Google to Apple: You are ‘wrong,’ “We continue to see …”

Google has formally contested Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue’s court testimony that Safari searches declined last month, insisting in a company blog post that search queries from Apple devices continue to grow despite the rise of AI alternatives. “We continue to see overall query growth in Search. That includes an increase in total queries coming from Apple’s devices and platforms,” Google stated on Thursday, directly challenging Cue’s assertion that Safari experienced its first search decline in 22 years.

The conflicting claims emerged amid Google’s ongoing antitrust trial where the estimated $20 billion annual search agreement between the tech giants faces intense scrutiny from regulators and investors alike.