search engine

The Justice Department is trying to make consumers more aware of choices outside of Google, the world’s most popular search engine.

That Google be stopped from paying companies like Apple to be the default search engine on their devices, an arrangement that netted the iPhone maker as much as $1 billion a month by 2021.

Government lawyers also recommended that District Judge Amit Mehta force the firm to stop entering into contracts with companies - including Apple and Samsung - that make its search engine the default on many smartphones and browsers.

The company then used the data it gathered to make its search engine better, which kept customers coming back.

Judge Mehta said in his ruling in August that the default search engine was "extremely valuable real estate" for Google.