Why Google might be forced to sell off its Chrome browser

Bill Gates was at the centre of the first major technology antitrust court case in the early 90s, which was focused on its web browser

“There is really only one Big Tech monopoly that I actively worry about,” wrote Salesforce product management executive Blair Reeves in a blog post last year. “Google Chrome”. 

Reeves points to ad blocking, which stops publishers from retrieving any kind of revenue from free content yet allows Google to collect data on that user, and the business motive behind Chrome: to drive advertising, as the main causes for concern. 

Some legal experts say an antitrust case against Google will be difficult for the US government to win. Chrome and its search engine is free and it is easy to find alternatives. 

Pressure is also growing on the firm across in Europe. On Wednesday, France and the Netherlands joined a call for the EU to take pre-emptive action against tech giants ahead of regulation on their power. 

Chrome’s long-term dominance is up for question. Microsoft this year launched its Microsoft Edge browser with Chromium, the browser "engine", or underlying technical scaffolding, that also supports Chrome. Fellow web browsers Opera, Brave and Vivaldi are also built on Chromium.

This state of affairs might sound as if Google has control over not only its own, but several other web browsers, but Microsoft moving Edge onto Chromium is a good way to make sure Google has less control over the project, giving its rival more input into how it works.

Using Chromium is widely expected to improve Microsoft’s browser when it comes to adding features, mimicking the way Chrome acts like an operating system in its own right. This could mean more competition between the two focused on features, rather than performance. 

Google might argue that there is no need to force it to sell off Chrome; a competitive market will take care of that. It could point to the last big technology antitrust investigation in the US, the early 2000s crusade against Microsoft, which stemmed from fears that its Internet Explorer browser would become too dominant.

Today, Internet Explorer lives on mainly as a memory, mainly because a young upstart called Google challenged it, not thanks to the US government.