It’s a win for Google.

The government’s antitrust case against Google just got significantly smaller. In a filing on Friday, a US district court judge dismissed several of the claims that the Department of Justice and a coalition of states brought against the company, including allegations that Google Search harms competing services.

  • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.caEnglish
    70·
    1 year ago

    After hearing the results of several antitrust cases, the standard of evidence for anti competitive behavior seems impossibly high with current laws and precedents.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    60·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    In a filing on Friday, a US district court judge dismissed several of the claims that the Department of Justice and a coalition of states brought against the company, including allegations that Google Search harms competing services.

    The decision stems from a pair of lawsuits that the DOJ and a group of 38 state attorneys general filed against Google in 2020.

    The suit accuses Google of anti-competitive behavior on a number of fronts, including designing its search engine to disadvantage competitors like Yelp, Expedia, and Tripadvisor.

    However, Judge Amit Mehta threw out this claim, stating that the government’s proof of anti-competitive harm “relies not on evidence but almost entirely on the opinion and speculation of its expert” that it cited in its suit, law professor Jonathan Baker.

    Mehta also dropped the DOJ’s accusations related to the agreements Google makes with developers and Android phone makers because the government abandoned the allegations.

    Google filed a motion to dismiss the suit late last year and is facing a separate lawsuit from the DOJ over its grip on the online advertisements market.

    I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Alto@kbin.social
    49·
    1 year ago

    including allegations that Google Search harms competing services.

    To be entirely fair, Google search has gotten so shit I’ve managed to get multiple friends to switch to DDG. Thanks google!

    • WarmSoda@lemm.eeEnglish
      16·
      1 year ago

      I’ve been using DDG for awhile now. I have zero complaints about it.

      • skribe@aussie.zoneEnglish
        10·
        1 year ago

        My chief complaint about DDG is excluding a term from a query rarely works. The “-” tag is not reliable.

        • Thymos@lemm.eeEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, I looked it up the other day and apparently it only gives less results with words flagged with “-”. It’s stupid because a few years ago there was syntax to exclude a term completely, so it’s definitely possible to do. I don’t understand why they just won’t.

          • skribe@aussie.zoneEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Last time I checked the documentation (more than a year ago) the ‘-’ flag was supposed to work, but in practice the results can be unpredictable. Google honours the flag, but DDG is a bit of a mixed bag.

    • Gogo Sempai@programming.devEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I had done the same. Was on DDG for around 2 years but shifted to Brave search recently. Results are almost on par with DDG I’d say but the main highlight for me is their AI summarizer. Pretty accurate and often I don’t even have to visit any website. Also like their discussions tab.

    • Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      Google seems more and more like an up-jumped shopping mall directory. It’s great if I’m looking for something to buy, but for finding anything not related to commerce I also have better luck with a different search engine.