Last year, Google was found to be practicing a monopoly business by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on their search engine Search. Because of this, Google was ordered to separate Chrome from Android and the Play Store. Not only that, Google was also ordered to sell Chrome and most recently – the DOJ has reiterated that this must be done.
The DOJ said Google had to do this because Chrome is important for users to search. By selling Chrome, it opens up competitors to compete more healthily. Devices will also no longer have Chrome as the default web browser pre-installed. Users will also have the freedom to download their favorite web browser and not continue to use Chrome which is usually pre-installed on most Android devices.
Google is expected to issue a response this week. For now, Google no longer has to sell Android but needs to change the way it operates. Only if it is found that Android prevents competing operating systems from competing, action will be taken. Then, if Chrome is sold – the fate of Chromium which is under the open source project is unknown. Many third-party web browsers that want to compete with Chrome use Chromium.