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posted by janrinok on Friday November 22, @05:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the for-greater-justice dept.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/19/us-doj-sell-chrome-browser-ai-android

US justice department plans to push Google to sell off Chrome browser

[...] The DoJ will reportedly push for Google, which is owned by Alphabet, to sell the browser and also ask a judge to require new measures related to artificial intelligence as well as its Android smartphone operating system, according to Bloomberg.

Competition officials, along with a number of US states that have joined the case against the Silicon Valley company, also plan to recommend that the federal judge Amit Mehta imposes data licensing requirements.

Google has said it will challenge any case by the DoJ and said the proposals marked an "overreach" by the government that would harm consumers.

It didn't go their way a few decades ago when they wanted to split or force Microsoft to split or part with some aspects of the company. Any reason to think they'll do better this time around?

According to Bloomberg they are tossing around the value of $20 billion. Who has that to spare for Chrome? That isn't already more or less a monopoly in and by themselves? One evil is as good/bad as the next evil.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by pTamok on Friday November 22, @08:28AM

    by pTamok (3042) on Friday November 22, @08:28AM (#1382815)

    Without reading any of the documentation, I have to assume that the DoJ have used expert opinion to determine that this is the best remedy they they are able to ask for that cures the transgressions that they are responsible for policing.

    What this means that if you are talking about behaviours exhibited by Alphabet that are not within the DoJ's purview, and especially not this investigation's scope, then this remedy is not for you.

    This case is about Alphabet/Google's domination of Internet Search, and payments to other organisations (such as Apple, and Mozilla) to place Google Search as the default search engine.

    This case is NOT directly about advertising - that is a separate case.

    One result could well be that Alphabet/Google can no longer make payments to Mozilla to place Google's search as the default search in Firefox - removing over 80% of Mozilla's revenue.

    Any new owner of Chrome would look for ways to generate revenue from it, and selling user information is one of them, with no requirement to send any money to Mozilla.

    I think Firefox is in for a bumpy ride, and the end result could well be a duopoly between Webkit and Chrome. Which may be true, not matter what happens with this case, as Firefox usage compared to other browsers is below the level that people routinely check that their websites work with it.

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