Is Google Chrome crushing the competition.

I think "crushing" is a little strong. I prefer "stepping on".

Done searching

By Chart R

Nov 20, 2024

According to Bloomberg, Department of Justice officials are planning to recommend that Amit Mehta — the US District Judge who ruled in August that Alphabet’s search giant holds an illegal monopoly — force the company to sell off its Google Chrome browser, impose data-licensing requirements, and implement further measures, including around its burgeoning AI efforts.

Those recommendations show how serious America’s antitrust authorities are about cracking down on Google’s dominance in the world of looking stuff up online. It’s the biggest antitrust action against Big Tech in the US since the United States vs. Microsoft Corp. case more than two decades ago (spoiler: Microsoft wasn’t broken up).

According to Statcounter, Google Chrome has a 67% share of the global web-browser market — way ahead of the next biggest competitor, Apple’s Safari.

Though Chrome isn’t a huge money spinner in a direct sense, it’s a phenomenal source of traffic for the search engine itself (which makes plenty of money), and the browser is at the crux of the DoJ’s case — Google’s domination of search. According to website-intelligence platform Similarweb, Google has a staggering 93% share of American web searches.

On Chrome, users are directed to Google by default when they search, and Google gets data on logged-in users’ activity, helping its targeted-advertising efforts. Thanks to unsealed court documents, we know that Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 alone to be the default search engine for Apple’s Safari browser. But, if Chrome was owned by another party, Google would presumably have to pay to be the default search engine in a similar fashion.