Leaving Google’s search engine isn’t easy, government witness says in antitrust case

By PAUL WISEMAN
AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is pressing ahead with its antitrust case against Google. On Wednesday, that included questioning a former employee of the search engine giant about deals he helped negotiate with phone companies in the 2000s. Chris Barton worked for Google from 2004 to 2011 and testified that he made it a priority to negotiate for Google to be the default search engine on mobile devices. In exchange, he offered phone service providers or manufacturers a share of the revenue generated by clicks. In the biggest antitrust case in a quarter century, the government argues Google rigs the market by locking in its search engine as the default choice.