Judge Rules Google Can Keep Chrome, but Must Stop Exclusive Search Deals
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Tyler Graham Writer Tyler is a writer under CNET's home energy and utilities category. He came to CNET straight out of college, where he graduated from Seton Hall with a bachelor's degree in journalism. For the past seven months, Tyler has attended a White House press conference, participated in energy product testing at CNET's testing labs in Louisville, Kentucky, and written one of CNET Energy's top-performing news articles, on federal solar policy. Not bad for a newbie. When Tyler's not aski
Google has avoided the worst-case scenario in the pivotal search antitrust case brought by the US Department of Justice. DC District Court Judge Amit Mehta has ruled that Google doesn't have to give up the Chrome browser to mitigate its illegal monopoly in online search. The court will only require a handful of modest behavioral remedies, forcing Google to release some search data to competitors and limit its ability to make exclusive distribution deals. More than a year ago, the Department of
Daily squirts of a safe, over-the-counter allergy nasal spray may prevent COVID-19 infections from taking hold, according to results published Tuesday in JAMA Internal Medicine. In a mid-staged trial, the spray appeared to reduce infections by promising 67 percent, though a larger trial will need to confirm that robust efficacy. The trial was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 trial conducted by researchers at Germany's Saarland University between March 2023 and July 2024. T
Dolby has announced the features of Dolby Vision 2, its successor to the popular Dolby Vision HDR format. Whereas the original Dolby Vision was meant to give creators the ability to finely tune exactly how TVs present content in HDR, Dolby Vision 2 appears to significantly broaden that feature to include motion handling as well—and it also tries to bridge the gap between filmmaker intent and the on-the-ground reality of the individual viewing environments. What does that mean, exactly? Well, D
The battle over $20 billion worth of climate-related funding authorized by Congress continues as an appellate court ruled on Tuesday in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency, which had terminated Biden-era grants made to nonprofits. The legal tussle stems from EPA administrator Lee Zeldin’s decision to cancel grants dispersed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Zeldin said that the grants did not match the EPA’s current priorities and claimed, without evidence, that he had concerns a
Google keeps browser but must share data with rivals 8 minutes ago Share Save Lily Jamali North America Technology Correspondent, San Francisco Share Save Reuters Google will not have to sell its Chrome web browser but must share information with competitors, a US federal judge has ordered. The remedies decided by District Judge Amit Mehta have emerged after a years-long court battle over Google's dominance in online search. The case centred around Google's position as the default search engi
Google CEO Sundar Pichai during the press conference after his meeting with Polish PM Donald Tusk at Google for Startups Campus In Warsaw in Warsaw, Poland on February 13, 2025. Images) Alphabet shares popped 8% in extended trading as investors celebrated what they viewed as minimal consequences from a historic defeat last year in the landmark antitrust case. Last year, Google was found to hold an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled aga
Alphabet's Waymo unit will begin test drives of its robotaxis in Denver and Seattle this week, with humans behind the wheel, the company said Tuesday. "We will begin driving manually before validating our technology and operations for fully autonomous services in the future," a company spokesperson said in an email. Waymo announced the tests in blog posts. The autonomous vehicle venture aims to expand its driverless, ride-hailing service across the U.S. after already launching commercial opera
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, on June 9, 2025. Apple shares rose more than 3% in extended trading Tuesday after a federal judge ruled that Alphabet may continue making payments to preload Google Search onto the iPhone. Although Apple wasn't a party in the search monopoly trial, the judge was considering remedies that would bar Google from paying billions per year to Apple to be the default search eng
Ryan Haines / Android Authority TL;DR A federal court has ruled that Google will not be required to sell Chrome or Android. The significant ruling is the latest twist in the long-running antitrust case against the company. Google is barred from requiring OEMs to preload the Play Store or other Google apps in exchange for Search. In the long-running saga, Google appears to have avoided one of the most significant possible outcomes of its US antitrust case. A federal court ruled that the compa
Following months of testimony for the remedies phase of the Google antitrust trial, Judge Amit Mehta just issued his decision, and it is largely beneficial to Apple’s deals with Alphabet. Here are the details. Almost a year ago to the date, the Department of Justice won its case against Google, in which it was able to convince Judge Mehta that Google had a monopoly over online search. The case then entered the remedies phase, which collected testimony from multiple parties involved in Google’s
The Apple iPhone 17 event is now just one week away. On Tuesday, September 9, we'll finally get to see the new iPhone 17 lineup, and — assuming Apple sticks to tradition — we should be able to install iOS 26 around a week or so after the event. But you don't have to wait to test out the new features because you can download and install the newly released public beta 6 (or iOS 26 developer beta 9 for developers). You can see a more complete view of the new features in our preview of the iOS 26 pu
The Federal Trade Commission announced that Disney will pay $10 million to settle allegations that the entertainment giant allowed data collection on YouTube videos meant for children. Under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, also known as COPPA , companies are required to notify parents and obtain parental consent if they collection information from minors. According to the FTC complaint, Disney failed to properly label some YouTube videos as "Made for Kids," which allowed the compa
'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or
Roman Tiraspolsky/iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Amazon is ending the Prime Invitee program. The program let people share Prime shipping outside their home. Customers are being rolled into the Amazon Family program. It's the end of an era for Prime Invitee users. Through the Prime Invitee program, established in 2008, subscribers could share their shipping benefits with other people who live in their "househ
Grids are great for tactical gameplay of turn-based games because they allow discrete movement steps. That means that you can bind positioning to other resources such as movement points, action points, food, etc. Grids divide the infinite variety of movement options into a few specific ones, which can be considered separately by the player’s tactical mind. The most popular grid types are hexes and squares. But what about triangles? Your browser does not support the video tag. Types of Grids: C
Google CEO Sundar Pichai during the press conference after his meeting with Polish PM Donald Tusk at Google for Startups Campus In Warsaw in Warsaw, Poland on February 13, 2025. Images) Alphabet shares popped 8% in extended trading as investors celebrated what they viewed as minimal consequences from a historic defeat last year in the landmark antitrust case. Last year, Google was found to hold an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled aga
A very strange video appearing to show large objects being thrown out of a window at the White House went viral over Labor Day weekend. President Donald Trump was asked about it during a press conference on Tuesday, and he insisted it must be AI. Curiously, White House staff told Time magazine it was just regular maintenance. The video appears to have been first posted to Instagram on Aug. 31 by an account called WashingtonianProbs. “One of our community members noticed some things being throw
Marshall’s lineup of non-rockstar-grade audio gear just got a little bigger. As a part of IFA 2025, the company announced the Heston 60, a more compact soundbar that complements its previously released Heston 120. As usual, Marshall is keeping things mid-century with a design that invokes its classic amps and includes tactile controls (buttons instead of knobs like those used on the Heston 120), woven fabric, and PU leather. It also comes in either cream or black, but if you don’t buy the cream
The Conjuring: Last Rites is already scary sight unseen for Conjuring fans, because it’s due to be the final film in the mainline Conjuring series. But if you’ve watched any of the movies it’s spawned since 2013, you know they aim to shock and terrify, with curse-flinging witches and demonic nuns looming out of the darkness. That said, one thing you can rest assured won’t be in Last Rites: unintentional jump scares wrought by uncanny valley de-aging technology. In a new interview with Entertain
A federal judge ruled in a high-profile antitrust case against Google on Tuesday with some good news and bad news for the tech giant. The good news for Google is that it won’t have to sell off its Chrome browser, which was a very real possibility. Google’s stock soared in after hours trading on the news. The bad news for Google was that it will be required to share data with its rivals and can’t sign many of the exclusive contracts that helped the company become so dominant in the industry. Th
Car companies love a mission statement. With the arrival of the Concept C, Audi’s new one is crystal clear: “radical simplicity.” An all-electric two-seater with a retractable folding hard top, the Concept C is a “progressive interpretation” of the company’s legacy, says Audi—and it's not hard to see that the TT has factored pretty heavily in that. But as you pick your way through the messaging—key words here are precision and clarity, as well as a reemphasis on our old friend “Vorsprung durch
is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Amazon will now let you shop for products by pointing your camera at them. On Thursday, the company announced Lens Live, a new feature that uses your camera to scan things in the environment around you, while surfacing matching product listings. This feature, w
is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Google will be able to keep making search deals like its $20 billion agreement to be the default option in Apple’s Safari browser, a federal district court judge ruled in the US v. Google antitrust case on Tuesday. Executives from both Apple and Firefox-made Mozilla have defended their
On August 5th, 2024, Judge Amit Mehta ruled in the case of United States of America v. Google, saying, “...the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.” Nearly a year later, the judge has followed that up with a ruling on remedies for Google’s search monopoly. While lawyers for the Department of Justice had argued that Google should be broken up and forced to split off products
Google will not be forced to break up its search business, but a federal judge has tentatively ordered other changes to the tech giant’s business practices to keep it from further anticompetitive behavior. U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta outlined remedies on Tuesday that would bar Google from entering or maintaining exclusive deals that tie the distribution of Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or Gemini to other apps or revenue arrangements. For example, Google wouldn’t be able to condi
Google CEO Sundar Pichai during the press conference after his meeting with Polish PM Donald Tusk at Google for Startups Campus In Warsaw in Warsaw, Poland on February 13, 2025. Images) A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts and must share search data. Alphabet shares popped 6% in extended trading. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled against the most severe consequences that were proposed by the U.S. Department of Jus
Something keeps happening to people who get hooked chatbots like ChatGPT. Mental health professionals are calling it "AI psychosis": turning to the AI models for advice, users soon become entranced by the sycophantic machine's human-like responses. It becomes not just a tool but a companion — and the worst kind, constantly plying you with what you want to hear and validating anything you say, no matter how wrong or unbalanced. That leads to cases like a man who was repeatedly hospitalized after
Apple has just released another wave of beta updates for its forthcoming major software versions, including beta 9 for iPadOS 26, tvOS 26, and more. Update: Apple has now shipped public beta versions of the same builds, just a few hours after the developer releases. New beta 9 builds available for Apple’s major new OS versions Based on prior years’ patterns, last week’s beta 8 updates from Apple were widely expected to be the last releases before next week’s RC (release candidate) versions.