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Google has announced that it will begin offering new options for the browser and search engine for Android users in the European Economic Area (EEA).
The decision came nine months after Google Inc., a subsidiary of Alphabit, was fined $ 5 billion by the European Union's antitrust agency because of the way manufacturers were forced to install pre-installed Google applications on Android devices.
Google has made it clear that manufacturers have the freedom to do whatever they want with Android, since the operating system was released under an open source license.
However, in order to access features like YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Maps, you need to install a full set of pre-installed Google apps, which include the Chrome browser as the default browser, and the Google Search search engine, such as the default search.
That's why the company announced in October that it will reform the European licensing model to charge device manufacturers before installing their applications in advance, including YouTube, Gmail and Google Maps, offering them Google Play, Chrome browser and its under separate licenses.
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That did not seem to be enough for European regulators, and as a result last month's search giant revealed that it would give new and existing Android users the ability to choose browsers and search engines.
According to Paul Gennai, director of product management at Google, the launch will begin today and continue in the coming weeks.
"After the changes we made last year to comply with the provisions of the European Commission, we will start introducing new screens for Android users in Europe with the option of downloading search applications and browsers," said Jean Genay.
Google is providing two different screens, one for search and one for a web browser, each containing five options for installing competing services for Google, to be displayed the first time the user opens the Google Play Store after the next update of Android.
Alternatives vary by country, but the option to install Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera or Puffin can be viewed as the default browser or install DuckDuckGo or Quant as the default search engine.
If you choose to install one or more of the applications displayed, an additional screen appears during the installation and configuration process, including how to configure the default settings.
Android also requires users to set their default search engine within a Google Chrome browser if they install a new third-party search application.
The measure would help Google appease European regulators but its troubles continue elsewhere in Europe, where it has recently been fined $ 1.69 billion for Google AdSense violations and $ 57 million for the French data privacy authority.
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