The government’s plan to break up Google
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge
For two decades, Google Search has been unstoppable. Invincible. So thoroughly dominant that would-be competitors often couldn’t even get funding, because investors didn’t see the point in trying. But earlier this year, a judge declared that Google’s power, and the way the company wields it, was an illegal monopoly. And so now the US Department of Justice has to figure out how to undo it.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we dig into the DOJ’s first attempt at a plan. The Verge’s Lauren Feiner joins the show to talk through the recently filed proposal, which includes selling Chrome, possibly selling Android, and requiring Google to give vast quantities of its search tech and data to anyone wanting to compete.
We try to figure out...