Google ruling could change future of search engines

Federal judge Amit Mehta passed a landmark ruling this week that Google is exerting a monopoly in the web search engine and online advertising market—creating a buzz in the tech world about the future of internet search.

Though Google says it will appeal the decision, Judge Mehta has to proceed further with the judgment, which means figuring out how to stop the tech giant from being too powerful.

If the ruling is upheld, Google could face huge cash fines, demands to break up its internet search business, and restrictions on how much it can pay to be the default search engine on Apple and other devices.

For example, Chrome, Google Search and Android could become separate companies.

It may open the market to new competitors, encouraging innovation and offering more search engine choices like DuckDuckGo, Microsoft’s Bing and Perplexity AI. New search engines could emerge, potentially powered by AI or with better privacy standards that benefit consumers.

But such developments could take years. Microsoft faced a similar antitrust case in 1999, where it was ordered to break up. The decision was later overturned and a settlement was reached in 2004.

Google currently controls about 90% of the overall search market and nearly 95% on mobile devices.

Overall, the ruling may not cause any immediate consumer impact. However, potential changes could shape the future landscape of search engines and digital advertising.