The US Government considers whether Google should spin off the Android operating system and Chrome browser.

The US government is considering seeking the break-up of the world’s biggest search engine, Google, which it accuses of causing “pernicious harms” to Americans.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has been considering so-called remedies since a landmark court ruling in August which found Google illegally crushed its competition in online search.

If the DOJ pushes ahead with the proposed remedies - and they are accepted by the judge in the case - it would represent arguably the biggest regulatory intervention in the history of big tech.

Google has pushed back hard against the proposals, describing them as “radical” and “sweeping” and claiming they “risk hurting consumers, businesses, and developers.”

  • jlow (he/him)@beehaw.org
    31·
    23 days ago

    Have only skimmed the article, so maybe it’s in there somewhere, what would “brake up” Google actually mean (forbid them to pay Apple etc. to push Google search?)? And do the mean Alphabet sometimes when they say Google? I would have thought Google Search, Chrome and Android are all different … products / companies or whatever?

    Anyway, making Google / Alphabet less able to overreach constantly can only be a good thing. If they can manage to do it.

    • Magicalus@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      4·
      23 days ago

      Alphabet is the company that owns all the products and companies and whatnot. They are the owners of google, android, chrome, google drive, chromium, a ton of stuff. Too much stuff.

      Them getting broken up means that the different parts of their business will get split up. So google search and android and chrome etc. Will all be different companies.

      The best in example I can think of is AT&T. They used to own pretty much the entire American telephone network, but they got broken up for being a monopoly. In this case, they were split up regionally, into over 20 different companies.

  • sjpwarren@programming.dev
    33·
    23 days ago

    Bad timing for Google. I am not sure about others but lately I have found Chatgpt my go to when trying to solve a programming problem and I have found google less relevant.