Google says it is the most searched term on Microsoft Bing

Google blasted Microsoft on the second day of a week-long hearing on a 2018 antitrust penalty case, claiming that the word ‘Google’ is the most searched term on their search engine.

‘We have presented data proving that the most popular search inquiry on Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) is by far Google,’ said the lawyer for Alphabet Inc. in the European Union’s General Court in Luxembourg.

According to reports, Google’s claim came in reaction to the European Commission’s antitrust penalty for limiting competition through its Android operating system’s dominance. Google was fined €4.34 billion (Rs 37,634 crore) by the European Commission in 2018 for breaking EU antitrust laws. As per a press statement from the EU, Google has imposed illegal limitations on Android device makers and mobile network providers in order to solidify its authority in general internet searches.

‘Google has used Android as a medium to fasten the dominance of its search engine. These exercises have denied opponents the opportunity to innovate and fight on the merits. They have discarded European consumers the benefits of efficient competition in the important mobile sphere. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules,’ Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, had said during his 2018 judgement.

Meanwhile, Alfonso Lamadrid, an attorney for Alphabet Inc., told the court on Tuesday that the people were using Google as their search engine because it was handy and easy to use, not because the internet giant compelled them to. He told the court that Google’s market share is far greater than that of Bing, a Microsoft-owned and controlled web search engine.

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‘More than 95% of people prefer using Google over Bing and other rivals companies,’ Lamadrid told the European Union’s General Court in Luxembourg. It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time that Google’s functioning module has been questioned. The European Commission penalised Google €2.42 billion in June 2017 for abusing its search engine dominance by giving an unfair advantage to Google’s own comparison shopping service.