What we've learned as Google's antitrust trial nears an end

Google reckons there is no search market, so it can't be guilty of monopolising it. The DoJ reckons that's jazz hands and wants them broken up...

If you’ve been missing the updates from the Google antitrust trial, that’s because they have been d-u-l-l, and I know you’re busy, so…

That said, we learned today the trial will soon be coming to an end. It will call its last witness and rest its case next week.

Nine weeks after the case began with a blockbuster opening from the US Department of Justice, Google has largely failed to land a single blow.

And that’s because Google’s defence rests on its argument that the very concept that general search is a market that can be dominated is a nonsense.

Google argues general search doesn’t exist

Google has sought to make the case that there are multiple search markets, and Google is not dominant in many of them.

It has argued that Amazon leads in retail search, Yelp in food, and Google has named TikTok, Amazon and Instagram are competitor for traffic and ads. Bloomberg has more detail on this.

Put simply, if the accusation is that Google monopolises general search, and general search doesn’t exis…