For some time, when you open your new device for the first time, peel back that film, sign in, and hit the web, there Google Chrome is, which straight away searches Google for your keyword. Well, they are under major scrutiny because of this. They are being accused of illegally creating a monopoly to push the serch engine to destroy rivals, and it has worked. According to Rand Fishkin who cross-referenced Datos and SimilarWeb, Google accounts for 83.54% of market share for cross-platform search, with the likes of Bing with just a few percent.

This could have huge potential to redesign the landscape of search and paid ads as we know it. This also comes at a time when Answer Engine Optimisation and ChatGPT Search is working its way into users hands. 

The US Department of Justice is hard at work to break Google down to stop the monopoly. For SEO, AEO and PPC, this represents further opportunities and may suggest in the future we may be looking at a more level playing field if other search engines are able to bridge the gap. ChatGPT Search is growing at a vast rate and will be available for free users in just a few months time.

Google wrote: “DOJ’s wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court’s decision. It would break a range of Google products — even beyond Search — that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives.” Reports claim that proposals say that Google should be barred from owning a browser and from re-entering the browser market for five years after selling off Chrome.

Reports suggest that Chrome could sell for as much as $20 billion if a judge agrees to a Justice Department proposal to sell the business, in what would be a historic crackdown on one of the world’s biggest tech companies.

The amount that potential buyers are prepared to spend may be influenced by their capacity to integrate Chrome with other services, according to Bob O’Donnell of TECHnalysis Research. “It’s not directly monetizable,” he said. “It serves as a gateway to other things. It’s not clear how you measure that from a pure revenue-generating perspective.”

As of late 2024, Google is expected to counter what can only be described as a major creation of a hole in their operation by the end of the year. Let’s see how that goes. After an extremely turbulent year of Search, 2025 is shaping up to be a pretty big one too.

Published by Digital Landscope on 22/11/2024.