Are the Browsers War Over? DOJ’s Latest Moves Against Google’s Search Monopoly

Craig: the doj is really cracking down on google, and one of the things they've suggested is that they sell google chrome. yeah. and these things have to be decided within a year. like, it's august twenty twenty five where stuff has to be happened based on the court stuff. so what's your take on all this, john?

Jon: yeah. so i guess i'm not surprised, and and i see that the doj finally has some teeth, and they're actually moving forward like the europeans have been doing. but it's it it reflects a growing trend in kind of governments trying to reign in the power of big tech companies. so the outcome of this is going to really, have an impact on future antitrust actions. if this actually goes through, it it it could be it could be a big game changer, where companies actually rethink their strategies and things like that. so the other thing too is it also raises questions about the balance between fostering innovation and preventing monopolistic practices. right? especially in the tech sector, because we always always talk about, oh, this company has a monopoly. oh, this company has a monopoly. oh, this company has a monopoly. and until recently, nothing's been done about these monopolies. so yeah. i'm glad something's being done. is this what needs to be done? i don't know. i i i don't see how selling off chrome breaks up a monopoly. what about you?

Craig: yeah. so, you know, it depends on the overall take on this, and this is just one of the things they're suggesting. and we talked about this a little bit ago when they found that they were a monopoly, and one of the things that they found predatory was they're paying all these other companies to put, google as their default search. yeah. and that includes firefox. it includes, brave. i think brave, might not be brave. a few of these other browsers. and, you know, we talked about ninety percent of their income comes from google paying them to put that in there. without that, they wouldn't exist. so when you say they're gonna sell chrome, okay. what does that mean? does that mean they're breaking that off to a separate company? i have to read that a little bit. it's, like, worth about twenty billion from what i understand, if not more. and does that actually change their monopoly on search?

Jon: i i don't think so because search is completely different than chrome. chrome is just a browser. although, a lot of browsers are based on chromium. but, again, the dlg is arguing that google's control of chrome gives it an unfair advantage in the search market, and i think i would say i disagree with that. i know chrome is the world's most popular web browser. i think they have a market share of i think it's sixty percent or over sixty percent. but i don't know what kind of an impact this is gonna have on google as a whole, as a company. i think, like, i don't know if this is just something that is just optics, good optics. but for those that don't understand tech and those who aren't in tech, but who knows? what do you think, craig?

Craig: well, the doj's reasoning seems to be straightforward. by slicing off chrome from google's empire, smaller browsers like firefox and edge may earn a fighting chance to shine, leading to new functionalities, improved privacy features, and increased customer choices. i guess it's like giving the underdog a seat at the dinner table. let's see if they bring dessert, but it doesn't make any sense. like, you're saying they're stifling the innovation of other companies because they own chrome because they're developing it too fast because they have the monopoly in search. like, you know, it seems slightly counterintuitive to me, the logic here. doesn't mean it's wrong. i'm just trying to, you know, as we go through it. if the pros proposals go through, it could turn google's entire ecosystem on its head. we might see better privacy controls or interesting new features catching our attention, but i don't know why. like, why would we see better privacy controls? because google's when you say they're getting rid of chrome, google controls chrome, which controls chromium, the open source that everyone else uses. so they have to break that off so that these other browsers are no longer controlled by google, and we'll see innovation throughout the ecosystem. okay. now i'm starting to see a picture where we're saying, alright. since everyone else is based on chrome, they can only develop as fast as google can, and they only implement features that google will let them implement. otherwise, they can't kind of innovate at the level and scale they want to.

Jon: yeah. but here's the thing. is i okay. so see this is a positive for antitrust, but it's no i don't think it's a positive for tech as a whole. i don't think it is. i think, like like like, we do have browsers out there. i think there's a lot of browsers that are based on chromium, as well, which is the underlying tech for chrome browser. so i think it'll hinder, development if google stops working on chromium. like, they're saying they're like, in the article, it's saying that it could increase competition, could lead to more choice and innovation for consumers, but i don't i don't think that that is the case in this case. now what you said, it might reduce google's ability to collect user data across the web. absolutely. i agree with that, and i think that's great. but, again, google will just find a workaround. i think the biggest problem here is well, not so much anymore now that we're seeing all these, like, perplexity and chat g p d search, but their monopoly on search and ads, that's the biggest problem in this whole thing.

Craig: yeah. and that yeah. and it is talking about google search monopoly. and by taking chrome away, i guess, it gives, people more options. maybe forcing people to pick a search provider when you install chrome versus having any sort of default might even change how the world operates. i, like i said, google pays these other browser companies even if they're based on chromium to use google as their search engine, and it's their primary revenue source. it's like, now what do these companies do? so, you know, google's not going out down without a fight. the tech behemoth is defending its practices by claiming it actually promotes competition. they argue that innovations have flourished under their watch, offering features that supposedly help users. but isn't that what every overbearing company would say? trust us, bro. we're doing this for you. we're from the government. we're here to help. just ask any parent. try to justify that why they won't give, their child a puppy. so, you know, who do you trust in this? i don't trust, i definitely don't trust google.

Jon: no. no. i don't like, again, the only positive thing from this is that they're making headway with trying to break up mono with, trying to break up monopolies. i think that's the only positive thing that will come out of this is if this goes through, that means they've got some teeth. and, hopefully, when trump comes in, he doesn't take away those teeth, but who knows? so, everything's up in the air right now, until trump gets into office because we have no clue what changes are gonna be made. or we do. i just haven't been listening too much. but what changes are gonna be made, to the doj once trump gets in?

Craig: yeah. and i haven't heard anything about monopolies or otherwise. i know there's a lot of push for deregulation in a lot of areas. and, as a result, they'll be trying to get rid of a lot of, government agencies. so we'll see. it'll be interesting to watch. not living in the us, i can sit back and look at the experiment in, cutting big government, and will we think it's successful? will it be a huge political battle? will they be able to reduce? because i'm all for reduced government spending and reducing waste, but what does that look like when in practice?

Jon: yeah.

Craig: you know, everyone's like, oh, elon went in, but dude got rid of, sixty six percent, seventy percent of twitter, and it's, you know, operating pretty good still. alright. you know? yep. was that all waste? was it this? was it that? you know? some of it, obviously, was

Jon: day, you still think that blue sky, do you still think that blue sky is in its right after all these, news articles on blue sky and the amount of users, daily users?

Craig: i haven't even seen it. like, i just i just imagined, like so dorsey's already left blue sky. so blue sky is, you know, done. no offense, but, you know, it's the same thing. threads, clubhouse. oh, this is the latest thing. everybody's gotta jump over here where i'm leaving. and then, you know, everyone, yeah, this is just as toxic. this is just as bad. there's yeah. it's the internet. welcome, people. yeah. she's out. you know, it there for everyone that has the same opinion as you, there's at least another ten people who have a different opinion as you, and they're not afraid to tell you. so, you know, you have to have a little bit of a thick skin and expect to say, i'm gonna say these outrageous things. now i'm gonna go over here and say these outrageous things, and people, oh, they're just as mean to me over here. well, you know, maybe you should maybe say less outrageous things, maybe.

Jon: yeah. yeah. maybe.

Craig: if you want you know, don't offend half the country. don't do these things if you don't wanna be yelled at, like, for your opinion. you know? it just seems whatever.

Jon: yeah. i agree.

Craig: yeah. you know, if you're gonna step onto the field of battle, just yeah. it's it's, you're gonna get bruised. that's all. yeah. and when you see these things, i just wonder if it's gonna really lead innovation getting back to the google situation here or not. like, does this lead the way for x saying, alright. i'm gonna have my own browser now because i can compete because google is no longer doing this.

Jon: yeah. i don't know. i it it'll be interesting to see. i'd love to get, like, an actual tech person, like, someone who's doing deep diving, so this is not bloomberg, to see what their thoughts are, as far as what the implications are for the tech industry or the web browsing industry, if that makes sense.

Craig: yeah. and i would have had the bloomberg article on here, but it's, subscriber pay behind the paywall for me here. so, i just have the one that's wrong with starts. yeah. it'd be interesting to take a deep dive and see where this is going. we're gonna see more information come out about this in the next little while. and, you know, we need them all over something. like, if the vest in chrome could reshape the digital landscape, what features would you wanna see in a brand new browser? would you prioritize privacy speed, perhaps a browser that's built on ai. hit us up with your thoughts. my last thought before we jump over, you know, is just as competition for google searches coming out in anthropic and in search gtp and some of these other things, they're coming down hard on them as their monopoly. you know, it's wonder if this timing just would this happen if this happened two, three years from now? without any of this, would google still have the same search monopoly, or would a big chunk have been taken out by these other companies? it's just curious. now we may not see the result of that. the browser wars may not be over. they may just be getting started, and i'd like to know what you think. leave us a comment.