What monopoly ruling means for Google

Google Search is considered to be the technology industry’s greatest business. It allows Alphabet, Google's parent company, to generate more profit than any other US company, including Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Berkshire Hathaway.

- TRIPP MICKLE CECILIA KANG

In the wake of Judge Amit Mehta's ruling Tuesday in an antitrust lawsuit, Google is positioned to keep that business running largely without interruption.

The Silicon Valley giant, which was found in atrial last year to have abused a monopoly over the search industry, has to make only modest changes to correct its behaviour. Under Judge Mehta's ruling, it will have to share more of its data with competitors and create an oversight committee to monitor its business practices. But it can continue many operations that the government challenged in the lawsuit, including its payments to Apple to automatically handle search queries and its control over the Chrome browser.

Here’s a closer look at what the ruling means for Google’s business, should it be upheld after what is expected to be a lengthy appeals process.

SOME DATA-SHARING

Under Mehta's ruling, Google is required to hand over some search results to rival companies. Sharing its data, which has been the backbone of its search engine, could help Microsoft, OpenAl, Perplexity and others improve their search products.

Throughout the trial, such data was described as “the oxygen” for search engines. Google has harvested vast amounts of data over the years from searches — nine times more than all its rivals combined — and analysed it tomake sure that the company provides users with better answers than anyone else. Itwas a key to Google's dominance.