A novel experiment suggests that Google’s monopoly can be tamed with habit-altering tactics. Government authorities are listening.

Google confronts an existential threat Monday as the U.S. government tries to break up the company as punishment for turning its revolutionary search engine into a ruthless monopoly. The drama will unfold in a Washington courtroom during the next three weeks during hearings that will determine how the company should be penalized for operating an illegal monopoly in search.

A federal judge will ultimately determine Google's fate after he ruled that the tech giant holds an illegal online search monopoly.