Speedy bikes used to be my thrill. Complete obsession with the craft. Gone now, sadly, in part due to firece competitive pressure in the biking business. E-bikes is where the margins are now. And they also degrade much quicker..

Especially California is much more dynamic. I find this really cool actually!

Yeah, but lawmaking in the US is different. It doesn't work like that with an EU Directive that is transposed differently into 27 member states and only sets a minimum level of harmonisation.

Recitals are not legally binding.

Describing, for a non-tech audience, how Google uses Chrome to reinforce its dominance, and considering this from the perspective of US antitrust law.

The work was led by the extremely bright and impressive Shaoor Munir. He's got a unique ability to write about and study legal topics, with a computer science angle. Do check out his profile and other work! @shaoormunir.bsky.social

Thanks, Pat!

Thanks for listening. The research wouldn't have been possible without the hard work of my co-authors.

The full paper can be found here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The slides here: docs.google.com/presentation...

A general-audience blog article here: www.promarket.org/2024/08/08/c...

9/9

These all are just some examples of how Chrome to reinforces Google’s cross-market dominance. There are many others. Controlling this behaviour will be impossible by just making simple changes to Google. Therefore, forcing Google to sell Chrome seems the only option. 8/9

More generally, Google has, for years, been engaging in strategic acquisitions to become the most widely used service across many categories. The slide below, in bold, highlights, which of Google's services are the result of an acquisition. Most services are. Is Google then really so innovative? 7/9

Conversely, Google uses its dominance in online services (incl. search) and ads to reinforce Chrome's dominance, particularly through dark patterns and an abuse of web standards. For example, Google bombards non-Chrome users with prompts to install Chrome on its websites. 6/9

On the one hand, Google uses Chrome to reinforce its monopoly in online ads and online services (incl. search),by self-preferencing and subpar "privacy" options in Chrome. For example, if you sign in with your Google account anywhere, Chrome sends your browsing history to Google to show you ads. 5/9

Also, Google also operates its own distribution channels for search: Android and Chrome are the primary ones. This is where the monopoly concerns about Chrome come in. We identified Google's "Holy Trinity" that describes how Google systematically uses Chrome to reinforce its monopoly. 4/9

In order to foster its monopoly in search, Google tries to control the distribution channels for search: phones (e.g. iPhones) and desktop browsers (e.g. Firefox). Google pays the major operators of distribution channels billions of dollars every year to have Google set as the default search. 3/9

The thing about Chrome is that its development and operation costs billions of US dollars. A profit-oriented company like Google wouldn't do this out of good will but rather because they expect a significant return on their investment. 2/9

Sounds like the definition of a bad handout? Although I do think Tufte was right about presentations, and PowerPoint in particular – handouts can be great, if done well.