Antitrust Lawsuit Threatens Apple's Lucrative Deal with Google

[SoldOnApple]

As Apple leans further into the value of privacy angle for their products and services, it may suit them to end this default search deal soon anyway. I wish Apple would buy Duck Duck Go and just make it a good search engine. Only search. And a YouTube alternative too.

 

[Spidder]

Thanks to governments (US, California, and EU in particular), using the internet is getting more and more unpleasant.

The internet sucks because of Google, Amazon and Facebook. Because of these three companies the internet is filled with SEO spam, affiliate garbage and propaganda. Governments are only to blame for not regulating these tech giants sooner.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I don't even know how folks are using Google anymore

I sometimes end up there still and it's ... HORRENDOUS

A totally useless minefield full of spammed affiliate sites, AD pushed links and now ... "AI" garbage up top
bleh...

 

[Realityck]

As Apple leans further into the value of privacy angle for their products and services, it may suit them to end this default search deal soon anyway. I wish Apple would buy Duck Duck Go and just make it a good search engine. Only search. And a YouTube alternative too.

DuckDuckGo offers a private YouTube client for connecting to YouTube for their content.

There are some private YouTube clients like Freetube and Newpipe. Invidious is also a site that allows you to watch YouTube videos without being tracked by Google. If you want to abandon YouTube entirely, though, LBRY and PeerTube are used by a few creators. If you choose either of those though, don't expect to find that many content creators.

 

[cocky jeremy]

More government BS. Don't they have better things to do, like come up with even more ways to blow our money on stupid BS like funding other countries wars?

 

[jz0309]

Microsoft also has had the highest market share the last thirty years on desktop….doesnt mean it is the best.

Popularity is not indicative of quality. Smoking meth is incredibly popular. Doesn’t mean it’s good.

I wasn’t suggesting that it’s good or the best.
It’s a fact that needs to be taken into consideration by regulators, 90+% reeks “monopoly”…

 

[jimothyGator]

The internet sucks because of Google, Amazon and Facebook. Because of these three companies the internet is filled with SEO spam, affiliate garbage and propaganda. Governments are only to blame for not regulating these tech giants sooner.

Oh yeah, we all long for the days before Google. Let's go back to Altavista, said no one ever.

 

[switz]

Actually Altavista goes back to my DEC PDP-11 and VAX os days in then 70s and 80s and was a good choice then. So it is still around.

 

[H2SO4]

Google was never cool and exciting so much as they were the underdog against Microsoft and because android fan boys were so anti-apple, android became the champion against iPhones since at the time most ppl couldn’t afford to buy them full price outside of att since iPhones were considered luxury items at the time.


Bing translate, bing image search, and apple maps are miles better or on par with tootle
For me.

Wondering if you're in the minority. But hey, whatever floats your boat.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

I use Kagi.

It's a shame Apple won't let us set it as the default search provider on iOS. The extension doesn't work very well.

 

[tgwaste]

This will go away in January when sanity returns.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

There are at least five search engine options built into Apple devices. So what if Google is the default? Does it require too much brain power or physical effort to go into settings and change it if one desires? If the device owner is too clueless to figure it out - or to even ask if it’s possible - then they deserve what they get.

Even if Apple makes DuckDuckGo the default search engine, someone’s gotta complain.
This is ridiculous…
Is like when siblings complain because of of their siblings got their food served first.
They will all get it, but someone has to be first.

 

[scorpio vega]

Wondering if you're in the minority. But hey, whatever floats your boat.

That’s literally the way many think. Im definitely not the minority.

I was brought up on google and Microsoft so if this was the 10s, sure google was great.

Google has regressed so badly and its strong products are either becoming bad (search) or competitors are now just as good.

 

[scorpio vega]

Oh yeah, we all long for the days before Google. Let's go back to Altavista, said no one ever.

No but I rather go back to the days when google wasn’t the standard.

I loved edge and now it is chromium I refuse to use it.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

I can’t even change spotlight to use bing because it’s forcing me to use google.

My iOS experience is gimped because I try never to use spotlight for quick searches because I refuse to use google.

Being default is fine. Being the only Choice I am being forced to use is not fine.

This is one of the few times I don’t mind the government stepping in to regulate this because google is terrible.


If this was 2015-2017 sure.

Bing is doing just fine for me here in America and I have very little issues using it and I’m not having to worry about shadiness like I do with google.

The only thing Iwill say is google is slightly better at discoverability of new places but bing plus yelp makes that largely minor.

Bing? No way! I’ve seen many cases when their Ads have redirected to malicious websites and post scary messages with a red background and a creepy voice saying the computer is infected and to call Support…

I’ve seen it with Google too, but not recently.

So far, DuckDuckGo has been the safest.

 

[scorpio vega]

It's a shame Apple won't let us set it as the default search provider on iOS. The extension doesn't work very well.

Probably because unlike the other 5, it’s a paid engine and less an apple not letting you (you all love blaming apple for anything) and more of a kagi issue.

 

[scorpio vega]

Bing? No way! I’ve seen many cases when their Ads have redirected to malicious websites and post scary messages with a red background and a creepy voice saying the computer is infected and to call Support…

I’ve seen it with Google too, but not recently.

So far, DuckDuckGo has been the safest.

You must have been looking up some sketchy things then.

I’ve used bing since my windows phone 7/8 days of 2011 with windows 8/8.1/10 and I’ve never had that experience with bing.

 

[Victor Mortimer]

Actually Altavista goes back to my DEC PDP-11 and VAX os days in then 70s and 80s and was a good choice then. So it is still around.

Wait, what?

No.

Altavista doesn't go back that far. The web only goes back to the early '90s, and there was no need for a search engine in the '80s because the internet was so small that there were maps of it.

And it's not still around either. It's been gone for decades, nothing but a redirect to Yahoo since 2013, but really dead long before that, it was broken not long after Compaq bought DEC, and utterly destroyed when it was bought by Overture.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Probably because unlike the other 5, it’s a paid engine and less an apple not letting you (you all love blaming apple for anything) and more of a kagi issue.

Every other browser on the planet has the feature to add search engines. Not Safari. Remind me who makes Safari?

I figured you of all forum users would love to support something that's not-Google. What a bizarre take.

 

[Victor Mortimer]

Honestly, Google has the best search engine hands down. I tried using Duck Duck Go for years for privacy reasons. I would fall back to Google.com when Duck Duck Go (Bing) would fail to produce good results. Eventually i just got tired of so frequently having to use Google.com instead of the Safari address bar for searching and switched back.

Competition is supposed to produce better products but somehow Google has managed to maintain the best search engine while holding a monopoly. I don’t see how giving lazy competitors like Bing a crutch is going to improve competition. Why would Microsoft invest more in Bing if they get a revenue increase by virtue of a ruling against Google?

Not even close.

DDG is better for searching than Google, and has been for a few years now. As DDG result quality has been going up, Google's result quality has hit the toilet. Google is at "truly awful" now, search strategies I've used for years no longer work to get me good results, Google's idiot AI has decided that it knows better than I do what I'm looking for and ignores me.

The ONLY thing Google is better at is mapping, and that's mostly just because they have street view and nobody else does.

 

[Scoob Redux]

There are at least five search engine options built into Apple devices. So what if Google is the default? Does it require too much brain power or physical effort to go into settings and change it if one desires? If the device owner is too clueless to figure it out - or to even ask if it’s possible - then they deserve what they get.

If it were so easy, and if people in general went into settings and selected a search engine instead of using the default, then Google would not be paying millions of dollars to be the default. This isn't about what settings can be changed - it's about user behavior (using the default), and how Apple and Google are illegally using that behavior to make money.

 

[scorpio vega]

Every other browser on the planet has the feature to add search engines. Not Safari. Remind me who makes Safari?

I figured you of all forum users would love to support something that's not-Google. What a bizarre take.

When did I say I didn’t support the idea? Dial the aggression back a bit.

You’re shocked that apple (with its more controlled approach) doesn’t allow you to add search engines?

This is not android.

I simply said it is probably less an apple thing and more a kagi thing being paid and not exactly a major player as to why it is not supported by apple.

 

[Scoob Redux]

Thanks to governments (US, California, and EU in particular), using the internet is getting more and more unpleasant. I'm sick of cookie preferences on every damn web site I visit. Now, they're going to want to bug me any time I get a new phone or upgrade the OS: What browser do you want? What search engine do you want? What email client do you want? What App Store do you want? Shut up and let me use my damn phone my way! I don't need you to protect me.

I'm happy with iOS as Apple designed it. Some people are happy with Android as Google designed it. We don't need you, dear government, to "protect" us and force choices upon us when we've already made choices. Stop thinking you know how to design an OS, search engine, and so on better than the companies that built them. Stop thinking you know what consumers want for themselves better than the consumers themselves.

In short, stop messing up the products and services we've been happily using for decades!

Yikes. I'm not sure if you have bought the corporate propaganda or are just cynically pushing it. Regardless, predatory and monopolistic behavior by multi-billion dollar corporations hurt all consumers. The only thing standing between us and the savage capitalists is government regulation.

 

[scorpio vega]

If it were so easy, and if people in general went into settings and selected a search engine instead of using the default, then Google would not be paying millions of dollars to be the default. This isn't about what settings can be changed - it's about user behavior (using the default), and how Apple and Google are illegally using that behavior to make money.

Apple isn’t illegally doing anything.

Safari is the default browser on iPhone. I can either choose to use it or I can just as easily download chrome or anything else to use if I want.

Google is the default search setting but apple nor google is forcing me to USE google. I can easily change the setting. It’s not hidden how to or overly difficult. And changing the browser engine doesn’t harm my iOS experience.

Now if apple were not only making google the default and preventing you from changing it or making it extremely difficult that in itself would be an issue(see Microsoft and the browser wars of the early 2000s).

 

[name99]

"Earlier this year, Google hired Robby Stein, a former Instagram and Yahoo executive, to spearhead efforts to increase the adoption of its apps among ‌iPhone‌ users. "

Gee, you mean ten years of FORCING awful non-native Google UIs (eg Maps, eg YouTube) haven't made Apple users flock to Google apps when they have a choice?
Who could POSSIBLY have predicted this bizarre outcome...

Meanwhile, every time I curse that YouTube has done some insane thing that makes no UI sense, I also remember exactly why Safari is my primary browser...