Google users got better, more relevant search results. Simply put, if you Googled something, you found what you were looking for.
It meant that Google has been my homepage for pretty much my entire online life, and ‘Googling’ things is a habit – something I, now in my mid-30s, do dozens of times a day, as is the case for most Australians.
Google search is deeply ingrained in our digital lives, and the statistics reflect this: 90 percent of internet searches in Australia are done via Google, a figure that rises to 98 percent on mobile devices, according to Australia’s competition watchdog.
It’s that dominance that has put Google in the crosshairs of Australian regulators – and more pressingly for Google right now, the US Department of Justice, which sees a breakup of the company as perhaps the most extreme, but far from the least likely, considers. instrument at his disposal.
Google has not grown into a dominant force entirely organically. The crux of the Justice Department’s case is that Google paid billions of dollars to other tech companies, such as Apple and Samsung, to be the default engine on their smartphones. It’s those actions that violate antitrust laws, the department says.
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The ACCC also found in an investigation earlier this year that Google had paid telecoms companies including Telstra, TPG and Optus to be the default search engine on Android devices.
It would be difficult to break up Google. It’s a difficult task for the Justice Department, which could end up before the Supreme Court. There is little precedent for such a move: A federal judge ordered Microsoft broken up 20 years ago, but the company fended off that outcome with a successful appeal.
But let’s say it happens, and the DOJ forces a break and bans Google from being the “default” search engine on devices.
Are we ready for a world where Googling something is no longer the default option? And are we ready for what the Internet will look like without Google as we know it?
The Internet is already moving toward something resembling a post-search era.
Google has overcome its rivals by being better (and by making billions in payments).Credit: Getty
The rise of AI chatbot interfaces like ChatGPT is shaking up the search market and making it increasingly likely that the next Google will be an AI start-up or an entirely new company.
Many of these companies are small, agile and can invent and commercialize their innovations much faster than Google. And Google seems to agree.
“The DOJs [Department of Justice] The outline comes at a time when competition in the way people find information is flourishing, with all kinds of new entrants emerging and new technologies like AI transforming the industry,” the report said in a statement.
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Any attempt to undermine Google’s search dominance would also take years from a legal perspective, and would likely be obsolete before it was ever completed.
And in an era now dominated by TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media platforms, Google Search also feels less immediately relevant to young people than it used to.
As a nine-year-old, I would definitely be interested in TikTok, Snapchat and, certainly, YouTube, which is owned by Google. I’m less convinced that nine-year-old me would rely on Google now in the same way I did 25 years ago to connect to the online world.
The white, minimalist search engine was something of a panacea in the late 1990s. Now vertical videos, AI-generated images and augmented reality are what it’s all about.
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I also find the fact that Google felt it necessary to make those billions of dollars in payments – both to other tech companies and to Australian telecom companies like Telstra and Optus – completely bizarre. Google was the best search engine for decades. It was winning, and it certainly didn’t need to further assert its dominance by paying for the privilege. Given the choice, most consumers would likely choose Google over its smaller competitors, without any coercion.
Either way, I – and I think a good portion of the Internet-using public – feel ready for whatever a post-Google Internet looks like. Tools like ChatGPT are flawed, but feel magical in a way that makes Google Search feel like something from a bygone era.
Ask an AI chatbot a question now and you’ll likely get a better, more thoughtful answer than anything Google spits out. There are still plenty of problems to be solved – data scraping, hallucinations, competition – but the generative AI genie cannot be put back in the bottle.
So let’s see what comes next, whether that’s because of a Justice Department order or otherwise.
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