THE U.S. DEPARTMENTOF JUSTICEWANTS GOOGLETO DO SOMETHING UNTHINKABLE: TO HAND OVER PART OF THE DATA THAT MADE IN DOMINANT IH THE FIELD OF SEARCH!
The Justice Department wants Google to sell-off of its Chrome browser, and banning default placements on phones.
But the data is an important one: access and visibility to that data has helped underpin Google’s lucrative ad business and help drive Alphabet’s $2 trillion market cap.
However, rivals hoping this remedy will help them catch up may find the chips still stacked against them.
Sources say the move could level the playing field by giving competitors like Bing and DuckDuckGo access its search user data, the kind of behavioral signals that power Google’s dominance. But privacy risks to implementation hurdles that could render the plan unworkable.
The data includes click data – the links people click, how long they hover over results, and how they scroll through the page. The DOJ is also calling for Google to hand over query data, or the actual terms users are searching for. Together, these insights have long given Google an edge in decoding user intent and ranking the most relevant webpages.
“Google, because they are monopolist, attracts a huge amount of that user data,” said Jeff Cross, counsel at Smith, Gambrell & Russel. “If the goal is to restore competition, Google needs to turn over the user data that it stores.”
Google maintains that these remedies would not be in the best interest of web users, and will harm the U.S.’s global tech prowess, particularly against China.
META HAS ANNOUNCED THE LAUNCH OF AN AI APPLICATION SIMILAR TO CHATGPT
Meta has announced the launch of an AI application similar to ChatGPT. Called Meta AI, it represents “the first step toward building a more personal AI assistant,” the company stated in a blog post. Now, as they said, “people can experience a personal AI designed for voice conversations with Meta AI within a standalone app.”
Available on iOS and Android devices, the app is designed to learn user preferences, remember context, and thus provide a personalized experience.
This announcement marks Meta’s most ambitious move yet in developing AI products aimed directly at end users.
Meta’s advantage over competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude lies in the vast amount of user data it already possesses. Given the abundance of information about individual users, Meta will be able to tailor experiences with great precision.
“We’re leveraging decades of experience in personalizing user experiences on our platforms to make Meta AI more personal,” the company said in the blog post. “You can tell Meta AI to remember certain things about you (for example, that you like to travel and learn new languages), and it can recognize important details from context.”
NFL, PEPSICO, ACCENTURE LEADERS AMONG 2025 MARKETING HALL OF GAME INDUCTESS
American Marketing Association New York to honor seven influential marketers this May
The American Marketing Association’s New York chapter (AMA New York) has unveiled the 2025 class of Marketing Hall of Fame inductees.
The seven honorees span sectors including sports, beauty, consulting, academia, and advertising. They will be recognized for their accomplishments across a range of categories during a ceremony on May 21 at Universal McCann’s global headquarters in New York City.
This year’s inductees are:
- Tim Ellis, EVP and CMO of the NFL, for Marketing Catalyst
- Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus at DDB Worldwide, for Mentorship
- Jill Kramer, CMO and CCO at Accenture, for Technology Innovation
- Kory Marchisotto, CMO of e.l.f. Beauty and president of Keys Soulcare, for Marketing for Purpose
- Esperanza Teasdale, former VP and GM of PepsiCo Beverages North America’s Hispanic Business Unit, for Marketing Excellence in DEI
- Fawn Weaver, CEO of Uncle Nearest, Inc., for Marketing for a Challenger Brand
- Russell Winer, professor emeritus at NYU Stern, named New York Choice
The ceremony will also include ‘CMO Conversations,’ a series of panels featuring leading marketers, kicking off at 1 p.m. ET. In these discussions, inductees will reflect on their professional journeys and share insights on the future of marketing.
This year’s ceremony is sponsored by Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s, Clear Channel Outdoor, Universal McCann, and GreenBook. ADWEEK is the official media partner.
