A woman holds her smart phone which displays the Google home page, in this picture illustration taken February 24, 2016. The testimony came during the third week of a more than two-month trial in which the U.S. Justice Department is seeking to show that Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O) abused its monopoly of search and some search advertising. Alexander Austin, a former chief executive of Branch Metrics, said in meetings with Samsung, the Android phone maker was worried Branch's tools would cause conflict with Google. Specifically, Branch had to make sure that its searches remained within apps and never linked to the web. The government also called Anna Kartasheva, a Google executive, to ask her about emails that appeared to show Google was concerned about the presence of Branch Metrics software on smartphones.

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Persons: Eric Gaillard, Alexander Austin, Austin, Branch, Anna Kartasheva, Diane Bartz, Josie Kao Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Branch, U.S . Justice Department, Google, Samsung, Thomson