“Not a good look”: Google’s ad tech monopoly defense widely criticized
Enlarge (credit: Leon Neal / Staff | Getty Images News)
Google wound down its defense in the US Department of Justice's ad tech monopoly trial this week, following a week of testimony from witnesses that experts said seemed to lack credibility.
The tech giant started its defense by showing a widely mocked chart that Google executive Scott Sheffer called a "spaghetti football," supposedly showing a fluid industry thriving thanks to Google's ad tech platform but mostly just "confusing" everyone and possibly even helping to debunk its case, Open Markets Institute policy analyst Karina Montoya reported.
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"The effect of this image might have backfired as it also made it evident that Google is ubiquitous in digital advertising," Montoya reported. "During DOJ's cross-examination, the spaghetti football was untangled to show only the ad tech products used specifically by publishers and advertisers on the open web."