Apple is considering replacing Google with DuckDuckGo as Safari’s search engine
Apple has held talks with DuckDuckGo to replace Alphabet's Google search as the default search engine for private mode on Apple's Safari browser, according to reports leaked from the antitrust case against the search engine giant.
Details of those talks are expected to be released later this week, after the judge overseeing a federal antitrust lawsuit against Google decided Wednesday that he would unseal testimony from DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg and Apple executive John Giannandrea.
In the end, however, Apple, after about twenty talks, dropped the proposal , even if the reason is not yet clear. At the same time, knowing the reasons why Apple has not concluded negotiations with other search engines goes right to the heart of the antitrust case: why has no one let Google's competitors develop?
Judge Amit Mehta initially let Weinberg and Giannandrea testify about the closed-door negotiations. But the judge ruled Wednesday that the testimony “gets to the heart of the case” and should be made public. Some testimonies about similar discussions between Microsoft and Apple have also not been made public.
There is talk of “partnership agreements – I'm talking about testimony regarding potential agreements between Microsoft and Apple and DuckDuckGo and Apple – that will be made public,” Mehta said in an order from the bench, adding that he considered it “critical to the case.”
Private browsing mode does not track the websites a user visits or maintain a history of the websites a person has accessed.
Apple and Google asked that the testimony remain private. Mehta said he has reviewed the transcripts "line by line" and will release comments from executives except for trade secrets, such as the names of projects within Apple and the exact financial data at issue.
DuckDuckGo has not publicized the news for now, enjoying the unexpected notoriety resulting from this story.
The Justice Department alleges that Google paid billions of dollars to Apple and others to become the default search engine on web browsers and smartphones. According to federal and state antitrust authorities, these deals have prevented other search engines, such as Bing and Microsoft's DuckDuckGo, from acquiring users and becoming Google's rivals. A classic technique of establishing a monopoly through financial means.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified Monday about his company's negotiations to convince Apple to make Microsoft's Bing the default search engine on Apple's Safari browser instead of Google. Nadella said that Microsoft would be willing to lose billions of dollars if Apple made the switch, but that the transition was never made because Microsoft's search engine was not responding adequately to searches.
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The article Apple Considered Replacing Google with DuckDuckGo as Safari's Search Engine comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/apple-ha-valutato-di-sostituire-google-con-duckduckgo-come-motore-di-ricerca-di-safari/ on Thu, 05 Oct 2023 08:00:04 +0000.