The Los Angeles Post
U.S. World Business Lifestyle
Today: April 14, 2025
Today: April 14, 2025

Google executive defends search quality in US antitrust trial

FILE PHOTO: Photo of a woman holding her smart phone which displays the Google home page, in this picture illustration
April 26, 2024
Diane Bartz - Reuters

By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google called its first witness on Wednesday in a once-in-a-generation U.S. antitrust trial, putting on the witness stand an executive who detailed the vast effort the company puts into ensuring search quality.

The Justice Department has called witnesses who testified about Google's payments, billions of dollars annually, to smartphone makers and wireless companies to make Google search the default on devices, and win more users. Others testified how search dominance led to clout in online advertising, including the ability to quietly raise ad prices.

Google has countered these arguments with several of its own, zeroing in on how the high quality of its search products have played a crucial role in customer demand and help explain the prominent placement on phones and tablets.

Pandu Nayak, a vice president for search who has been with Google since 2004, testified on Wednesday about the efforts that Google has made to index the web, culling out irrelevant pages and ranking websites in order to answer user queries with sources that are relevant and reliable. He also testified about how Google used machine learning tools that it developed to improve its search.

Nayak's discussions of improving search appeared to downplay the role that search query volume played, implicitly disagreeing with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's arguments that his company needed more search queries to improve its Bing search engine but was being blocked by Google.

Judge Amit Mehta, who will decide the case, asked Nayak how important "user interaction" was. Nayak acknowledged that user reactions to queries mattered but stressed the need for other factors - like infrastructure to track websites and how they change - is key.

Nayak also testified that Google compared its results to answers from Microsoft's search engine Bing, and found Bing to be lower quality. He said that Google has also begun comparing itself to the videosharing app TikTok.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Related Articles

Apple and Google face UK investigation into mobile browser dominance UK should use new powers to probe Apple-Google mobile browser duopoly, report says OpenAI considers taking on Google with browser, the Information reports Legal hurdles ahead for Google's forced sale of Chrome
Share This

Popular

Business|Celebrity|Entertainment|Sports|US

Boxing legend George Foreman remembered for his love of family, faith and cheeseburgers

Boxing legend George Foreman remembered for his love of family, faith and cheeseburgers
Business|Economy|Finance|Political|US

Bessent says White House will start interviewing candidates for next Fed chair this fall

Bessent says White House will start interviewing candidates for next Fed chair this fall
Asia|Business|Economy

ADM halting domestic trading in China, cutting jobs in Shanghai

ADM halting domestic trading in China, cutting jobs in Shanghai
Business|Economy|Political|US|World

UN trade agency urges US to exclude poor states from tariffs

UN trade agency urges US to exclude poor states from tariffs

Technology

Science|Technology

Why the meteorites that hit Earth have less water than the asteroid bits brought back by space probes โ€“ a planetary scientist explains new research

Why the meteorites that hit Earth have less water than the asteroid bits brought back by space probes โ€“ a planetary scientist explains new research
Business|Economy|Political|Stock Markets|Technology|US

Confusion reigns after Trump exempts electronics from new tariff regime. Here's what we know

Confusion reigns after Trump exempts electronics from new tariff regime. Here's what we know
Business|Europe|Technology

Meta to use public posts, AI interactions to train models in EU

Meta to use public posts, AI interactions to train models in EU
Business|Europe|Finance|Stock Markets|Technology|US

Tech, auto shares gain as Trump floats more tariff exemptions amid confusion

Tech, auto shares gain as Trump floats more tariff exemptions amid confusion

Access this article for free.

Already have an account? Sign In