During Google’s trial against the US Department of Justice, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella gave a remarkable statement. He made no secret of the fact that Google search is better than Bing’s search engine.

The CEO of a tech giant publicly admitting that a competitor’s search engine is better than his own system isn’t going to happen any time soon. But that’s exactly what happened when Microsoft boss Satya Nadella testified as part of the antitrust lawsuit that the American state filed against Google.

Accused

Big tech companies and antitrust cases are what we’re used to by now. Microsoft itself also has experience with this here in Europe. In the US, Google and Microsoft have even competed against each other due to complaints of unfair competition. In this case, the US Department of Justice is questioning the dominant position of Google and its search engine.

Nadella’s statement focused primarily on the question of whether it is beneficial to have a system installed by default on a device. He answered this question positively during his time on the witness stand. According to Nadella, this also explains why Google search is so much better than Bing.

The power of exclusive

Nadella was questioned by both the Justice Department and Google’s lawyers. In these interviews it becomes clear to him why he finds the search engine market so important: money. According to Nadella, search engines are the largest software category in existence. He added that Bing doesn’t need to be a market leader to make a profit now.

The focus of the judiciary is the deal that makes Google the exclusive search engine on Apple devices. Something Nadella likes to shine a light on. He honestly admits that he would like to take Google’s place; in his eyes, that would change everything. Nadella hinted that he would give anything to ensure Bing got this exclusive role. Because in his opinion, the only thing that matters is being the standard. He doesn’t believe that users are leaving en masse because they prefer a different system.

Despite his previous simple statement, Nadella hinted that it’s not just about revenue. At least not at the beginning. A search engine means data and new data means development. If Bing becomes Apple’s default search engine, it will mean a lot of new data and thus further development of the system. In addition to the many additional income from advertising, of course. According to Nadella, this vicious circle between more data and further development is exactly what Bing needs to compete with Google.

Microsoft tried to make a deal with Apple, but we know how that ended. However, Nadella does not only see the difference in level between the two search engines as the reason for the failure. He claims that Apple fears that Google would use other of its popular services such as YouTube or Gmail to endlessly promote the Chrome browser. That would ultimately be the death knell for Apple’s Safari.

Nowadays it is no longer possible to talk about technology without mentioning AI. Despite the connection between Microsoft and ChatGPT’s OpenAI, Nadella believes AI can further Google’s dominance. Since the competitor is already so big, there are fears of exclusive contracts between relevant companies and Google regarding the use of data for training.

Sorry, sorry

The claim that the sheer dominance of Google search deters others is rejected by the defendant’s team. Accordingly, you cannot accuse a company of simply having developed the best product.

According to one of Google’s lawyers, Microsoft should focus primarily on its own digital bosom. He believes the company has mismanaged the development of its mobile products and search engines over the past few decades. To prove this, he lists less successful Microsoft projects:

• MSN Search
• The brutal end of Internet Explorer
• The Windows Phone
• Bundle offers for Bing Search with Blackberry and Nokia

These are all examples that show that Google has simply invested better and developed more efficiently. Something Nadella didn’t seem to immediately deny.

Evidence to the contrary

To further undermine the advantage of being the default, Google’s legal department came up with the fact that Bing, along with the Edge browser, is standard on almost every Windows computer. However, this does not detract from the popularity of Google as a search engine and Chrome as a browser. According to one of the lawyers, this is clear evidence that compliance with the standard ultimately brings no advantage.

Nadella’s answer to this is clear. The fact that Bing still has a double-digit market share is largely due to this status. Given the difference in level between the two search engines, Google would otherwise have even more control over the market. Nadella is convinced that a significant proportion of users simply do not want to go to the effort of switching. He supports this claim with an example from the third-party provider Apple, whose cards, according to Nadella, only have a certain market share because they are the standard on every iPhone.

For now, this litigation appears to be mostly guesswork about the benefits of a standard system. According to the American judiciary, yes, according to Google, no. The case is far from over, but will undoubtedly be closely watched by tech companies on both sides of the spectrum, as a ruling against Google could well set a precedent and lead to similar lawsuits.