Google Trial Spills Details on Search Engine’s Deals With Apple, Samsung
Google’s path to dominating online search included hardball tactics with Apple and Samsung Electronics, two partners key to making its search engine the default choice on most smartphones worldwide. Details of the company’s strategies are spilling out into public view as part of a landmark antimonopoly trial that began this month in Washington, D.C. The case has provided a rare glimpse into how Google cemented its status as a major gateway to the internet, a position the Justice Department says it has maintained through illegal, restrictive agreements.
Google pressed its advantage in conversations with Apple and other partners, according to evidence presented at trial, showing the kinds of tactics it used to maintain its market share in search. The company has defended the market position of its search engine by saying its product is superior. Google facilitates about 90% of all online searches, giving it an unrivaled view into the internet browsing behavior of billions.
Its search engine supports an advertising business that brought in $162 billion last year, most of the revenue at parent company Alphabet. The DOJ’s case centers around Google’s contracts with Apple and other phone makers to automatically direct people to its search engine. Google began entering the agreements as far back as 2001, offering to split the revenue generated when those users click on ads.
Apple began licensing Google’s search engine for the 2003 release of its Safari web browser. Google in 2005 offered Apple a portion of advertising revenue if it made the search engine the default choice on desktop computers. Two years later, Apple asked Google for an amendment to the contract that would allow it to present users with several options for the
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