D.C. Circuit Court Orders Google to Share Chrome Data w/Competitors

[Webster]

American Family News: Google keeps browser but must share information with competitors

A federal appeals court stopped short of ordering Google to sell off its Chrome browser, but it is telling the company to share more data with its competitors.

In one of the first of many expected antitrust challenges in the Big Tech world, the D.C. Court of Appeals is telling Google that it has to hand over search results and other data gathered by its Chrome browser to qualified competitors, reports The New York Times.

The Justice Department (DOJ) was asking the court to sell off the popular web browser, which has, what the DOJ is calling, a monopoly on web searches. However, the ruling from Judge Amit R. Mehta allowed Google to keep the browser but required the sharing of search data.

Michael Morris of MRC Free Speech America says the court also put restrictions on payments Google made to smart phones and other web browsers that ensured its search engine was the first thing users saw when using the web. “It's movement, but it's nowhere near what the USDOJ was asking for. The USDOJ actually asked the judge to break up Google. It was asking for a sell-off of the Chrome browser,” says Morris.

The case began because of a movement by the government in recent years, under the Biden and Trump administration, to challenge dominating tech industries, including Apple, Amazon, and Meta, from illegal monopolization of certain areas of the internet. Microsoft’s antitrust ruling over 20 years ago is the only other big attempt to limit a tech monopoly.

Morris agrees Google has a stranglehold on web searches. “There's a reason that it's a verb. People don't go and search things online; they Google it,” states Morris.

The rise of Artificial Intelligence is also turning things upside down when it comes to web searches. Google is leading off searches with an AI overview, which is stopping users from clicking through to web sites to find answers, thus messing with ad revenues. “Google users who encountered this AI summary are less likely to click on links to other websites than users who don't see it,” Morris says.

 

[Starmix]

I doubt if Google agrees. That's also what many observed this this artificial intelligence is everywhere on the web. It's somewhat disgusting for me.