During Google’s anticompetitive trial, Apple’s deal to make Google the default search engine was brought up.
While Apple played Microsoft Bing against Google, it is now eyeing using the private Duck Duck Go as its default on Safari. CNN reports:
Since 2017, Apple has turned down multiple opportunities to chip away at Google’s search engine dominance, according to newly unsealed court transcripts, including a chance to purchase Microsoft’s Bing and to make the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo a default for users of its Safari’s private browsing mode.
The previously confidential records, unsealed this week by the judge presiding over the US government’s antitrust lawsuit against Google, illustrate the challenges that have faced Google’s rivals in search as they’ve tried to unseat the tech giant from its pole position as Apple’s default search provider on millions of iPhones and Mac computers. It’s a privilege for which Google has paid Apple at least $10 billion a year.
Apple still competes fiercely with Google over Smartphone hardware and software. Apple especially is touting privacy as a selling point, making it conflict with having Google as a default. The Wall Street Journal reports:
The two have long been rivals, particularly since their Android and iOS platforms dominate the world’s mobile operating system market. But they are also joined at the hip through a lucrative agreement under which Google pays Apple billions of dollars annually to be the default search option on the company’s Safari internet browser. That gives Google preferential access to Apple’s iOS users while giving Apple a steady and high-margin revenue stream for its vital services business, which now accounts for 21% of its revenue and 35% of its gross income.
Neither company has ever been wild about discussing the arrangement publicly. Now the federal government’s antitrust trial against Google that began last month has shone some light on the deal, forcing executives from both companies to take the stand to defend the practice. It also brought to the stand Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella who, during testimony last week, described the setup as a “vicious cycle” that handicaps Google’s potential competitors. They include Microsoft’s Bing search engine, for which Nadella said the company tried for years to score a deal with Apple to take that default slot.
Free Speech advocates in particular have been pushing for the use of Duck Duck Go, as it does not hide results.
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