News Review - What the U.S. Has Argued in the Google Ad Tech Antitrust Trial

Controlling about 90 percent of the overall search market and 87 percent of the ad-selling market, Google has reshaped how we publish content and run businesses online around its algorithm. Just as businesses need to tailor their web content to get Google’s attention first (as known as Search Engine Optimization) before reaching human audiences, they must compete for displaying their ads on users’ screens under Google’s rule with Google’s tools. You barely have a choice.

While this trial has not come to any conclusion yet, it’s conspicuous that introducing more alternatives to the market can bring great benefits. Google routinely adjusts its ad-selling auction system to increase revenue without carefully examining the advertisers’ opinions and their rivals' moves. In light of this, more competitors in the market can lead to more transparency and benefits for advertisers, as Google has to optimize its ad placement algorithm and be prudent when raising its service fee. From our perspective as digital content consumers, we can expect to see ads in a more personalized and less disruptive way instead of the annoying sponsored ads covering half a screen or irrelevant ads turning up continuously while reading articles which triggers mostly resentment instead of curiosity.

Although the ad-selling trial is less popular than the search case, it could establish a bigger legal precedent, for largely every free digital service we enjoy as a user is funded by advertising. I’m looking forward to the result of this case, and I believe it will profoundly change the advertising landscape on every digital medium spanning from social media to generative AI searching tools.

News Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/technology/google-ad-antitrust-trial-arguments.html?searchResultPosition=2

(Image Source: The New York Times)