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Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

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Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#261
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one of the lessons of Wikipedia, is the more you link out the more they come back. People come to your site because it is useful. They are perfectly capable of leaving by themselves. They don't need a link to do so. Having links to relavent information that attracts readers back is well worth the cost of people following links out of your site.

Wikipedia eventually failed.

What do you mean? It's one of the most popular sites

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#262
post #61

> The company can make payments to preload products, but it cannot have exclusive contracts, the decision stated. How is this relevant? Apple is the one selling exclusive access to search on iPhone, not Google.

Yeah, that's an interesting side of this. How is Apple not under any fire for basically weaponizing something as basic as internet search on their platform? If we think this practice is anti-competitive shouldn't we also make it illegal for the platforms to do this? It's a little bit like sentencing the sex-worker to jail but letting the pimp go scot free.

Apple's antitrust is in-progress though, so who knows, the deal is cited throughout the DOJ complaint but not for being a monopoly itself more sort of how they cash-in on the lack of competition -

> 5. When users run an internet search, Google gives Apple a significant cut of the advertising revenue that an iPhone user’s searches generate.

> 16. Apple wraps itself in a cloak of privacy, security, and consumer preferences to justify its anticompetitive conduct. Indeed, it spends billions on marketing and branding to promote the self-serving premise that only Apple can safeguard consumers’ privacy and security interests. Apple selectively compromises privacy and security interests when doing so is in Apple’s own financial interest—such as degrading the security of text messages, offering governments and certain companies the chance to access more private and secure versions of app stores, or accepting billions of dollars each year for choosing Google as its default search engine when more private options are available. In the end, Apple deploys privacy and security justifications as an elastic shield that can stretch or contract to serve Apple’s financial and business interests.

> 145. Similarly, Apple is willing to sacrifice user privacy and security in other ways so long as doing so benefits Apple. For example, Apple allows developers to distribute apps through its App Store that collect vast amounts of personal and sensitive data about users—including children—at the expense of its users’ privacy and security. Apple also enters agreements to share in the revenue generated from advertising that relies on harvesting users’ personal data. For example, Apple accepts massive payments from Google to set its search engine as the default in the Safari web browser even though Apple recognizes that other search engines better protect user privacy

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.njd.544...

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#263

By the way, a pet peeve of mine right now is that reporters covering court cases (and we have so many of public interest lately) never seem to simply paste the link to the online PDF decision/ruling for us all to read, right in the story. (and another user here kindly did that for us below: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.223... ) It seems such a simple step (they must have been using the rul…

I've noticed this too and I agree it's unacceptable practice. Journalism in general has become wildly resistant to properly citing their sources (or they simply make their citation as difficult to find as possible through various obfuscation techniques) and this is making independent validation of any information online that much more difficult while further entrenching a culture of "just trust me, bro" on the internet in general. It's a deeply infuriating and destructive practice that needs to die out. At least when I was in school & university, properly citing your sources was everything when it came to writing any sort of report or essay. How the adtech industry managed to quietly undo that standard expectation so thoroughly for the sake of engagement metrics is rather nuts to me.

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless the remedy is that Google's online ads has to be spun out into a separate company away from their control, I don't see how any remedy can be effective. What can honestly be done to punish them? I mean punish too, certain entities of Google should not exist.

That's actually a separate case. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Google_LLC_(2...

That case is about Google's publisher ad tech product (Google Ad Manager), not search ads (which was covered in Judge Mehta's ruling today).

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#265
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never link outside your domain has been rule #1 of the ad-driven business for years now. Once users leave your page, they become exponentially less likely to load more ad-ridden pages from your website. Ironically this is also why there is so much existential fear about AI in the media. LLMs will do to them what they do to primary sources (and more likely just cut them out of the loop). This Google story will get a l…

Most of that stuff like court decisions and patents isn't copyrighted anyway. They can host a copy on their own site and display ads around it if they want to.

Sure, but if they're hosting it on their own site then who's to know it hasn't been modified by them for some reason?

ie it's no longer a "source of truth"

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#266
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The problem is you started with a link. Explain the case like news did and see what comes out.

A link to the court case (not the news article) seems like a valid starting place when asking for background and a summary of the case.

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#267
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the contradiction "paying partners to secure browser placement" =/ "exclusivity." This just means you can have partner deals, but that they can't be exclusive, right?

But in that case the remedy is ... nothing?

No? What makes you say that?

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#268
post #160
post #5

The headline is not great because Google will obviously appeal the ruling to the appeals court of DC, and if they have to, the Supreme Court. A lot can happy from now and then. And this may take many years to grind through the court system. I wonder if there exists AI models of all the super senior and important judges so we can venture how this will play out through the court system.

Why would they appeal? This appears to be a huge win. What more could they reasonably wish for?

The judge hasn't issued a formal apology to Google... yet.

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI is a competitor. You know how StackOverflow is dead because AI provided an alternative? That's happening in search too. You might think "but ChatGPT isn't a search engine", and that's true. It can't handle all queries you might use a search engine for, e.g. if you want to find a particular website. But there are many many queries that it can handle. Here's just a few from my recent history: * How do I load a share…

Is it common to use Internet search like that??? You're typing in literal questions to a search box rather than keywords, the name of the site you're looking for, or topics you want to read about. Maybe I'm just too old school, from the time where internet searches were essentially keyword searches, but it would have never occurred to me to type an actual english question as a full sentence into a search box. If that…

I think those are examples of AI prompts, not search queries. Searching sometimes requires effort even for simple questions. For example, if you're trying to find the word for an object, you might need to consider what sort of website might talk about that, how to find that website in a sea of SEO spam, and then read through the article manually to find the specific information you are looking for. Using an AI, you can just ask "what is xyz called" and get a quick answer.

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never link outside your domain has been rule #1 of the ad-driven business for years now. Once users leave your page, they become exponentially less likely to load more ad-ridden pages from your website. Ironically this is also why there is so much existential fear about AI in the media. LLMs will do to them what they do to primary sources (and more likely just cut them out of the loop). This Google story will get a l…

> But it is easy to see a near future where an AI agent just retrieves and summarizes the case for you. And does a much better job too. I am significantly less confident that an LLM is going to be any good at putting a raw source like a court ruling PDF into context and adequately explain to readers why - and what details - of the decision matter, and what impact they will have. They can probably do an OK job summari…

Llms are already incredibly able to be great at contextualizing and explaining things. HNs is so allergic to AI, it's incredible. And leaving you behind
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