FACTBOX-Five things to know about the Google antitrust trial as testimony expected to wrap up

In his testimony, Google CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged the importance of making its search engine the default on phones, tables and laptops to keep users loyal, saying: "We definitely see value." Kevin Murphy, who teaches at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and who testified as a expert called by Google, argued Apple and others played Google and Microsoft , which has the Bing search engine, off against each other in order to win big payments from Google, which monetizes search by using data it learns about users to place advertisements.

The U.S. government was expected on Thursday to wrap up the evidentiary phase of its court battle with Alphabet's Google, which it accused in a 2020 lawsuit of breaking antitrust law with tactics used to dominate online search and some online advertising. In the trial that started on Sept. 12 and is expected to largely end Thursday, the Justice Department is seeking to prove that Google is a monopolist and illegally abused that monopoly power to favor its own bottom line. No decision on whether to hold closing arguments has been made.

Here are five important points raised during the trial: GOOGLE PAID BILLIONS TO BE THE DEFAULT ON YOUR PHONE

Witnesses from Verizon, Android maker Samsung and Google itself testified about the company's annual payments - $26.3 billion in 2021 - to ensure that its search is the default on smartphones and browsers and to keep its market share in the stratosphere. In his testimony, Google CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged the importance of making its search engine the default on phones, tables and laptops to keep users loyal, saying: "We definitely see value."

Kevin Murphy, who teaches at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and who testified as a expert called by Google, argued Apple and others played Google and Microsoft , which has the Bing search engine, off against each other in order to win big payments from Google, which monetizes search by using data it learns about users to place advertisements. "The payments that Google makes reflect that competition," he said. GOOGLE'S SEARCH DOMINANCE LED TO AD CLOUT, AND HIGHER PRICES

Joshua Lowcock, global chief media officer for UM Worldwide, testified for the U.S. that Google dominated the market for ads placed alongside searches and has raised prices in the last 10 years. Google's vice president and general manager of ads, Jerry Dischler, acknowledged that Google earned more than $100 billion in 2020 from search ads. GOOGLE'S DEFENSE NO. 1: WE'RE BIG BECAUSE WE'RE GOOD

Google has argued that the government was wrong to say it broke the law to hold onto its massive market share, saying its search engine was wildly popular because of its quality and that dissatisfied users can easily switch. Apple's senior vice president of services Eddie Cue praised Google's search and acknowledged under questioning that the smartphone maker had meetings with Microsoft and DuckDuckGo, which uses Bing searches, but found them inadequate.

GOOGLE'S DEFENSE NO. 2: DEFAULTS ARE NOT THAT USEFUL Despite Google's multibillion-dollar payments and Pichai's statement, Google's lawyers argued that being the default has limited value and that users will not stick around if they are dissatisfied.

John Schmidtlein, Google's lead lawyer, said Microsoft's success in becoming the default on some Verizon phones in 2008, and BlackBerry and Nokia devices in 2011, ended with users bypassing Bing and doing most of their searches on Google. GOOGLE DEFENSE NO. 3: OF COURSE WE INNOVATED!

Google's defense team brought witnesses to argue that the company wasn't a monopolist but in fact sought to innovate to improve search and protect users' privacy. For example, Jennifer Fitzpatrick, who is senior vice president for Core Systems and Experiences, testified about Google's security infrastructure and privacy practices.