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Schaub: Google’s antitrust trial will likely change our search habits

Quoted by NBC News. Associate professor Florian Schaub. Schaub: Google’s antitrust trial will likely change our search habits.

Monday, 10/16/2023

Government regulators are pursuing an antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing the tech giant of illegally monopolizing the market by closing off competition. 

The results of the trial could change how users pursue and access information. 

University of Michigan School of Information associate professor Florian Schaub, an expert on technology and public policy, talked with NBC news about the ramifications of the case

“The current environment is being shaped by an architecture that’s designed by the big companies that control the space,” Schaub said. “What the government can do is inject some neutralism into this and give consumers some actual choices. If people still choose to use Google, that is at least a consumer choice, which would be better than having people stick to a default because they are conditioned to that default.”

Schaub says the case could lead to more choices for users by removing Google’s search engine as the default setting on smartphones, and alter other Apple-specific technologies. 

“If one of the outcomes of the trial is that there needs to be more neutral choices, it wouldn’t just affect Google on Android phones, it could also affect Apple and the iPhone,” Schaub said. “Does it mean Google phones might have to offer (Apple’s virtual assistant) Siri as an alternative to the Google Assistant? Or would Apple devices have to offer Google Assistant?”

RELATED

Read “What Google’s antitrust trial means for your search habits” on NBC News. 

Read more of Florian Schaub’s research on privacy, security and public policy by visiting his UMSI faculty profile.

 

Noor Hindi, UMSI public relations specialist