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Just google.
The expression testifies to the synonym that the Internet giant has become with the search for online information because its services are now omnipresent in everything, from smartphones to laptops and even cars.
But this success had a cost, according to the American government.
Since 2023, two distinct federal judges and a federal jury have ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly in its search engine, its online advertising company and its application store. Google fights to reverse These decisions, which could force the division of nearly 2 billions of dollars to separate – If this happens, it would mark the greatest rupture of a technological company since AT&T.
And it’s not just Google; Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple also faced an antitrust examination on how they work technological platforms.
A rupture could particularly harm Google now, because climbing on AI and chatbots threaten to challenge its core business. Friday, marks the end of a series of three -week audiences that could determine the future of one of the most important technological companies in history, which could reshape the way billions of people use the Internet. A decision is expected in August.
So how did Google become so tall? The answer could be seated in your hand.
Today, Google is much more than a search engine. A series of product acquisitions and launching from the early 2000s put it at the head of the most popular, youtube – the most popular social media platform for adolescents – to the most popular web browser in the world and the most used smartphone software.
“The friction of going from Google to something else, it was not worth it,” said Robert Siegel, professor in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. “Why would you like?” You do not get better results. ”
Google’s search engine took off in the late 1990s and early 2000s, because it had a new way of classifying the results: by importance, on the basis of the frequency of other sites linked to it, highlighting which websites had more credibility and relevance. According to David Brumley, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Carnegie and Electricity and IT university at the University of Carnegie of the Organization, indexed the results of the web as “a file file”.
Google inked contracts worth tens of billions of dollars to make it the default research provider on iPhones, while concluding offers to preload its search engine and its browser on Android phones. These arrangements, the Ministry of Justice and a group of states have argued, as well as the Google Chrome browser being so closely linked to its search engine, stifled competition on the research market.
Last year, the American district judge Amit Mehta judged these anti -competitive transactions, calling Google a “monopoly” in online research. The DoJ now wants Google to be turned or makes major changes to its Chrome browser and its Android operating system.
Google said he was planning to call on the case and Last month, called it “looking at” “a moment of intense competition and unprecedented innovation”. In the courtroom, Google argued that the DoJ’s proposal would present security risks, hinder Google’s ability to invest in research and development and harm Chrome as well as other companies that rely on Google research.
Rather, it offers to modify its browser chords to allow companies to change their default browser supplier every 12 months, among other changes.
Asked about this story, a Google spokesperson underlined CNN to his public statements concerning antitrust cases.
As Google’s search engine has gained popularity, its lucrative advertising activity, which brought in $ 66.9 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2025.
“Google was able to sell mainly many announcements because they were able to deliver the most eyeballs, and they were able to deliver a lot, the most, the eyeballs because they sold a lot of announcements,” said Siegel.
Google has also developed a technological “battery” which allowed brands to buy online advertisements and publishers to sell the online advertising space in a single company.
In April, the American district judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google had been able to “establish and protect its monopoly power” by linking its advertising server and its exchange of publishers together. However, she took the side of Google by moving against one of the government’s allegations linked to the advertising networks of the online advertiser of the research giant.
Google also calls on this case, which could force it to give up part of its online advertising activity or, more likely, to limit the way it can work or assess its services. The Doj is pressure for Google to sell two parts of its advertising activities to restore competition, according to a judicial file on May 5.
Historically, American regulators have left large companies alone if they had complementary offers, but not offers, only reach “vertical” mergers where companies bought competitors, according to Abiel Garcia, partner of the Kesselman law firm, Bment Stocker LLP. But American regulators began to see companies with complementary services as being also problematic, said Garcia, who was previously deputy prosecutor for the California Ministry of Justice.
Legal issues are particularly high for Google in the midst of forecasts that AI tools will take control of some of the functions of search engines. The Gartner market research company estimated last year This volume of traditional search engine would drop by 25% by 2026 while consumers would revolve to AI tools. An Apple leader said in his testimony to the hearing hall during this week’s hearings that Google Research Requests on Apple devices have decreased, according to Bloomberg. (Google said in a statement on Wednesday that it “continues to see the overall growth in research requests”))
And the OpenAi Chatppt presents strong competition; Google Gemini represent about 10% of the chatgpt size on most user growth measures, Barclays analysts wrote in a research note from April 24.
“The question is: will the AI solutions give us better products?” Siegel said. “And that could lead people to change and move away over time.”
