Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 03, 2025

Imagine Life Without Google. Australia Faces The Unthinkable

Imagine Life Without Google. Australia Faces The Unthinkable

Google opposes a planned law that would force the company and Facebook to pay Australian publishers for news content.

Imagine a world without Google, the search engine so pervasive it's the starting point for more than five billion queries a day. That's the reality facing Australia, where the tech giant is threatening to unplug its homepage in a standoff with the government.

Google opposes a planned law that would force the company and Facebook Inc. to pay Australian publishers for news content. The Internet juggernaut's ultimatum to local lawmakers -- change the legislation, or else -- has left a digital vacuum hanging over a nation that essentially knows just one way to navigate the web. Google runs 95% of Internet searches in Australia.

Google runs 95% of Internet searches in Australia


Potential fallout from the spat goes far beyond Australia for Alphabet Inc.-owned Google, whose dominance of global advertising has made it a target for watchdogs worldwide. If the company backs down in Australia, the pay-for-news law risks becoming a template for jurisdictions including Canada and the European Union that are following the quarrel and keen to shorten Google's lead.

But disabling what is arguably the world's most famous website would hand all of Australia to rivals, including Microsoft Corp.'s Bing and DuckDuckGo, which have failed to dislodge Google as the 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 Google dependency. The 24-year-old from Canberra said he sometimes racks up 400 Google searches a day to help with his studies, catch up on news and look up recipes. Smith said his browser from the previous day shows 150 searches -- in the space of just five hours.

"The prospect of Google search disappearing is frightening at best," Smith said. "It's quite reflexive of me to Google something, anything, that I'm even mildly not sure of."

Searching for 'best beach Sydney' shows the variance in performance among Google's competitors. DuckDuckGo's first result was an ad for a hotel more than 1,000 kilometers away in Queensland, with Sydney beach reviews listed below a second ad link. Search Encrypt, which touts its data-protection capability, said: 'It looks like there aren't any great matches.' Bing's initial suggestion was Bondi Beach Post Office. Only Google returned a real beach, Bondi, first up.

A search for "best beach Sydney" shows the variance in performance among Google's competitors


World-First Legislation


The world-first legislation will be considered by Australia's parliament from the week starting Feb. 15 after a key senate committee recommended Friday that the bill be passed.

"The government expects all parties to continue to work constructively towards reaching commercial 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 of advertising revenue by the tech giants and should be paid fairly for content.

Google argues it drives traffic to their websites, and that being forced to pay to display snippets of news breaks the principle of an open Internet. It also opposes the law's final-offer arbitration model that determines how much it should pay publishers.

Facebook has said it may stop Australians from sharing news on its platform if the law is enacted, an unprecedented step.

Alphabet's Sundar Pichai held phone conversations with PM Morrison, his ministers to avoid setting global precedent


Australia's entire economic output is less than Alphabet's $1.4 trillion market value, so it may be surprising the distant and tiny market is suddenly so important. But the Internet titans are so keen to avoid Australia setting a global precedent that Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg broke into their diaries in recent weeks for phone hookups with Prime Minister Scott Morrison or his ministers.

Sniffing an opportunity, Microsoft President Brad Smith and CEO Satya Nadella also reached out.

Grabbing the free hit, Smith told Morrison that Microsoft would invest to "ensure Bing is comparable to our competitors." This week, Smith wrote in a blog post Thursday that the U.S. should adopt its own version of the Australian law.

DuckDuckGo, a search engine that says it doesn't track its users, is also trying to cash in.

"There's a growing global demand for privacy online and Australians don't have to wait for government action" to stop using Google, DuckDuckGo said by email. Search Encrypt says its results expire after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Non-profit alternatives have also been suggested. The Australian Greens party this month asked the government to consider setting up a publicly owned search engine rather than let Microsoft muscle in. "We should not seek out another foreign giant to fill the gap," said Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Google-Free China


To be sure, Australia wouldn't be the first Google-free nation in the world. In China, where the site is blocked, Baidu Inc. is the leading search engine.

But Australia would stand out as a westernized democracy without access to the site and Google's departure could set the nation back years in terms of fast access to information.

With two decades of data in the vault, and processing an estimated 5.5 billion searches a day, Google is regarded as peerless in tailoring results for individuals and their idiosyncracies.

"Bing is not going to be able to compete with Google in terms of quality out of the blocks," said Daniel Angus, Brisbane-based associate professor in digital communication at Queensland University of Technology. "Australians might have to relearn how to use search."

Google again performed best under the search, 'australia leader,' showing Morrison and his Liberal party at the top of the page -- sourced from an official government site. Bing gave similar details, though took it from Wikipedia. DuckDuckGo prominently displayed ads for team leader jobs in Western Australia, with photos of Morrison and his title sporadically appearing when the search is refreshed. Search Encrypt drew a blank once more.

Softening Stance


There are signs Google's hardline stance may be softening. Morrison said his meeting with the company was "constructive" and "should give them a great encouragement to engage with the process." Google declined to comment on the meeting, though said in a statement it proposes compensating publishers through its News Showcase product, under which the company pays select media outlets to display curated content.

Some older Australians who've lived in a pre-Google world have fewer concerns. Gino Porro, the 58-year-old owner of the Li'l Darlin bar and restaurant in Sydney's Darlinghurst, uses Google and hasn't heard of any other search engines. But he sees a return of word-of-mouth recommendations instead of online reviews if Google shuts down its homepage. "Customer service is important, not Google," he said.

But back in Canberra, Googling student Smith is uneasy about the possible shutdown and how well a replacement would perform.

"I honestly feel that my life would become significantly more difficult," he said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Harvard Urges US to Unfreeze Funds for Public Health Research
Businessman Mauled by Lion at Luxury Namibian Lodge
Researchers Consider New Destinations Beyond the U.S.
53-Year-Old Doctor Claims Biological Age of 23
Trump Struggles to Secure Trade Deals With China and Europe
Russia to Return 6,000 Corpses Under Ukraine Prisoner Swap Deal
Microsoft Lays Off Hundreds More Amid Restructuring
Harvey Weinstein’s Publicist Embraces Notoriety
Macron and Meloni Seek Unity Despite Tensions
Trump Administration Accused of Obstructing Deportation Cases
Newark Mayor Sues Over Arrest at Immigration Facility
Center-Left Candidate Projected to Win South Korean Presidency
Trump’s Tariffs Predicted to Stall Global Economic Growth
South Korea’s President-Elect Expected to Take Softer Line on Trump and North Korea
Trump’s China Strategy Remains a Geopolitical Puzzle
Ukraine Executes Long-Range Drone Strikes on Russian Airbases
Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s presidential election
Study Identifies Potential Radicalization Risk Among Over One Million Muslims in Germany
Good news: Annalena Baerbock Elected President of the UN General Assembly
Apple Appeals EU Law Over User Data Sharing Requirements
South Africa: "First Black Bank" Collapses after Being Looted by Owners
Poland will now withdraw from the EU migration pact after pro-Trump nationalist wins Election
"That's Disgusting, Don’t Say It Again": The Trump Joke That Made the President Boil
Trump Cancels NASA Nominee Over Democratic Donations
Paris Saint-Germain's Greatest Triumph Is Football’s Lowest Point
OnlyFans for Sale: From Lockdown Lifeline to Eight-Billion-Dollar Empire
Mayor’s Security Officer Implicated | Shocking New Details Emerge in NYC Kidnapping Case
Hegseth Warns of Potential Chinese Military Action Against Taiwan
OPEC+ Agrees to Increase Oil Output for Third Consecutive Month
Jamie Dimon Warns U.S. Bond Market Faces Pressure from Rising Debt
Turkey Detains Istanbul Officials Amid Anti-Corruption Crackdown
Taylor Swift Gains Ownership of Her First Six Albums
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Satirical Sketch Sparks Political Spouse Feud in South Korea
Indonesia Quarry Collapse Leaves Multiple Dead and Missing
South Korean Election Video Pulled Amid Misogyny Outcry
Asian Economies Shift Away from US Dollar Amid Trade Tensions
Netflix Investigates Allegations of On-Set Mistreatment in K-Drama Production
US Defence Chief Reaffirms Strong Ties with Singapore Amid Regional Tensions
Vietnam Faces Strategic Dilemma Over China's Mekong River Projects
Malaysia's First AI Preacher Sparks Debate on Islamic Principles
White House Press Secretary Criticizes Harvard Funding, Advocates for Vocational Training
France to Implement Nationwide Smoking Ban in Outdoor Spaces Frequented by Children
Meta and Anduril Collaborate on AI-Driven Military Augmented Reality Systems
Russia's Fossil Fuel Revenues Approach €900 Billion Since Ukraine Invasion
U.S. Justice Department Reduces American Bar Association's Role in Judicial Nominations
U.S. Department of Energy Unveils 'Doudna' Supercomputer to Advance AI Research
U.S. SEC Dismisses Lawsuit Against Binance Amid Regulatory Shift
Alcohol Industry Faces Increased Scrutiny Amid Health Concerns
Italy Faces Population Decline Amid Youth Emigration
×