The DOJ (Department of Justice) has decided to make Google sell off its Chrome browser. DOJ officials will approach Judge Amit Mehta with proposals for how Google’s monopoly on the search industry can be broken up. This particular judge also ruled against Google’s monopoly on the search industry earlier this year.
DOJ antitrust officials claim that Google’s grasp on the search market goes far beyond what should be allowed. Chrome, the most used browser in the world, defaults to Google’s own search engine which also ranks at the top for searches worldwide.
Officials will also ask the judge to impose restrictions on how Google’s Gemini AI can display data from websites it has crawled. Understandably, these websites have raised complaints of reduced traffic as the AI peruses through them itself and provides summarized answers to Google’s users.
Chrome has retained market share despite many controversial changes. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Proposals to make Google sell Android were considered
In addition to forcing Google to sell off Chrome, insiders claim that officials had also discussed making the company sell its Android operating system. This proposal, for the time being, was considered too radical and dialed back.
Instead another proposal will include making Google “decouple” Android from its services which include search and the Play Store. Officials also want Google to be more transparent with advertisers going forward about where their ads appear.
Chrome won’t go cheap on account of how big it is but, as noted by Bloomberg analysts, most buyers who can afford it are under antitrust scrutiny themselves: like Amazon. One viable option is OpenAI which could greatly complement its recently launched GPT-powered search service. If this does happen OpenAI will become an even bigger and stronger company since the popularity of ChatGPT.
Chrome being separated from Google would mean a drastically different search and AI industry going forward. While some praise the move and want to see Google’s undeniable monopoly broken, others warn that such a move would give an advantage to non-American competitors.
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One thing’s for sure: Google and Chrome being distinct alongside a decoupled Android OS is going to make for some radically different Pixel phones in the future.
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Abdullah is an ardent believer in the future of VR, and can't wait to see what more it brings to the table as technology improves. He enjoys covering new software releases in the XR industry, as well as major news about hardware and companies focused on VR.
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