Google’s Latest Trials and Tribulations; Amazon Strikes Deals in UK and India

by Aimee Newell Tarín on 11th Oct 2024 in News

This week on The Stack: Google’s Latest Trials and Tribulations; Amazon Strikes Deals in UK and India; Today's MadTech Daily

Another week passes with Google in the spotlight. The latest to come from the case regarding its search engine monopoly is the DOJ weighing up the option of asking a judge to break up its tech empire. A court document filed on Tuesday outlined the DOJ’s considerations, although they have until 20th November to submit a more detailed set of proposals.

Google was also ordered to open its Play Store up to rivals this week: the request came from a US federal judge, rounding off the latest legal action between Google and Epic Games. The ruling detailed that for the next three years – starting next year – Google will not be able to prohibit the use of in-app payment methods, and must allow users to download competing third-party Android app platforms/stores, among other measures.

Yet, it hasn’t all been negative for the tech titan: it recently announced the arrival of ads to its AI Overviews feature, which was first announced back in May. Ads are displayed alongside a “sponsored” label. The feature is currently only available in the US for those searching on mobile devices.

Elsewhere, Amazon made moves all around the globe, striking deals with UK broadcasters and as well as Indian rival streaming service MX Player. A deal with BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, sees their joint streaming service Freely integrated into the tech giant’s Fire TV platform, while Freely becomes the main TV guide for Amazon smart TVs and others which have its Amazon Fire TV built-in. In India, Amazon has merged its free-streaming service Amazon MiniTV with MX Player to form Amazon MX Player.