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Judge orders Google to rebid for default search deals every year in a major antitrust blow

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  • A federal judge ordered Google to limit default search and AI app contracts to one year.
  • The ruling follows a 2024 finding that Google illegally monopolized online search markets.
  • The decision aims to boost competition from rivals in search apps and generative AI.

A judge opened the door to upending Google’s dominance as the default search on your phone.

On Friday, a federal judge ordered Google to limit all default search and AI app contracts to one year, a setback for the long-term deals that have helped cement the company’s dominance on billions of devices.

The ruling, detailed in a December 2025 judgment, requires Alphabet’s Google to renegotiate every default-placement agreement annually, including lucrative deals with Apple’s iPhone and manufacturers like Samsung.

Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court of the District of Columbia said the “hard-and-fast termination requirement after one year” is necessary to enforce antitrust relief after his landmark 2024 finding that Google illegally monopolized online search and search advertising.

The decision aims to open the door for rivals, especially fast-moving generative AI companies, to compete for default spots that have historically been held for years at a time. It builds on a separate September order requiring Google to share some of the data behind its search rankings with competitors.

While Google can still pay device makers for default placement, the annual renegotiation rule sharply restricts its ability to secure long-term control over the search market.

Google and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.




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I’ve been to over 140 countries, but there’s only one I have to visit every year

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Almost every town, city, and village in Spain has an annual feria (festival), and my favorite is undoubtedly La Feria del Caballo (The Horse Fair) in Jerez de la Frontera.

Held every May at the González Hontoria fairground, the festival features plenty of food, drinks, dancing, and a program of equestrian events.

It’s beautiful during the day, but at night, the grounds are lit up in a spectacular way that makes everything look magical.

Another festival I enjoy attending is Las Fallas, held annually in March in Valencia. Hundreds of wooden and papier-mâché monuments called fallas are constructed around the city, and then, to conclude the festival, they’re burned.

These structures often portray local and world dignitaries or critique current events, creating a blend of art, satire, and tradition that’s really worth watching.




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This company gives away free trips and luxury cars to its top employees every year

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Companies are getting creative with rewarding standout workers, but few are giving out $170,000 luxury cars or cruises to the Bahamas.

ThreatLocker, an Orlando-based cybersecurity firm with about 700 employees, gives luxury cars to its two most collaborative workers at its annual holiday party, the company told Business Insider.

The firm, which also has offices in Dublin, Dubai, and Australia, receives hundreds of votes each month for the two most helpful employees — one in the US, and one abroad. It flies in its international workers in for the holiday party.

Additionally, every manager votes for the best performer on their team that month. At the end of the year, the total votes for the top performer and the most helpful employee are combined to determine the two car recipients, the company said.

The firm usually awards an electric model, but has also handed out a $125,000 Porsche Panamera. The company hasn’t announced its car for this year yet, but told Business Insider one of the models is worth $173,000.

The tradition began in 2021 as a prize for the top performer, but CEO Danny Jenkins said it created a “dog-eat-dog” work environment. In the cybersecurity industry, teamwork is crucial to the company’s success, he said. Jenkins said the firm operates 24 hours a day with an average pick-up time of 23 seconds for any customer support issue, and colleagues need to work together to achieve that.

“Everything we do is with this matter of urgency,” Jenkins said. “So if you don’t have this teamwork where people are willing to get on a call at 2 a.m. in the morning and help each other and collaborate, then it doesn’t work.”

Jenkins said he works about 100 hours a week, and he keeps his phone on 24/7 in case issues arise.

Retaining the top

AI development has led to a boom in the cybersecurity industry, resulting in heightened demand for qualified talent. Jenkins said the company has never done layoffs and is currently hiring 40 to 50 people a month.

“I’d like to be in a situation where I don’t feel like we’re drowning because we’re constantly struggling to hire and onboard people fast enough,” said Jenkins.

That makes it all the more worthwhile to retain top talent and those who contribute to a strong culture.

He said that before the car winners are announced, between 14 and 16 runner-ups are honored in front of the company, and then offered a spot on a fully paid long-weekend getaway.

Jenkins said the trip has included a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas, as well as trips to Boston or New York. The group typically includes employees from various departments, and they all receive a spending budget of $2,500 on their trip, he said.

ThreatLocker also offers other perks to standout employees. Jenkins said that most employees work 40-hour workweeks, but sometimes teams may have to put in 18 or 19 hours straight to address an issue. Jenkins said when workers push through tight deadlines or go above and beyond, the company may reward them with court-side seats at games in the Orlando Kia Center, where the company has a permanent box.

Jenkins said the trip and car giveaway have bolstered employee success and that no car recipient has ever left the company.




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Google engineer said landing an AI role took a year and daily studying

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This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Maitri Mangal, a 26-year-old software engineer at Google, based in New York. Her identity and employment have been verified by Business Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

When I started off as a software engineer, my dad, who also works in tech, kept telling me to get into AI.

I brushed it off because I was just starting off my engineering career, and no one was really talking about AI in 2019, unless they were getting a PhD.

Then in 2023, the tech industry changed and everyone started going into AI. That led me to want to start pursuing AI as a job, and also creating content about it. When trying to join an AI team, I think having a strong presence and personal brand is crucial for others to take you seriously.

In my three years at Google, I’ve changed roles three times, most recently switching to the Workspace AI team.

It’s important to make a distinction between an AI machine learning engineer and an AI software engineer. An AI ML engineer creates the model, trains it, and evaluates it. An AI software engineer integrates AI capabilities into software applications, and builds APIs and infrastructure to serve the model to the end user.

My transition to an AI team didn’t happen overnight. It required spending about a year upskilling through courses and creating content about the material, which forced me to learn the concepts.

Here’s how I made the switch:

Creating content about AI

In the spring of 2024, I started creating tech content on Instagram and LinkedIn, outside my job. That became a major factor in my transition to an AI team.

Making content motivated me to keep learning and also made me confident about sharing what I knew. Once I started seeing how much it helped people, I wanted to learn more. So that’s where the upskilling started, and I started taking courses to understand the fundamentals of AI.

Eventually, I started applying to AI teams at Google. I felt like if I was going to spend so much time upskilling and making content about AI, I should make the most of what I had. I started searching for new roles in January, about seven months after I started upskilling. In March, I landed the new job.

I still spend an hour a day upskilling

I typically take Google’s internal courses to upskill. Coursera also has amazing courses.

The easiest way to start is by taking the basics of AI, like Google’s Introduction to Generative AI and Google Prompting Essentials. Since I have a computer science background, I was able to get more in-depth with concepts like linear regression and vector analysis.

I took courses for about two hours a day, but in order to absorb the material, I had to talk about it, not just read. When I verbalized the concepts through making content, it helped me understand the material.

I also get feedback from my followers, and when they ask follow-up questions in the comments, it makes me go even deeper into understanding a topic. Talking to friends or teammates who are excited about AI also helps me better understand the material.

In this field, it’s very hard not to learn. I’m not necessarily still dedicating two hours daily to courses, but I still spend about an hour a day upskilling, whether that’s in the form of internal trainings for my job, or watching YouTube courses for the content I create.

Not everyone wants to create content, so that’s not always the best way to go about transitioning to an AI team. If you’re just starting out in tech, my biggest piece of advice would be to take on projects. You should definitely take courses about AI, but keeping up-to-date with the news and doing AI projects also really helps. Many AI courses have users do mini projects, so you get to know how to work with it.

Since I applied internally, I didn’t have to go through the same interview process. However, I still had to submit my résumé, which included all of my side projects, and I think that really helps.




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Shopify experienced instability for hours on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Last year, it handled $11.5 billion between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

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It was a tough day for one of the nation’s largest transaction platforms to experience instability.

Shopify suffered an outage on Cyber Monday, freezing some merchants out of their accounts and point-of-sale systems during one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

The financial impact is still unclear. A spokesperson directed Business Insider to the company’s status page.

Many small business owners posted on social media to tell shoppers that their shipping labels could not be generated and that they may experience issues during checkout.

Outage tracker Downdetector showed a spike of roughly 4,000 problem reports at 11 a.m. ET, with thousands more pouring in around 1:15 p.m. ET.

The Canadian e-commerce transaction giant said early afternoon on its status page that some sellers were “experiencing issues” with Shopify admin, Point of Sales, Mobile, and Shopify Support.

By mid-afternoon, Shopify reported that services were recovering after engineers fixed an issue with the company’s login authentication flow, though pockets of disruption remained.

“We are seeing signs of recovery for admin and POS login issues now,” Shopify said in a 2:31 p.m. ET update, adding that teams were still monitoring the situation.

By 3:38 p.m. ET, Shopify said in its most recent status update that its Help Center is still “experiencing longer than normal wait times.”

As of 9 p.m. ET, Point of Sale, API & Mobile, and Support are still considered to have “degraded performance.”

Shopify powers more than 10% of US e-commerce sales. The company’s President, Harley Finkelstein, said in a press release on Saturday that the platform processed $6.2 billion in gross merchandise volume on Black Friday, up 25% year over year, led by cosmetics, activewear, fitness, and nutrition.

Shopify’s stock closed 5.8% down on Monday.




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