google: How this evidence by Google in court can be an ’embarrassment’ for Microsoft – Times of India

Google was fined $5 billion by the EU back in 2018 for forcing OEMs to use its search engine on phones. That court case is still going on and the tech giant recently admitted that it paid the smartphone makers to pre-install Google Search on their devices. Google said in its explanation that this move was not to kill the Android competition but to seize market share from Apple. But a third Big Tech company has become embroiled in the court case, a bit indirectly, and the cause may be embarrassing after the evidence presented by Google’s lawyer in a Luxembourg court this week, as per a report by Bloomberg. The company is none other than Microsoft and the cause is its search engine, Bing.
As per the evidence, Google has reportedly argued that “Google” is the most popular search term on Bing “by far” because compared to other search engines, users are choosing Google of their own volition and not because they are being forced to.
“Google’s market share in general search is consistent with consumer surveys showing that 95% of users prefer Google to rival search engines,” the defence said.
This antitrust case is not the only trouble Google is facing. The company has also been sued by 36 US states for abusing control of its own Play Store. Also, the presence of Google Assistant on Android phones has also been called into question by the EU Commission, which may lead to more trouble for Google in the future.