[harryf]

Since Yahoo! got out of the game, Bing is the only major search engine in the English speaking world providing an API for developers against their index.

Yandex _might_ be another option (haven’t looked) or even Baidu. Of course there are unofficial ways to scrape Google but you can’t build a legit business on that.

Side note: a far simpler first step than trying to break up Google would be requiring them to have a search API and contractual obligations that enable others to do business on top of it.

[skyfaller]

Yes, adversarial interoperability is a fantastic antitrust tool that isn't discussed or used enough these days: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interopera...

[chaosharmonic]

This would have been a great way to deal with Facebook's attempt at building out a single backend for their messaging platforms.

Because yes, the ability to use a single protocol for cross-service messaging, with E2E by default, disappearing messages, and text (or presumably email) fallback would actually be spectacular. But as a spec.

Hell, as a spec, this would create an argument to migrate toward a user@service model and finally start relegating phone numbers to legacy status.

[ricardo81]

Mojeek provides API access and they have their own index, albeit a fair bit smaller than G and Bing

[an_opabinia]

Other search engines do use Google via an API.