Grandpa Google? Tech giant begins antitrust defense by poking fun at its status among youth

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Google is beginning its defense against a federal lawsuit accusing it of illegally thwarting competition for its ubiquitous search engine. Thursday’s testimony came from a top executive who talked about the precarious nature of the company’s success. Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior vice president at Google, testified at federal court in Washington as the tech giant defends itself in the biggest antitrust trial in the last 25 years. He described Google as a company beset by competitors  and sometimes derided by younger people as “Grandpa Google.” The Justice Department accuses Google of using anticompetitive tactics to maintain dominance in internet search.