Google is currently in court over an antitrust order filed in 2018 by the European Union. Along with the order, it received a nearly $7 billion fine after the tech giant was accused of allegedly using unfair tactics to crush any competing search engines, creating a monopoly in the market. Google is denying this, with its lawyers arguing that folks just really, really like using its search engine and nothing nefarious was happening.
In court on Thursday, Google argued people just choose to use their search engine because they like it a lot. To prove this and to get the antitrust order lifted, Google’s legal team pointed out that over on Microsoft’s competing search engine Bing, the most searched term is “Google.”
“We have submitted evidence showing that the most common search query on Bing is by far Google,” said a lawyer for Google as reported by Bloomberg.
Google’s legal team continued, explaining that “People use Google because they choose to, not because they are forced to.” The search giant also pointed out in the court that its market share in Europe lines up with its consumer surveys which show that “ 95% of users prefer Google to rival search engines.”
The whole reason Google is in court is due to an antitrust order and fine issued in 2018 by the European Union. Lawyers for the EU explained why the order was filed in court, listing three main reasons which included: Forcing phone manufacturers to pre-install Chome on its phones by refusing to licence the Google Play Store if they didn’t, paying network providers and manufacturers to only pre-install the Google search app on all of their devices and preventing companies from selling phones or tablets with alternative versions of Android if they didn’t play by these rules.
While Google dominates the search engine marketplace so much that it is being sued over it, the tech giant continues to struggle to find footing in the video game industry. Its ill-conceived video game streaming service, Stadia, continues to stick around, but has yet to set the world on fire.
Meanwhile, about half the people reading this blog just remembered Bing exists.
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