The private sector is showing the flimsiness of the Justice Department's argument that Google has a monopoly on the search engine market.
On July 9, Perplexity AI launched Comet, a web browser that promises a browsing experience "as fluid and responsive as human thought itself." Comet offers a choice of artificial intelligence models, including OpenAI's GPT, Anthropic's Claude, and Google's Gemini, allowing for tailored results, complete with citations and links. Meanwhile, OpenAI is "close to releasing an AI-powered web browser that will challenge Alphabet's market-dominating Google Chrome," according to Reuters.
The introduction of these two browsers comes as the Justice Department looks to punish Google for its alleged market monopoly. In October 2020, the department sued Google for violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act by "unlawfully maintaining monopolies in the markets for general search services." The case was decided in the government's favor in August 2024, despite U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta's statement that Google had not "achieved market dominance by happenstance." Instead, he added, "It has hired thousands of highly skilled engineers, innovated consistently, and made shrewd business decisions. The result is the industry's highest quality search engine, which has earned Google the trust of hundreds of millions of daily users."
