For sale: one browser, very popular. As the remedies phase of the Google Search trial heats up, two things have become very clear. The US government would really like to force Google to sell Chrome, and there are a lot of companies interested in buying it. What do you really get when you buy the world’s most popular browser, though? And what would it really cost?
Everybody wants to buy Chrome
On The Vergecast: Meta and Google on trial, party speakers everywhere, and wood smartphones are back.
On The Vergecast: Meta and Google on trial, party speakers everywhere, and wood smartphones are back.
is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay, David, and The Verge’s Jake Kastrenakes try and find the right buyer for Chrome. But before that, we have some news to get to. News including that we won the Webby Award for Best Technology Podcast! Thanks again to everyone who voted for us — we were up against some excellent competition, and we’re thrilled you picked us. We also have some Party Speaker Capitalism Updates, some thoughts and stories about trying to buy a Switch 2, and a lot of confusing new information about tariffs. I mean, it’s one gadget, Michael. What could it cost, ten dollars?
After that, we head into the courtroom, where both Google and Meta are fighting for their antitrust lives. We talk about what the trial means for AI companies and search competitors alike, and why there aren’t as many realistic Chrome buyers as you might think. There might only be one that makes sense. (One we fail to even consider: Yahoo, which said it was interested just after we finished recording.) We also discuss Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom’s scorching testimony in the Meta trial, and why it might be damaging to Meta’s case.
Finally, in the lightning round, it’s time for another segment of (future award-winning podcast within a podcast) Brendan Carr is a Dummy. We also talk about the 20th anniversary of YouTube, the new Motorola Razr Ultra, and some deeply weird ideas about wood gadgets.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first in gadget and tariff news:
- Nintendo Switch 2 preorders were a total mess — at first
- Nintendo Switch 2 preorders are sold out everywhere
- Auto industry tariffs are doing what now? 24 hours of White House confusion
- Did Tim Cook finagle a special tariff deal? Senator Warren wants to know
- DHL halts international deliveries to US consumers worth over $800
- Game Boy clone maker Anbernic suspends all shipments to US
- Ayn, like Anbernic, is pausing retro handheld shipments to the US.
And in trial news:
- Former DOJ antitrust chief says a Google break up will benefit the internet
- OpenAI tells judge it would buy Chrome from Google
- Perplexity wants to buy Chrome if Google has to sell it
- Yahoo wants to buy Chrome
- Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom says Zuckerberg “saw us as a threat”
- Google’s antitrust trial begins with a fight over Chrome, money, and AI
And in the lightning round:
- From Puck: Will the FCC’s Brendan Carr Kill the Paramount Sale?
- Anna Gomez’s First Amendment tour launch
- From Lawfare: The Trump FCC’s Coercion Cartel
- Motorola’s new Razr Ultra brings the wood back panel back
- The new retro: how Motorola brought wood back, literally
- 20 years ago, the first videos uploaded to YouTube were short and sweet
- YouTube is everything and everything is YouTube
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
Most Popular
Most Popular
- European retailers yank popular headphones after study reports trace amounts of hormone-disrupting chemicals
- Meta is reportedly laying off up to 20 percent of its staff
- MacBook Air M5 review: a small update for the ‘just right’ Mac
- Gemini’s task automation is here and it’s wild
- PC makers are not ready for the MacBook Neo
