Google’s Pichai Decried Bad ‘Optics’ of Search Engine Deal With Apple

Google’s Sundar Pichai raised concerns years before he became the company’s chief executive officer that its deal with Apple Inc. had bad “optics” because there was no choice of which search engine to use in the company’s web browser.

Emails Pichai wrote in 2007 to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, among other executives, were introduced as evidence in the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which is underway in Washington. The emails, written when Pichai was in charge of Google’s Chrome browser, show concerns about the company’s agreement to pay Apple in exchange for being the pre-selected search option on the Safari browser.