Why Google isn’t Standard Oil, AT&T, or even Microsoft

The Google antitrust ruling has enormous implications. But it’s already easy to opt out of using the world’s most popular search engine—and AI could shake things up more than any government action.

When Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on Monday that Google had engaged in illegal behavior to maintain a monopoly on web search, major media outlets didn’t hesitate to call the decision a “landmark.” That would be a fair assessment if we were talking about the fate of just one huge, extraordinarily powerful tech company. But the ruling is the most dramatic development yet in the bigger story of the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission’s current antitrust cases against not only Google but also Apple, Meta, and Amazon. Once they work their way through the legal system—a process that will take years—the impact on the tech industry and life in general could be epoch-shifting.