A judge has branded Google a monopolist, but AI may bring about quicker change in internet search

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has branded Google as a ruthless monopolist bent on suffocating its competitors. Even so, Mehta’s 277-page ruling Monday creates challenges for Google that company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin probably didn’t envision when they set out to revolutionize internet search while attending Stanford University as graduate students. The default option then helped Google collect valuable insights that enabled the company to improve its search engine in ways that rivals couldn’t because they lacked the same data. Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment about Mehta’s decision, but its executives have depicted the decision to make Google the default search engine on the iPhone and other products as a convenience to its customers — most of whom prefer to use Google. Then, it would cost Apple an additional $7 billion annually to sustain its own search engine, according to Google’s analysis.