Google Gets Rekt By the Justice Department

Google = Standard Oil

Google has been paying device manufacturers and browsers to be the default search engine for years now.

The total amount they spent was $26 billion in 2021. The biggest payments went to Apple ($20 billion) and Samsung ($3 billion).

You didn’t think it was a coincidence that Google just happens to be the default option everywhere, did you?

Well a federal judge just ruled that the practice gives Google an illegal monopoly over the search engine market.

The full ruling (long af) is here.

I first wrote about the case last year when Google was forced to make their internal documents public and reveal how aspects of their algorithm work (probably the most valuable thing to come out of this lawsuit).

What will change

Will the verdict actually change anything? I doubt it.

Google has mindshare.

Just like people say ‘Windex’ instead of ‘glass cleaner’, people say ‘I Googled it’ instead of ‘I searched it’.

It’s too late.