The EU’s new digital legislation is being implemented these days. The aim is for the large platforms to ensure a little more fairness in competition. What does this mean for a company like yours, for the search engine Ecosia? What do you hope to achieve, for example from the “Choice Screen”, which Google will use from March 7th to show its users that there are other search engines when they first access the site?
In principle, we think it’s excellent that this law, the Digital Markets Act, exists. It shows that the European Commission wants to break up digital monopolies. We see this as a great opportunity, but there is no guarantee that the new regulations will lead to success and greater democracy in our digital world.
Why not?
One problem is that the implementation of the law is left to corporations. They have to regulate themselves more or less. We will see whether they are ready for this with the “Choice Screen” presentation. Previous beta versions of the “Choice Screen” show me that Apple or Google are not really ready. A good 15 years ago, the European Commission forced Microsoft to show a browser selection screen. For example, there was Mozilla Firefox with a brief explanation of what it was about. This led to users turning to this browser. Today, many people don’t even know the alternatives. Google has built a monopoly in Germany with a search engine market share of 91 percent. “Googling” is now a synonym for searching in the Duden. If you don’t know what else is out there, why choose an alternative?
They would need a few billion for advertising. Google would then have to display the advertising again.
We once did a survey with a European consumer protection organization. It has shown that if people think in detail about the question of which search engine is the right one for me, has the right data protection, is transparent and pursues goals that are also important to me, then 20 percent are interested in an alternative. But now, on March 7th, Google might briefly display other browsers and then – click on. As much as we support the law, the problem is that users have to make a choice, but there was no time to find out what alternatives there are. So it’s a very natural impulse to stick with what you know. But I just hope people can make good, informed choices.
Why should I search with Ecosia and not stick with Google?
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