Can Chrome exist without Google? If US antitrust gets its way, we could have an answer to this question in the coming months.
Already condemned for anti-competitive practices in its native land, Google could well see its worst nightmares soon come to fruition. According to US Department of Justice sources interviewed by Bloombergthe search giant may well be forced to get rid of Chrome.
The idea of dismantling Google's activities, already mentioned a few weeks ago, seems to have made headway within the American legal ecosystem. According to Bloombergjustice would attack Chrome first and foremost, because it believes that owning the most used web browser in the world would give Google an unfair advantage in the online advertising market.
In other words, Chrome would continue to exist, but “Google Chrome” would not.
What are Chrome and Google accused of?
According to the Ministry of Justice, the tracking of Internet users enabled by Chrome in fact feeds the digital profile of each Internet user and allows Google to serve even more targeted advertisements, effectively strengthening Google's position as a key player in the online advertising. The way in which Google uses Chrome to push its Chatbot Gemini (which could soon turn into an all-purpose agent) is also viewed negatively by the courts.
Google could also be forced to share its search engine results with other companies to rebalance the market a little and offer more options to website publishers to escape the surveillance of its AI.
Android, on the other hand, seems to be sidelined and it seems that none of the remedies chosen for Google's monopoly require the company to get rid of its mobile OS. It should just stop imposing its services (like its search engine and its Play Store) on billions of smartphones all over the world. Let us recall in passing that Google is considering a sort of merger between Android and Chrome OS.
The answer in 2025
In response to these potential radical solutions, Google argues that such measures “would harm consumers, developers and technology leadership American just when it is needed most.» The company even goes so far as to suggest that the Justice Department “continues to advocate a radical project that goes well beyond the legal questions raised by this affair».
To go further
“Google is everywhere”: why the European Commission is threatening to dismantle Google
If the case goes as far as a formal takedown, the future of Chrome could land in the hands of other web giants, although many are already under the watchful eye of the same Department of Justice for the same questions of abuse of dominant position. The final decision on the solutions adopted against Google should take place next August, with a progress update in April 2025.
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