It’s been a big year for Google…but then as the de facto leader in online search, browser, and advertising, it’s always a big year for Google. Perhaps the biggest news is undeniably tied to the company’s status as an official and illegal monopoly, according to the US Department of Justice.
While a potentially historic breakup is hanging over Google like the sword of Damocles, we won’t truly know how it ends until next year (at least). In the meantime, let’s look back at Google’s wins, losses, and WTF moments for 2024.
Fail: The US Department of Justice wants Google to sell Chrome
Michael Crider/Foundry
After a historic ruling that found Google guilty of violating US anti-trust laws, the Department of Justice has recommended that Google be forced to sell the part of its business that handles the Chrome browser. This is the proposed “fix” for Google’s abuse of its position dominating search and advertising all across the web, tied in with things like Android, Gmail, YouTube, and pretty much every facet of its business.
Forcing Google to break off Chrome would be devastating. Chrome is the #1 browser on the planet for both desktop (including laptops) and mobile, to say nothing of the decade-plus Google has spent trying to make Chromebooks a viable alternative to Windows-powered laptops. And that’s ignoring other proposed recompense, including a moratorium on high-dollar search contracts with companies like Apple and syndicating search data to its competitors.
But the story (which has stretched for over four years since the original indictment) is far from over. Google will undoubtedly appeal, both the judge’s guilty ruling itself and any proposed penalty, dragging the case out for months or years. And the incoming Trump administration is a huge wildcard, sure to steer the DoJ to be both friendly to America’s mega-corporations and punitive toward the technology industry to suit the president’s goals.
The outcome of the trial, whatever it is, could shake Google to the core in ways we haven’t seen since AT&T was broken up in the 1980s.
Win: The Pixel 9 series is good!
Luke Baker
Google has been trying to sell its own-branded Android phones for almost as long as Android has been around — first with the Nexus series, then evolving into a more mass-market form with the Pixel. Apple and Samsung still rule the roost in the smartphone world, but it’s undeniable that after nine iterations, the Pixel is now a force to be reckoned with.
The Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 phones are very, very good, especially if you’re hunting for a phone that takes great photos. The Pixel Fold and its horribly-named follow-up the Pixel 9 Pro Fold are also good, albeit still way too expensive for most users. The Pixel Watch 3 is good — I’m wearing it right now, and I’m very pleased with it. And there are more affordable (if not quite “budget”) alternatives in the Pixel A variant phones, which deliver almost all the same features at a far more palatable price.
It’s been a slow, ponderous process of more than a decade, but Google finally has its own phone brand that most people are familiar with, and which is distinct from Android as a platform. There are regular users — not die-hard Android fans like me — who are seeking out Pixel phones because they like them, not just because they’re in all the carrier stores (though they are). That’s a win in anyone’s book.
WTF: What the hell is Google doing with non-phone hardware?
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
I’ve literally bought more Google tablets than I can remember. I will always love you, Pixel C, even if Google doesn’t. But amid news of Google trying again to create a branded laptop years after closing the team that already did that, only to hear that it’s once again given up on a Pixel-branded Android tablet, I gotta ask: What the hell, man?
For all the progress that Google has made in smartphones and wearables, not to mention ChromeOS with its Chromebook partners, it seems to be as clueless as ever as to what to do with its hardware brand beyond that. Even after watching this company closely for my entire professional career, I couldn’t tell you what it’s going to do next for a tablet or a laptop.
But I can tell you what I want it to do, and what I think would be successful. Oh look at that, I have!
Fail: AI search is turning tons of people away
Mattias Inghe
Google is pushing hard on its Gemini AI system across its business, but it’s most immediately visible in Search. And that’s not necessarily a good thing. While the initial blowback from Google’s AI Overviews in Search (including such infamous results as using glue as a pizza topping) seem to have died down, it’s a symptom of a deeper and much more widespread problem.
Web users seem to have soured on Google, a name that used to be synonymous with search as in “let me Google that for you.” Between more and more advertising in results, and results themselves becoming far less useful as targeted SEO and AI-generated text becomes more prevalent, it’s easy to see why. Google’s dominant position isn’t going away anytime soon, but it’s clear that people are hungering and thirsting for an alternative, if not exactly a replacement.
Perhaps more daunting for Google is that it doesn’t seem to have a clear solution. Search is the bedrock of Google’s empire, and if it cracks up — with or without a one-two punch from losing Chrome — the entire company could be in danger.
Win: “Web” tab is how search should be
For all the belly-aching that I gave Google Search in the section above, I confess that it’s so integrated into both my personal life and my workflow that I’m not ready to give it up. And I don’t have to. Google introduced a new “Web” search tab this year, and it’s almost like Google Search used to be. Almost.
Clicking “Web” will strip out the AI overview results, the don’t-call-it-advertising shopping suggestions, the Maps business listings (again, essentially advertising!). It’s ten blue links again, giving Google Search a sense of focus and intention it’s been missing for a long time. I adjusted all my default searches to this view almost immediately, and it’s been a marked improvement.
Granted, this doesn’t solve all of Search’s problems. Sometimes I want that Maps info right away, and there’s no way to pick-and-choose which bits you get, it’s All or (not quite) nothing. The Web view still periodically serves up alleged search results that are “Sponsored” — again, ads — right at the top, forcing you to scroll to get more organic info. And this view can’t do anything about junk SEO or AI-generated text, both of which make searching for genuine information far harder.
But it’s an improvement. And it feels like a long time since I’ve been able to say that about Google Search.
WTF: Google can auto-generated video games
I feel like I constantly have to remind people that what they’re being sold as “AI” is not artificial intelligence in the sci-fi sense, a la Commander Data or HAL 9000. But darn it if that isn’t hard to keep in mind when you see some of the things these models can do, like create simple but complete video games from just a prompt.
I don’t mean “code a game that’s kind of like the original Zelda.” I mean full games with 3D movement and graphics that are generated on the fly, no polygons necessary. The Genie 2 system has apparently analyzed so many video games that it can generate basic playable systems, including what looks like physics interaction and multiple viewpoints.
Granted, we only have Google’s word for it. And as impressive as the results are (or at least the videos Google deigns to share), there’s no way the juice is worth the squeeze in terms of computing resources
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