai fired back that Google ’s locomotion listings was one of the most popular experience the fellowship build .
Expedia execs also prove about the price of ads and how increases had no impact on hunting results . On October 19 , Expedia ’s former chief operating officer , Jeff Hurst , enjoin the court of justice the company ’s advertizing fee increased tenfold from $ 21 million in 2015 to $ 290 million in 2019 . And yet , Expedia ’s traffic from Google did not increase . The implication was that this was due to direct competition from Google itself . Hurst pointed out that Google begin deal its own flight and hotel data in search results in that full stop , accord to TheSeattle Times .
European antitrust fine spurs Google to beef up search engine quality
The government argued on November 10 that Google only endeavored to raise its search railway locomotive in the European Union after it was hit by a€5 billion antimonopoly mulct in 2018 , intimate documents revealed , concord toBloomberg .
The EU ’s antimonopoly order forced Google to offer Android headphone users a screen with five lookup railway locomotive options to choose from , according to the DOJ . In reception , Google enacted a plan , which execs dubbed “ Go self-aggrandising in Europe , ” to raise search issue in France and Germany in 2019 and 2020 with more local content : news , post - game soccer video highlights , info on local television options for streaming , and orthoepy practice for different language . The aim was to incentivize drug user to press Google ’s menage screen , rather than the competition ’s .
That revelation effectively bear out the Justice Department ’s logical argument that Google , without the push of competition , has piddling incentive to improve its products , aclassic consequencein a monopoly .
Mozilla digs in on Google’s supremacy in search
Interestingly , on November 1 Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker provided a defense reaction of Google ’s character as a search locomotive engine , even in “ private-enterprise ” environments . Specifically , Baker recounted how , Mozilla “ failed ” when it shift Firefox ’s default hunting locomotive from Google to Yahoo .
Quick backstory : Yahoo inked a deal with Mozillaway back in 2014to pay the internet browser maker $ 375 million annually to be the default lookup locomotive engine on Firefox . At the clip , Google was offer $ 276 million , said Baker . Reader , that was a bad flock .
“ I experience strongly that Yahoo was not delivering the search experience we require and had shorten for , ” she said , according toBloomberg . The executive director said Yahoo had assure to reduce the act of ads and offer up less substance abuser tracking , but ended up gradually serving user more ads anyway .
“ The figure of users who quell with Firefox wane noticeably during the years when Yahoo was the default , ” said Baker .
Baker , who was offer a show deposition for Google ’s vindication , notice that Mozilla ’s users evidently need and expect Google .
However , that is not the full story . Yahoo was already well behind Google in terms of search engineering science at that point in time . But also , Firefox was very well behind Chrome , which ended 2014 withnearly 50 % marketplace shareand terminate 2017 ( when Google got meridian default search position on Firefox)at nearly 65 % of all web browser app usageon desktop : and mobile is even more skewed to Chrome . In other words , the number of Firefox users might have been declining for other reason , although push the blame on Yahoo sure enough works in Google ’s party favour here !
The trial continues …
