Sundar Pichai defends Google’s search practices in US court against Microsoft criticism

During a rare antitrust battle with the U.S. government, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, expressed his disapproval of Microsoft’s browser on Monday. He defended his company’s browser and internet search, emphasizing their user-friendly nature and high level of security.

Pichai testified in the trial, which is investigating whether Google acted illegally to maintain its dominance in online search and parts of search advertising. If the government wins, the company may have to abandon some of the business practices that have helped it stay on top.

In his testimony Monday morning, Pichai swiped Microsoft’s Internet Explorer a couple of times.

Before Google released the Chrome browser, which competes with the Microsoft product, Pichai said, “The browser market at that time was stagnant.

“They (Microsoft) weren’t that enthusiastic about improving the browser,” he added, calling Chrome “a pretty dramatic improvement” when it launched in 2008.

He also said that Google made it easy to switch the Chrome browser if a user wanted to use a non-Google search engine.

Called Google’s witness, Pichai is likely to be asked about the company’s investments aimed at keeping its online search engine in a dominant position, especially as smartphones take over, as well as innovations in search advertising.

The government is also questioning in cross-examination the billions of dollars paid each year to smartphone makers like Apple and wireless carriers like AT&T to default to searches on their devices to stay ahead.

The influence of search makes Google the heavy winner in the most profitable ad market, its biggest source of income.

Google has argued that the revenue-sharing deals are legal and that it has invested heavily to keep its search and advertising businesses competitive. It has also argued that if people are unhappy with the default search engines, they can switch to another search provider.