But he did...bar the search giant from making exclusive deals to distribute its search or AI assistant products in ways that might cut off distribution for rivals.
Oh boy there goes Firefox
Nah its just the default search engine and you can still change the default, thus not cutting off distribution of other engines.
I think they're referring to Firefox's funding, a lot of which was through search deals
An article from 5 years ago: https://www.pcmag.com/news/mozilla-signs-lucrative-3-year-google-search-deal-for-firefox
edit: seems like that hasn't changed by this ruling either
United States District Judge Amit Mehta has ruled that Google can continue to pay other companies, including browser makers like Mozilla, to be their default search engine.
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/09/google-antitrust-ruling-firefox-search-deal
From the article you linked:
In return for Google being the default search engine in Firefox, Mozilla is expected to bank $400M+ a year.
Literally what I am talking about. I can still switch away from the default. No other search companies are being denied access to being set as the default search engine in Firefox. Google just pays a premium so they are the default out of the box, which would not be anti-competitive under this order.
bar the search giant from making exclusive deals to distribute its search or AI assistant products in ways that might cut off distribution for rivals.
This by definition does not cut off their distribution in Firefox. Google can still make this deal with Mozilla. It is not an exclusivity deal, it's a default search engine deal. Exclusivity or cutting off distribution would be making Google the only search engine option in Firefox.
No one saw that coming
So they found Google guilty of monopolistic practices then agreed to do nothing about it.
Sounds about right.
Welcome to the capitalistic oligarchy!
How disappointing but expected. I'm not even sure what would break googles search engine dominance outside of search engines becoming obsolete. I use DDG and I find it to be better than google but still so many people stand by google search with strong loyalty.
Google should lose control of Android. Maybe then we'll keep the ability to install any app we want.
Google should be disconnected and erase from the internet like any other worm/virus
You think other companies would provide sideloading like samsung, and oneplus? They would lock the OS hard and make it difficult to even unlock. Making android more closed than before.
I highly doubt AOSP can't mantain itself, and that manufacturers could build from it and do whatever.
It'd probably take some sort of Linux Foundation style arrangement with manufacturers supporting a neutral team built from Google's Android division.
Well then why aren't they doing so now? They're already maintaining their own forks of android, should be pretty trivial to do.
They need to maintain compatibility with play services to access apps on play store.
Also, starting with OnUI 8 bootloader unlocking is no longer supported. On OxugenOS 16 its only allowed with restrictions. The hardening is already started.
allowing 3rd party app installs is not required for play services
I see the checks to Trump cleared!
Completely expected. Google paid the protection money.
That's it ? Usually these things go into appeal over and over but google just has to win once ?
Who would appeal? The case was started by the DOJ and the DOJ made this decision. Google apparently paid the requisite tribute to the Trump admin to make all of this go away, and so it has.
Who cares about chrome? Of all the things Chrome is the easiest to replace. Android is the real deal.
The problem is Chromium.
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