Google's New European Android Search Screen Panned

Google will give European Android users new screens that allow them to download search apps and browsers, it said Thursday. The move follows last year's European Commission decision to fine the search engine $5.1 billion for antitrust violations (see 1807180003) for: (1) Forcing manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome browser apps as a condition for licensing its app store. (2) Paying large device makers and mobile operators to ensure they exclusively pre-install the search app on their smartphones; and (3) Preventing manufacturers that wanted to pre-install Google apps from selling smart mobile devices running on alternative versions of Android not approved by Google. The new screens will be displayed the first time someone opens Google Play after getting an update, blogged Product Management Director Paul Gennai. Two screens will surface, one for search apps and another for browsers, each containing five apps, including any already installed. Those not already installed will be included based on their popularity, shown in random order and vary by country, he said. Users will be able to tap as many apps as they want, and if an additional search app or browser is installed, they'll see a screen with instructions on how to set it up. Users who download a search app will be asked if they want to change Chrome's default search engine. The screens, the result of EC feedback, will roll out "over the next few weeks" and will apply to existing and new Android phones, Gennai said. The screen choice "does nothing to correct the central problem that Google apps will remain the default on all Android devices," said Thomas Vinje, counsel to FairSearch, the primary complainant in the Android case. Few users will move away from Android devices with Google apps and search pre-installed due to convenience and years of abusive product placement that built Google's brands, emailed Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace Chairman Michael Weber. "Competition and consumer choice will not be restored before Google and Android are really separated, and all the third party deals tying in Google end."