Selling Chrome Won’t Be Enough to End Google’s Search Monopoly

Despite shared concerns about Google’s power, critics of the company and former executives express little agreement on what, if anything, can really be done to increase competition.

To dismantle Google’s illegal monopoly over how Americans search the web, the US Department of Justice wants the tech giant to end its lucrative partnership with Apple, share a trove of proprietary data with competitors and advertisers, and “promptly and fully divest Chrome,” Google’s search engine that controls over half of the US market. The government wants Google to sell Chrome to a buyer it approves, arguing the divesture would “pry open the monopolized markets to competition, remove barriers to entry, and ensure there remain no practices likely to result in unlawful monopolization.”