Apple chose Google as default search engine because it’s “the best”

Many of you know that the Google vs DoJ (Department of Justice) antitrust case is ongoing. Well, during the latest day of trial, Apple’s Eddy Cue was called to testify. He said, according to The Verge, that Apple chose Google as the default search engine because the company thought it was “the best”. He said that Apple picks the best one, and then lets users change it, if they want to.

Apple chose Google as default search engine because it’s “the best”, says Eddy Cue

For those of you who are out of the loop, Eddy Cue is Apple’s Senior Vice President. He basically defended Apple’s choice, and kind of helped Google along the way.

He said: “I always felt like it was in Google’s best interest, and our best interest, to get a deal done”, while adding: “Certainly there wasn’t a valid alternative to Google at the time”.

He did also say, that Apple always thought that it had better privacy than Google, while adding that there are some protections against tracking in Safari, Apple’s web browser.

Many documents that are thrown around the courtroom these days are not available to the public. That’s why the trial has been mostly closed for days now.

The DoJ is hoping to prove that Google violated anti-monopoly law

The DoJ is trying to prove that Google violated anti-monopoly law. As it’s well-known at this point, Google has a number of agreements with smartphone manufacturers and browser makers to make its search engine default.

Google argues that everything is by the book, and that companies and users choose its search engine because it’s the best, as Apple also stated. The Department of Justice is not alone in this lawsuit. It’s joined by a coalition of 39 states from the US.

As a reminder, Google holds about 88% of the domestic (the US) search market, based on the Public Data Sources. Needless to say, that’s a lot. If the DoJ wins, that could not only affect Google, but a number of other companies.

The trial is expected to last for about two months, and it started on September 12. So we still have a long way to go.