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Google Agrees To Open Android To Other Search Engines In Russia (bgr.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the under-pressure dept.

Google has reached a $7.8 million antitrust settlement with Russian watchdog group FAS. According to BGR, the company will loosen restrictions on Android's built-in search engines to allow for Russian competitors to take a share of the pie. From the report: Android's heavy reliance on Google services is to be expected, but in 2015 the Russian antitrust group -- officially the Federal Antimonopoly Service -- ruled that Google was breaking the law by forcing users to lean on Google for search. The ruling was the result of a complaint filed by Yandex, a Russian competitor to Google that runs the largest search engine in the country as well as web mail, news, maps, and other services. Google's settlement of the issue comes with the condition that Android will no longer lock down the search engine to Google, and must allow users the ability to change it if they want from within the Chrome web browser. Google will also loosen its exclusivity of the default apps on Android devices sold in Russia, potentially allowing for Yandex and other regional competitors to muscle in and replace the built-in apps with their own versions, depending on user preference.

64 comments

  1. And Baidu soon hopefully by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    For exactly the same reasons and logic as Yandex in Russia, it is only natural the same thing to happen with Baidu in China as well.
    And hopefully this is good news for real, proper, untainted, diversity and choice.

    1. Re: And Baidu soon hopefully by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i agree and what yandex is asking is not outlandish and but about choice without having to unlock and root around the device. people could though install other browsers and search engine widgets though with less integration normally.

    2. Re: And Baidu soon hopefully by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      correction to above: not yandex but Russian antitrust group.

    3. Re: And Baidu soon hopefully by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yandex takes your email hostage. They let you use it for months and then they lock it until you provide a phone number, CC, etc.

    4. Re: And Baidu soon hopefully by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i bet wouldnt put it past them there up to something.

  2. Commies by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Darn commies. Always trying to create a free market and competition. Don't they know what is good for the mega-Corporations is good for the People?

    1. Re:Commies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some diseases have benefits.

    2. Re: Commies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, are you on Google paycheck list, or is that butkissing done for free?

    3. Re:Commies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's better than being one of Larry and Sergey's fuck toys who will obediantly bend over and spread their cheeks whenever Google asks.

    4. Re:Commies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do I inderstand correctly? You are regarding people only as consumers? No place in your argument for self-owned and small/medium businesses?

      Am I to believe that in your mind there is only David(the little itty bitty people) and Goliath (the evil multi-billion dollar corporations)?

      In *that* argument it's easy to see the many good points of regulation but fortunately we don't live in that fantasy.

      I must admit though that in this imperfect world, where there is union between corporations and state, some of the regulation is incidentaly beneficial to competition. Even if it has to be a nation enacting laws that benefit its national corporate buddies to the detriment of corporations from another nation. Knowing Russia there is also probably more than a little discomfort at having a US monopoly with so much data abouth its own citizens. Something China dealt with by the roots.

    5. Re:Commies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Darn commies. Always trying to create a free market and competition. Don't they know what is good for the mega-Corporations is good for the People?

      You don't seriously believe that the Russian government is fighting for free markets and open competition, do you? Really?

      I'll grant that the ruling is correct, and even argue that Google should open up the choice of search engine in the rest of the world as well, but this had nothing to do with fairness or open markets. Oh, the text of the law probably goes against Google, but if the roles were swapped and the local company were defending against allegations from the foreign company, the complaint would have been summarily dismissed.

      No, the real motive here was defense of the local, entrenched market leader (yes, Yandex is the market leader, not Google) against rising foreign competition. That there was a rational reason (exploitation of market leadership in mobile operating systems) for the action was convenient, but if that rationale hadn't been available you can be certain another would have been found.

      If Google gives Russian users the choice of search engine and Yandex's market share still continues to fall, we'll see additional actions.

    6. Re:Commies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol,you think, only them 2 ? )

    7. Re:Commies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure Schmidt jumps in as well.

  3. Time for the EU to do the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't wait to replace the damn Google bar with startpage.com, and get the option to remove the search-bar entirely if I want to.

    1. Re:Time for the EU to do the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't wait to replace the damn Google bar with startpage.com, and get the option to remove the search-bar entirely if I want to.

      I can do that with my non-rooted Galaxy S3, but then Android went to shit (lockdown-mode) with 4.x

    2. Re:Time for the EU to do the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't remove widgets on newer versions of android?

    3. Re:Time for the EU to do the same by Luthair · · Score: 1

      Can't you just change the launcher?

    4. Re:Time for the EU to do the same by iampiti · · Score: 2

      Last time I checked the Google search bar couldn't be removed on the official Google launcher (whatever it's called). I think that's what people are referring to.
      Btw, I don't know about other phones but the Samsung launcher doesn't have that limitation on my Galaxy s4.

  4. Yandex==Kaspersky==FSB==KGB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google rivals waiting the start!

    1. Re:Yandex==Kaspersky==FSB==KGB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      o rly)))

  5. Google not welcome as a "monopoly" in Russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why can't a country full of hackers and deployers of a professional dark net infrastructure make a legitimate product that can surpass Google in it's utility for its own country's people and even go head to head with Google?

    1. Re:Google not welcome as a "monopoly" in Russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're paranoid and see evil Russians everywhere. When it comes to shady business, online or not, Russia has got _nothing_ on the U.S.

    2. Re:Google not welcome as a "monopoly" in Russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why can't a country full of hackers and deployers of a professional dark net infrastructure make a legitimate product that can surpass Google in it's utility for its own country's people and even go head to head with Google?

      Why can't a brain with 100 billion neurons not understand that it's means it is?

  6. in Soviet Russia we google you! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    in Soviet Russia we google you!

    1. Re:in Soviet Russia we google you! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      In Soviet Russia, Google searches you!

    2. Re:in Soviet Russia we google you! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out
      They leave the west behind
      And Moscow girls make me sing and shout
      That Google's always on my my my my my my my my my mind

  7. This shouldn't even need Google's "permission" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What a sham this Android thing is. All of these "mobile" computers (oh, excuse me, "devices").

    When will we again have freedom to compute?

    1. Re:This shouldn't even need Google's "permission" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Android isn't even useful for a computer. Trying to get stuff done with it is a nightmare.

    2. Re: This shouldn't even need Google's "permission" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never. Freedom in computing was an accident. Home computers came out of the hobbyist market, and were mostly toys for enthusiasts, same with the internet. They spent the last two decades rolling it back and they learned the lesson: it won't happen again, ever.

    3. Re:This shouldn't even need Google's "permission" by iampiti · · Score: 1

      The future looks bad. It's even going the other way on PCs: Macs by default only let you install apps from the official store (just like a smartphone) and Microsoft is pushing the same thing on Windows 10.

  8. Android is Google! by Zaphon · · Score: 0

    I'm so confused, I mean seriously you don't want to use google search, BUILD YOUR OWN OS. Android is built by Google!

    1. Re:Android is Google! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm so confused

      Clearly.

    2. Re:Android is Google! by Desler · · Score: 2

      And Windows is built by Microsoft, but I doubt you would support them only allowing one to use IE and Bing.

    3. Re:Android is Google! by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      I pay for Windows and it isn't open source so I can't fork it...

      Android is open source and can be forked it's the google apps on top that are proprietary... Fire OS is a successful fork of android open source.

      They basically just told google that they can't setup a contract with a vendor to install it with their proprietary apps to the exclusion of others... that doesn't mean that anyone else has a viable set of apps to install on top of the very limited android base because at this point google has a huge jump on all of them.

    4. Re:Android is Google! by Zaphon · · Score: 1

      Exactly, you can do whatever you want with Android, just don't expect to use the Google Services (Google Play Store, etc.). Amazon did it, others have done it. This just smells to high heaven to me.

    5. Re:Android is Google! by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      I think they were annoyed that google would make exclusive contracts now google won't make an exclusive contract but that doesn't mean they have to make or support services for other vendors.

      either you buy our services or someone else's... oh they don't have any then I guess you are buying ours but on a non-exclusive contract for a much higher dollar amount.

    6. Re: Android is Google! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      users can do it too there are plenty of alternitive apk stores whether you trust them is another thing whether thats malware or pirated stuff.

  9. I don't need another search engines on my Android: by LordHighExecutioner · · Score: 2

    What I need is a search engine capable to search and find where I left my Android smartphone. I left it somewhere in my home a week ago, and it is still missing...

  10. Re:I don't need another search engines on my Andro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not said but this about making it easier to track what russians are doing on the internet and profit.

  11. Capt. Brin says "CENSOR BEAMS ON FULL!!!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Capt. Brin says "CENSOR BEAMS ON FULL!!!" we must hide truth as we do at InfoWars cutting off the ad gold but we do https://blog.malwarebytes.org/... infecting users!

    1. Re:Capt. Brin says "CENSOR BEAMS ON FULL!!!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They did cut off Infowars ad funding and yet Google funds violent jihadist videos and sick pedo crap. Go figure that out.

    2. Re:Capt. Brin says "CENSOR BEAMS ON FULL!!!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What Matt Drudge said would happen is happening as a beta test on the rest of us starting with InfoWars https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    3. Re: Capt. Brin says "CENSOR BEAMS ON FULL!!!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i hate infowars but i respect there different views as there opinion on things. as for cutting ads well i dont care last time i tried to view there video show(had no real idea what they were about at the time) about every 5 minutes was some ad so im thinking they do not depend on google exclusively.

  12. And a new evil is born... by evolutionary · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google had always said that their goal was to do no evil, but in locking Russian (or any country's) users to their tools alone, they are in the same realms of evil as Microsoft and Apple. It's ironic it takes a country with an Iron Hand to get Google to play fair. A warning to us all: any company they gets too big is going to get abusive without government or large scale public intervention.

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
    1. Re:And a new evil is born... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was abusive to your mom's asshole last night and she loved it. Your cuck dad tried to file an anti-competition complaint, but she shot him down and locked him up tight in his chastity belt.

  13. Too Successful! by Ayanami_R · · Score: 1

    Again!

    --
    "Science is the power of man"
    1. Re:Too Successful! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you're fine with Microsoft only allowing Bing to be used in its OS?

  14. already done? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    uh, isn't half the features mentioned in the summary already doable in the settings?

    1. Re:already done? by jaklode · · Score: 1

      Sure, go to Chrome, Settings, Search Engine, and select what the fuck you want. It even learns new search engines when you visit them. You can also replace the assistant with any third party app, there's a setting for it (oddly enough, Firefox registers as one, and gives you a search bar when you long press home). And well, default apps: You could always get all gapps or none.

    2. Re: already done? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      this is about manufacturers now they can chose defaults not just google. the user can do whatever they want including root(though that may void warranty).

  15. Precisely what Android was built for by iampiti · · Score: 1

    Android was built so that Google could get even more personal data from you. I'd say it's worked pretty well because they now have lots of data from people who even don't use computers.
    While that a legitimate (IMO) business model it's annoying since Google will logically push their services hard on Android devices and that's just what has been happening in the last few years in Android.
    Also I wouldn't mind paying a license to use Android and then be able to use Android just like a PC, i.e.: Being able to uninstall everything Google and have root permissions to do whatever I please.

  16. Pity the same was not true for USA companies by ukoda · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Android product I work on can not have Play Store as we are not allow to include it because we use our own mapping software, not Google Maps. It is ironical that Russian companies can now complete with USA companies with an advantage when producing Android products. Maybe we should shift software development from the USA to Russia so we can offer a better product. Yes, I realise that last statement is flame bait, but how long until some people in management actually start thinking that way?

    1. Re:Pity the same was not true for USA companies by swillden · · Score: 1

      The Android product I work on can not have Play Store as we are not allow to include it because we use our own mapping software, not Google Maps.

      Huh? I don't know of any Play store rule against other mapping software, and in fact there are many, many other map apps on Play.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    2. Re:Pity the same was not true for USA companies by ukoda · · Score: 1

      If you want to bundle certain Google Apps, notably the Play Store app itself, you are not allow to ship your Android device with any competing applications to the standard Google applications such as Google Maps or GMail etc. You must also include all the specified Google Apps, you can not pick and chose what you think is best for your product. The legal conditions for including Google Apps are very draconian, which is what the Russian were complaining about. They got a win on the issue but for the rest of the world it is still all or nothing when it comes to Google Apps. For a practical example Garmin can not ship a product with Play Store and GMail installed but with Garmin navigation instead of Google Maps. You will note that all Garmin Android based navigation products are lacking Play Store access. That s Google's choice, not Garmin's.

    3. Re:Pity the same was not true for USA companies by swillden · · Score: 1

      Ah, you're building a device, not an app. Sorry, that wasn't clear.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  17. Re:I don't need another search engines on my Andro by swillden · · Score: 1

    What I need is a search engine capable to search and find where I left my Android smartphone. I left it somewhere in my home a week ago, and it is still missing...

    After a week I don't have anything to suggest. If you were looking for it earlier, before the battery died, then Android Device Manager might be able to help you. It can show a map with the location of your phone, which might help to localize which part of the house it's in, and it can remotely trigger your device to ring at full volume for five minutes, which usually makes it pretty easy to find.

    I once used this to help my brother find his phone, when it had fallen out of his pocket and onto a mountain road, somewhere, in miles of driving. It just happened to be in an area with coverage (which are few and far between). He used my dad's phone to call me and gave me his Google password so I could log into Android Device Manager as him and locate it.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  18. Joogle agrees their ads infect/track/slow us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: So /.ers block Joogle ads via APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-7 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/

    Ads/script & malware rob speed/security/privacy

    Hosts add speed (via hardcodes/adblocks), security (vs. bad sites/malware/poisoned dns), reliability (vs. dns down), & anonymity (vs. dns requestlogs/trackers).

    Less power/cpu/ram + IO use vs. DNS/routers/addons/antivirus + less security bugs/complexity & faster vs. addons/routers/remote dns!

    Avoids DNSChangers in routers/IP settings & dns redirects (99.999% of ISP DNS != patched vs. it) + lightens DNS load & resolves faster from local system RAM!

    * Via what u NATIVELY have in the IP stack in FASTER kernelmode!

    APK

    P.S. - Safe https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/e01211ca36aa02e923f20adee0a3c4f5d5187dc65bdf1c997b3da3c2b0745425/analysis/1433430542/

  19. How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I haven't been using Chrome browser for a while, but isn't it always possible to type yandex.ru in the URL area, or load it from a bookmark, and go there? What did Google do to stop the user "if they want from within the Chrome web browser?"

  20. Joogle agrees their ads infect/track/slow us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: So /.ers block Joogle ads via APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-7 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/

    Ads/script & malware rob speed/security/privacy

    Hosts add speed (via hardcodes/adblocks), security (vs. bad sites/malware/poisoned dns), reliability (vs. dns down), & anonymity (vs. dns requestlogs/trackers).

    Less power/cpu/ram + IO use vs. DNS/routers/addons/antivirus + less security bugs/complexity & faster vs. addons/routers/remote dns!

    Avoids DNSChangers in routers/IP settings & dns redirects (99.999% of ISP DNS != patched vs. it) + lightens DNS load & resolves faster from local system RAM!

    * Via what u NATIVELY have in the IP stack in FASTER kernelmode!

    APK

    P.S. - Safe https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/e01211ca36aa02e923f20adee0a3c4f5d5187dc65bdf1c997b3da3c2b0745425/analysis/1433430542/

  21. You hate demonstratable truth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The second you use the truncheon in lieu of logic & conversation? YOU have TIPPED YOUR HAND & lose...

    APK

    P.S.=> TRUTH & word of God... apk