Search Results: should break it off

Google was found last week to have violated antitrust law by illegally maintaining a monopoly in internet search. Now discussions over how to fix those violations have begun.

Justice Department officials are considering what remedies to ask a federal judge to order against the search giant, said three people with knowledge of the deliberations involving the agency and state attorneys general who helped to bring the case. They are discussing various proposals, including breaking off parts of Google, such as its Chrome browser or Android smartphone operating system, two of the people said.

Other scenarios under consideration include forcing Google to make its data available to rivals, or mandating that it abandon deals that made its search engine the default option on devices like the iPhone, said the people, who declined to be identified because the process is confidential. The government is meeting with other companies and experts to discuss their proposals for limiting Google’s power, the people said.

The deliberations are in their early stages. Judge Amit P. Mehta of U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia has asked the

Google’s competitors and other critics have proposed — either publicly or in discussions with the government — several options for how Judge Mehta should rein in the company.

The most extreme is for Google to split off a substantial part of its business. That could mean the company would have to spin off Chrome, its web browser, or Android, its software for smartphones. Both of those products use Google as the automatic search engine, which helps fuel the company’s dominance, Judge Mehta said.

The government is also considering asking for Google to have to divest a tool that runs text ads in search, the two people with knowledge of the deliberations said.