David Pierce

Editor-at-Large

David PierceOct 30, 2023

Google agreed to not promote Chrome to Safari users.

After a fun back-and-forth in the courtroom about the merits of redacting an exhibit during Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s testimony, we got a new tidbit of information. Google explicitly agreed, as part of its search deal with Apple, that it would not promote Chrome to Safari users — which it could do with banners in other Google apps, pop-ups, and the like, and does to many other services.

We’re slowly but surely learning how these deals get done, and it keeps getting juicier.

Google once asked Apple to preload its search app on iOS

David PierceOct 30, 2023

From the cloud to your computer: a new theory of how software works

David PierceOct 30, 2023

It’s Internet Explorer day in US v. Google!

We’re a bit over an hour into Sundar Pichai’s testimony in US v. Google, and we’ve spent a surprising amount of the morning in a time machine back to 2005.

That’s when Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 (the browser a Pichai-led team would ultimately crush by launching Google Chrome). At the time, Google’s legal chief David Drummond sent Microsoft a letter that was very mad about search defaults. Drummond wanted a choice screen, and said Google was very worried about the anticompetitive nature of Microsoft prioritizing its own search engine.

Pichai is being asked a lot of questions that amount to, “this is now the argument against you, right?” So far, he’s sparring with it pretty well.

David PierceOct 30, 2023

Hello again from DC District Court!

I’m here today to see Google CEO Sundar Pichai testify in the ongoing US v. Google antitrust trial. I just saw Pichai go through security, and there’s a lot of energy in the building to see how Google’s leader defends the company’s moves in search.

Things are set to start at 9:30, first with Google’s lawyers and then cross examination from the Justice Department. The line to get in is long, it’s weirdly warm in here, it’s gonna be a day, friends.

Your guide to the internet’s most (and least) important moments

David PierceOct 29, 2023

Apple’s Journal app is kind of smart — and kind of basic

David PierceOct 28, 2023

David PierceOct 27, 2023

Today on The Vergecast: Apple events go prime time, and Twitter wannabes go 90.

We have some pretty good costume ideas for Apple’s Scary Fast event on Monday. We also have big ideas about the future of Threads, Mastodon, and year two of Elon Musk’s Twitter. And during one of the ad breaks, we watched the entire Blade: Trinity trailer. For some reason. It’s The Vergecast!