Google still abuses its search monopoly in the EU — regulators wake up!

Last month, Google published the outcomes of the latest pay-for-play Android auction. This farcical system is a method for other search engines to bid to be among three search engines — along with the constantly present Google — which Android users may pick from, since they set a new apparatus.

Despite assurances to regulators and competitors that the market would not actually be pay-for-play, and would not omit the favorite, purpose-driven search engines out of positions, the outcomes have done nothing to boost competition in hunt.

The newest’winners’ were mostly small known profit-hungry search engines such as GMX, PrivacyWall, and info.com, who busy out purpose-driven operators.

Purpose-driven search engines such as Ecosia (which I founded), DuckDuckGo, Qwant, and Lilo have next to no visibility on Android inside this pay-to-play system, and also the origin of a few of the real winners, is worthy of cross-examination.

Info.com, by way of instance, makes money in a part by purchasing search ads on Google and redirecting the searcher into some other page of ads on its engine.

Info.com will pay cash to Google (through the auction format) to your best to put those advertisements, which Google currently makes money from.

Quite literally, they’re helping Google gain from a judgment that was supposed to suppress their dominance, not expand it.

Next to no Android phones have the choice-screen built in, because of COVID

Even if the auction results were balanced, real option isn’t getting through to customers, since Google determined that the so-called choice-screen would just be constructed into new apparatus.

Like virtually every market, the coronavirus has completely changed the financial landscape in smartphone production, with earnings up to 50 percent throughout the height of this pandemic and provide chains shut or disrupted.

Delays have struck manufacturing lines for smart devices along with fewer Android telephones have been sold because the choice display went live in April 2020. My group and I quote that a very small percentage of users have really been presented with this display.

Regulators will need to understand that hardly anyone can now observe this choice-screen and accommodate their law accordingly.
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No resolution to the 2018 EU ruling 

Considering that the 2018 judgment against Google, marketplace conditions for competitions now are significantly worse. Option search engines are fighting — Ecosia, by way of instance, saw earnings cut in half in the height of this pandemic, and Cliqz, a privacy-centric research engine, dropped in May — mentioning COVID and also Google’s misuse of the marketplace.

We feel that the EU Commission was ready to provide the auction process an opportunity since it would not necessarily discriminate based on cost. However, you simply need to check at the outcomes of the auction to understand that the reverse is currently true.

Google’s dominance of the search landscape stands at 93 percent , and authorities should now think about what else could be done in order to guarantee search competitions can more effectively challenge them.

Addressing false scarcity where there is none

Limiting consumer decision to three options has not just established this up cycle of unnecessary price for search suppliers, but it is also a lousy bargain for Android users.

Imagine walking into a grocery store in which there are just 3 varieties of coffee or chocolate? The amount of three is arbitrary, and against the spirit of the 2018 judgment.

Android users must have the ability to freely select which search engine they use, and there’s not any technical or logistical reason why this isn’t feasible.

Regulators should stress Google into opening the choice-screen into all of search engines, not only those prepared to pay for the privilege, to make certain that all users have access to this option pertinent to them.

As you can see from our mockup beneath, there is no reason this may not get the job done.

A genuine fair-choice screen, free of financial influence

The most common choice search options aren’t profit-hungry Google affiliates. They’re privacy-friendly, climate-friendly choices which consumers turn to to encourage a particular cause, such as battling climate change.

Therefore, the pay-for-play auction version doesn’t work in our favor, since it makes it uneconomic for us to bid large, thereby excluding all of the actual rivals (and those that consumers voluntarily select ), such as Ecosia, DuckDuckGo, or even Qwant.

If we are going to have a display that’s genuinely honest, it shouldn’t discriminate on cost. Google must desperately look at a really fair-choice display that does not limit accessibility, or prefer the largest opponents.
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Act now, or lose competition all together

Considering that the 2018 judgment, Google has said it is taking steps to open up contest but its own actions tell another story.

Some alternate search engines have been teetering on the brink of going below and may fight to survive the winter. We can’t wait a few years before return to say’well that did not work’. These problems need addressing today — although there still is an internet search engine marketplace which is not just Google.

What we’re calling for is rather simple for Google to execute. They’ve spent the past 18 months building the infrastructure to get a choice display, therefore adding each player (as shown in the version above), instead of only three, would not need much extra investment or resource out of them.

All things considered, this is the way it functions on Chrome, so what applies there ought to use on Android.

When the EU is to not seem helpless in the face of Google, then it has to understand that the Android auction has to be reworked to ensure that a real choice is available to every one the EU’s customers.