A senior executive of Google stated in his testimony before the antitrust trial on Thursday that the company's past success is now at risk, and stated that its leadership is concerned that their products may become increasingly distant from young internet users.
Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's senior vice president for search, advertising, and commerce, downplayed Google's dominant position in the same day's testimony, describing it as a company troubled by various competitors.
He said that among young people, Google is often mocked as the "Grandpa Google", who believe that Google is not an interesting product.
Raghavan said, "Google Grandpa knows the answer and will help you with your homework. But when it comes to doing interesting things, they (young people) like to start from other places.
At present, it is not entirely clear where Raghavan saw this word. When searching for 'Google Grandpa' on social media websites such as TikTok, videos and internet memes of grandparents' search information are generated.
Raghavan's testimony signifies that Google is making every effort to defend allegations of Google violating antitrust laws raised by the US Department of Justice and some state attorneys general. The US government has spent over a month presenting its case, accusing Google of illegally using its advantageous position to maintain a monopoly in the search field. The US government defines Google's competitors in the search field as some much smaller universal search engines, such as Microsoft's Bing or DuckDuckGo.
Raghavan, who has previously worked at Yahoo, said that Google has spent a lot of money on research and development, attempting to stay ahead with the development of technology.
He listed a long list of Google's innovations in its search engine over the past 20 years, from changing the way advertisers bid for search result page space to improving the matching between user input query content and actual search results.
The evidence presented by the US Department of Justice earlier indicates that Google has secured its dominant position in the search industry by paying billions of dollars annually to Apple and other companies, locking Google as the default search engine for iPhones and other popular products. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also supported the US Department of Justice's argument during this month's trial that "Google used unfair tactics" to block opportunities for search competitors such as Bing.
Google "Cry of Sorrow"
Google responded by stating that its search engine dominates because it has better products than its competitors. The company stated that compared to competitors such as Microsoft, its investment in mobile devices and other emerging technologies is faster, and these investments are currently paying off.
The company also cites evidence to indicate that consumers often switch to Google when other search engines are the default choice.
Raghavan also pointed out in his testimony that Google's current competitors are not only traditional search engines such as Microsoft Bing, but also various "vertical" search engines such as Expedia or Yelp, which people use to travel or dine more conveniently.
He said, 'We feel like we are competing with them every day.'.
This antitrust case against Google is the largest antitrust case since the US Department of Justice sued Microsoft and its dominant position in the internet browser industry 25 years ago. It was filed during the Trump administration in 2020. The trial began last month, and Google is expected to present its case next month.
US District Judge Amit Mehta is expected to make a ruling early next year. If he finds Google illegal, another trial will determine how to control its market power. One option is to prohibit Google from paying other companies, enticing them to use Google as the default search engine.
Google is also facing a similar antitrust lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice in Alexandria, Virginia regarding its advertising technology. The case has not yet been heard in court.