The US Department of Justice is considering the best way to weaken Google's grip. One of the most talked about ideas would be to separate Google and its Chrome browser, considered a gateway for the search engine and online advertising. For now Google offers its search engine in the browser by default.
Google is targeted like several other big names in tech by an antitrust investigation in the United States. The US administration is looking for ways to weaken the giant accused of anti-competitive practices.
The Politico blog reports that the Department of Justice (DoJ) is considering, following consultations with industry experts and the firm's competitors, to separate the search engine from the Chrome browser.
Chrome is indeed the big winner of the last browser war. It has in a short time succeeded in supplanting Internet Explorer and increasing its market share to the point that competing browsers are struggling to really exist today. Chrome has a 66% market share worldwide, across all platforms. The Google search engine captures 90% of online searches.
US Department of Justice considers Chrome a gateway for Google and its online advertising
However, Google is Chrome's default search engine. And if it is possible to change it, this is done at the cost of manipulations that are not necessarily intuitive for all users. And that's not all: according to the report of the American commission of inquiry, Chrome is also a “gateway” for online advertising. Chrome indeed helps Google to refine its advertising targeting by providing it with data on users.
Suddenly several options are on the table. One of them would be to force Google to sell its browser outright to a competitor. An option that nevertheless seems not very serious: browsers are not easy to monetize, and above all involve significant development costs. Another is therefore to create a strict framework to prevent Google from using Chrome data as it sees fit.
Finally, the DoJ believes that another option could be effective: forcing Google to sell one of its advertising subsidiaries such as Doubleclick.