Parisa Tabriz, the general manager of Google Chrome, made a plea in a federal court in Washington to defend Google’s position as Chrome’s maintainer and owner. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Yahoo claim they would like to take over the browser.
Tabriz emphasized that the browser’s close integration within Google’s ecosystem and their interdependencies are essential. According to her, only Google can offer Chrome’s current level of features and functionality.
Tabriz said that Chrome is the result of 17 years of collaboration within the Chrome team. She further stated that important features depend on Google’s shared infrastructure, such as secure browsing and warning users about compromised passwords. She said rebuilding such systems under a different owner would be virtually impossible.
Open-source project Chromium
Although Chrome is based on the open-source project Chromium, Tabriz claims that Google has contributed more than 90 percent of the code for Chromium since 2015. The company also invests hundreds of millions of dollars in this project annually. Google Chrome is currently the most widely used web browser worldwide, with a more than 66 percent market share.
The lawsuit follows a ruling last year in which Google was found guilty of monopolizing the search market. As a result, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is now trying to force Google to split up by demanding the sale of Chrome to another party. In addition, the DOJ is demanding that Google share the data it collects with competitors and that the company stop paying for default search engine settings, including for products such as Google’s own AI projects. A ban could also affect the agreement between Google and Apple regarding the default search engine position in the Safari browser.
Yahoo shows interest
Although a sale of Chrome seems technically feasible, experts believe that its deep integration with the Google ecosystem would be difficult for another owner to replicate. Companies such as OpenAI, Perplexity, and Yahoo have already expressed interest in potentially acquiring Chrome if Google is forced to sell.