Google CEO Sundar Pichai Decried Bad ‘Optics’ of Search Engine Deal With Apple

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Google's Sundar Pichai raised concerns years before he became the company's chief executive officer that its deal with Apple Inc. had bad “optics” because there was no choice of which search engine to use in the company's web browser.

Emails Pichai wrote in 2007 to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, among other executives, were introduced as evidence in the Justice Department's antitrust case against Alphabet Inc.'s Google, which is underway in Washington. The emails, written when Pichai was in charge of Google's Chrome browser, show concerns about the company's agreement to pay Apple in exchange for being the pre-selected search option on the Safari browser.

“I know we are insisting on default, but at the same time I think we should encourage them to have Yahoo as a choice in the pull down or some other easy option,” Pichai wrote of the agreement, which is at the center of the government's case. “I don't think it is a good user experience nor the optics is great for us to be the only provider in the browser.”

The Justice Department and state attorneys general allege that Google has paid Apple and smartphone makers including Samsung Electronics Co. billions of dollars in revenue-sharing agreements to keep rival search engines from gaining users. The deals offer a percentage of the revenue Google makes from search-based advertising in exchange for being the default tool on browsers and smartphones.

The Justice Department says Google pays more than $10 billion a year in these contracts, although the exact figures remain confidential. Google denies that the agreements harm competition and says it's easy for consumers to switch to alternatives if they want.

Joan Braddi, Google's vice president for product partnerships