Imagine a world without Google, the ubiquitous search engine is the starting point for more than five billion queries a day. This is the reality facing Australia, where the technology giant is threatening to disconnect its homepage in a conflict with the government.
Google opposes a planned law that would oblige the company and Facebook Inc. to pay Australian publishers for news content. The Internet juggling ultimatum to local lawmakers – change the law or otherwise – has left a digital vacuum hanging over a nation that essentially knows only one way to surf the web. Google performs 95% of Internet searches in Australia.
The potential result of the escape goes far beyond Australia for Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., whose dominance of global advertising has made it a target for guard dogs around the world. If the company returns to Australia, the news payments law risks becoming a template for jurisdictions, including Canada and the European Union, that are following the quarrel and eager to shorten Google’s lead.
But disabling what is arguably the most famous website in the world would give all of Australia rivals, including Bing and DuckDuckGo from Microsoft Corp., who failed to deploy Google as a gateway to the web. These search engine competitors would suddenly have a playground for development and a foothold to advance on the global stage.
Software engineering student Patrick Smith exemplifies Australia’s dependence on Google. The 24-year-old from Canberra said he sometimes ran 400 Google searches a day to help with his studies, reach the news and search for recipes. Smith said his previous day’s browser displayed 150 searches – in just five hours.
“The prospect of Google’s search disappearing is frightening at best,” Smith said. “It’s pretty thoughtful to me about Google something, anything, that I’m not really sure about.”
The search for “the best beach in Sydney” shows the difference in performance among Google’s competitors. DuckDuckGo’s first result was an announcement for a hotel more than 1,000 kilometers away in Queensland. Search Encrypt, which supports its data protection capability, said, “Looks like there aren’t any great matches.” Bing suggested the Bondi Beach Post Office. Only Google returned a real beach first, Bondi.
Search Google for “Best Sydney Beach” Bondi Beach Returns to Australia’s Largest City [File: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg]The world’s first legislation
The Australian Parliament will consider the world’s first legislation starting the week of February 15 after a key Senate committee recommended the passage of the bill on Friday.
“The government expects all parties to continue to work constructively to reach trade agreements,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement welcoming the Senate report.
The government says the local media industry – including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and Sydney Morning Herald-publisher Nine Entertainment Co. – has been bled from advertising revenue by tech giants and should be paid fairly for content.
Google claims that it drives traffic to their websites and that being forced to pay to display snippets of news violates the principle of an open Internet. He also opposes the arbitration model of the law’s final offer, which determines how much he should pay publishers.
Facebook has said it could stop Australians from sharing news on its platform if the law is passed, an unprecedented step.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., which controls Google [File: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Bloomberg]
Australia’s entire economic output is less than Alphabet’s market value of $ 1.4 trillion, so it may come as a surprise that the remote and small market is suddenly so important. But Internet titans are so keen to avoid setting a global precedent that Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg have entered their diaries in recent weeks over telephone links with Prime Minister Scott. Morrison or his ministers.
Sniffing out an opportunity, Microsoft President Brad Smith and CEO Satya Nadella also contacted.
Taking the free kick, Smith told Morrison that Microsoft would invest in “making sure Bing is comparable to our competitors.” This week, Smith wrote in a blog post on Thursday that the US should adopt its own version of Australian law.
DuckDuckGo, a search engine that says it doesn’t track its users, is also trying to cash in.
“There is a growing global demand for online privacy, and Australians don’t have to wait for government action” to stop using Google, DuckDuckGo said in an email. Search Encrypt says its results expire after 30 minutes of inactivity.
Nonprofit alternatives have also been suggested. This month’s Australian Green Party called on the government to consider setting up a public search engine, rather than letting Microsoft in. “We should not look for another foreign giant to fill the gap,” said Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
China without Google
Certainly, Australia would not be the first nation without Google in the world. In China, where the site is blocked, Baidu Inc. is the main search engine.
But Australia would stand out as a Westernized democracy without access to the site, and Google’s departure could make the nation years ago in terms of quick access to information.
With two decades of data in the safe and processing about 5.5 billion searches a day, Google is seen as unmatched in adapting results for individuals and their idiosyncrasies.
“Bing will not be able to compete with Google in terms of off-block quality,” said Daniel Angus, an associate professor of digital communications at the University of Technology in Queensland, Brisbane. “Australians may need to learn how to use search.”
Google again had the best results in the search, “Australian leader”, showing Morrison and his Liberal party at the top of the page – from an official government website. Bing gave similar details, although it took them from Wikipedia. DuckDuckGo has provided job postings for team leaders in Western Australia. Search Encrypt drew another goal.
Soaking position
There are signs that Google’s linear position may be weakened. Morrison said his meeting with the company was “constructive” and “should give them great encouragement to get involved in the process.” Google declined to comment on the meeting, although it said in a statement that it is proposing to compensate publishers through its News Showcase product, in which the company pays certain media to display clean content.
Some older Australians who have lived in a pre-Google world have fewer worries. Gino Porro, owner of the 58-year-old Li’l Darlin bar and restaurant in Darlinghurst, Sydney, uses Google and has not heard of other search engines. But he sees a return of word-of-mouth recommendations instead of online reviews if Google closes its homepage. “Customer service is important, not Google,” he said.
But back in Canberra, Googling student Smith is worried about a possible shutdown and how well a replacement would work.
“I sincerely believe that my life will become much more difficult,” he said.