Google Disputes Apple VP's Claim of Safari Search Traffic Decline

Google has issued a rare public statement seemingly contradicting Apple senior VP Eddy Cue's courtroom testimony that Safari browser searches declined for the first time in April 2025.

Google Logo Feature Slack
Cue's comments, made during the ongoing U.S. Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against Google, triggered a 7.51% drop in Google's stock price on Wednesday.

In a post to its blog The Keyword, under the title "Here's our statement on this morning's press reports about Search traffic," Google said:

We continue to see overall query growth in Search. That includes an increase in total queries coming from Apple's devices and platforms. More generally, as we enhance Search with new features, people are seeing that Google Search is more useful for more of their queries — and they're accessing it for new things and in new ways, whether from browsers or the Google app, using their voice or Google Lens. We're excited to continue this innovation and look forward to sharing more at Google I/O.

The dispute centers around the $20 billion agreement making Google the default search engine on Apple devices. While testifying, Cue attributed the alleged search decline to users switching to AI services like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude.

Cue added that he believes AI services will eventually replace conventional search engines like Google. As a result, Apple will need to add them as options in Safari in the future. Cue said the company had already held discussions with Perplexity about browser integration.

Tag: Google

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Top Rated Comments

wanha Avatar
2 weeks ago
"people are seeing that Google Search is more useful for more of their queries"

this is marketing speak, not a court statement
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tridley68 Avatar
2 weeks ago
Google search is the first thing I get rid of when I get a new phone or macbook
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Henriok Avatar
2 weeks ago
I need more context here.. Could it be that Apple see's a decline in Google searches through their applications (Safari, Siri, Spotlight, etc…) while Google states that there's no decline from Apple's devices. Both could very well be true.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alexxkidd Avatar
2 weeks ago
Does Apple seriously believe OpenAI has a future? They don't have the capacity to expand, that is why they won't go profit any time soon.Google on the other hand is killing it with Gemini 2.5 Pro
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
senttoschool Avatar
2 weeks ago
Precisely why I don't own Google stocks. I've been doing more and more queries on ChatGPT (I pay $20/month) and less and less on Google.

That said, I will be watching Google stocks closely. If it drops to something like 10 P/E, I'm buying.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Agneev Avatar
2 weeks ago

Apple senior VP Eddy Cue's courtroom testimony that Safari browser searches declined for the first time in April 2025
What exactly did he say? Pretty reckless to not include his statement unless it's not publicly available.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)