European Search Sites Reject Google Auction For Android Search Engine Selection Screen

European search engines express their dismay at Google’s plan to hold an auction for the selection of the four search engines that will be presented in a screen to Android users from next year. They can choose one of them as their default search engine.

German search engine Ecosia calls Google’s selection method “unethical and anti-competitive” and says it does not participate in “Google’s revenue-generating auction” for those reasons. The company describes this method as monopolistic, harmful behavior, believes that Google creates artificial scarcity and calls on the search giant to stop this. Ecosia believes that users deserve the option to choose their preferred search engine completely freely and that ‘choices should not be auctioned to the highest bidder’. The search engine argues that with this auction, Google has reshaped discrimination and is making everyone pay but itself, something Ecosia does not want to accept.

Ecosia says it uses revenues to plant trees and therefore does not engage in expensive bidding wars. The company will present its options and objections to the European Commission. The French search engine Qwant convict the safe of Google also already and Gabriel Weinberg did the same, the CEO of DuckDuckGo. Weinberg especially denounces the fact that you have to pay to qualify for only four options. This means that consumers do not get all the choices they deserve and Google benefits from this, according to Weinberg.

Google announced at the beginning of this month that a choice screen will be introduced from next year, so that Android users will be presented with multiple search engines as a choice when they first set up their phone. They then choose which search engine will appear in the search bar widget and which search engine will be set as the default in Chrome. This choice can be modified later.

This selection screen will have four search engines from which users can choose and to arrive at those four, Google has devised the auction method. This works on the basis of a bidding system. Search engines that register must specify an amount per country that they are willing to pay in order to appear in the selection screen. In addition to its own search engine, Google then shows three others, based on the amount they offer. If there are fewer than three candidates, random candidates who applied but did not bid will also be selected. Search engines can register until September 13.

Google comes with this auction and the selection screen in response to a fine of 4.34 billion euros. The European Commission imposed that fine in July 2018, because Google allegedly abused its dominant position in Android. The search giant has appealed the fine.