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Chrome is a Google Service that happens to include a Browser Engine

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Re: Chrome is a Google Service that happens to include a Browser Engine

#51

Post by Teknoman117 »

mehrdadn wrote: post #47
mooreed wrote: post #15

Chromium Ungoogled repo [1] made it to the `top30` some days ago. I too have switched back to Firefox with the release of Quantum and have been very pleased. Frankly, I am amazed every day that Ungoogled Chromium, Firefox, & DDG.co are as good as they are. (aka: slightly inferior to Google regarding product polish, but truly "good enough" 98% of the time - without selling my future data down the drain) (edited: to fi…

Do you not encounter problems with video codecs when using Chromium?

Do you have any sites specifically that were causing you problems? I've not run into any issues myself with flash sites, netflix, amazon, hulu, etc.

That being said, I use the gentoo chromium package that builds chromium from source and rips the codecs out of the binary chrome release.

Re: Chrome is a Google Service that happens to include a Browser Engine

#52

Post by mehrdadn »

Teknoman117 wrote: post #51
mehrdadn wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not encounter problems with video codecs when using Chromium?

Do you have any sites specifically that were causing you problems? I've not run into any issues myself with flash sites, netflix, amazon, hulu, etc. That being said, I use the gentoo chromium package that builds chromium from source and rips the codecs out of the binary chrome release.

No, I was asking to figure out if I should switch! When I look up their differences this is what I see, which makes me hesitant, so I'm wondering if it's an actual problem or not.

Re: Chrome is a Google Service that happens to include a Browser Engine

#53

Post by koolba »

Yokohiii wrote: post #33
nindalf wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rate Firefox pretty highly since Quantum released. It's fast, polished and in my unscientific testing, consumes less resources.

I switched to FF mobile few weeks ago and I am very pleased. FF desktop however turned me away because it felt quite laggy.

Have you tried it after the quantum engine change? It’s insanely faster than before.

Re: Chrome is a Google Service that happens to include a Browser Engine

#54

Post by mathnmusic »

buro9 wrote: post #32

Many years ago I shared that I browse across several browsers, separating usage depending on the site I am visiting. + Gmail, Drive, Google Calendar = Chrome + Sites I trust = Firefox + Sites I do not know or trust = Firefox Private browsing (or Firefox Focus on Android) This involves cautiously copying links from browser to browser, and if I make a mistake I have a scorched Earth policy of the history and cookies. T…

There should be browser extensions that let us compartmentalize sites in different browsers.

Re: Chrome is a Google Service that happens to include a Browser Engine

#55

Post by codetrotter »

user812 wrote: post #49
dredmorbius wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sources on any of this?

"With a smarter Chrome, you will be able to do more than just look at a webpage. Imagine searching on Chrome for a singer you just heard, and having Chrome show you not just their bio, but also their upcoming concert near you and where to purchase tickets. With AI, Chrome will also better understand what you’re trying to get done, and help you do so faster. Vacation planning typically requires juggling multiple tabs…

Nice, this is actually exactly the sort of thing I’ve been wishing for. Except for the part where Google gets to collect all of our data. But that is a temporary problem I think. Eventually these sorts of things will be available to us as completely open source and self-hosted software.

Re: Chrome is a Google Service that happens to include a Browser Engine

#56

Post by crazygringo »

I had an instinctual gut reaction against this, because it really does feel like it crosses a line between browser and content that shouldn't be crossed.

BUT -- I know a lot of regular (non-technical) users who are terrified of logging into shared/public computers with their Google accounts, because they can't tell the difference between logging in/out of Gmail and logging in/out of Chrome, and they've experienced/heard horror stories of people leaving one logged in when they log out of the other.

I just tried it, and logging out of my Gmail also clearly logs me out of my Chrome (with a big message), which feels like a big win for peace of mind for most users.

So as much as it bothers me as a "power user"... I actually think this is a big improvement in conceptual simplicity for the average user. (And power users can figure out how to use multiple profiles for multiple Google accounts.)

There was a story [1] here just a few days ago where the culprit seemed to be that Chrome Sync had been set up with the daughter's EDU account and it was saving passwords for the parent's banking account, and presumably this will help avoid that kind of mix-up.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18023737

Re: Chrome is a Google Service that happens to include a Browser Engine

#57

Post by [deleted] »

Karunamon wrote: post #34
JoshMnem wrote: post #23

> [googlers] were wondering why the new behaviour might feel abusive to some people. That says something about how out of touch Google is at the moment.

I daresay this comment might apply more to us than to Google. To 99% of people, these features are useful and helpful, with the downsides being mostly philosophical or theoretical.

[deleted]

Re: Chrome is a Google Service that happens to include a Browser Engine

#58

Post by mthoms »

mathnmusic wrote: post #54
buro9 wrote: post #32

Many years ago I shared that I browse across several browsers, separating usage depending on the site I am visiting. + Gmail, Drive, Google Calendar = Chrome + Sites I trust = Firefox + Sites I do not know or trust = Firefox Private browsing (or Firefox Focus on Android) This involves cautiously copying links from browser to browser, and if I make a mistake I have a scorched Earth policy of the history and cookies. T…

There should be browser extensions that let us compartmentalize sites in different browsers.

Have you seen Firefox containers? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account...

Re: Chrome is a Google Service that happens to include a Browser Engine

#59

Post by JoshMnem »

Karunamon wrote: post #34
JoshMnem wrote: post #23

> [googlers] were wondering why the new behaviour might feel abusive to some people. That says something about how out of touch Google is at the moment.

I daresay this comment might apply more to us than to Google. To 99% of people, these features are useful and helpful, with the downsides being mostly philosophical or theoretical.

Taking away choices, privacy, and freedom is not a theoretical problem. Most users would not consent to it if they fully understood it.

Re: Chrome is a Google Service that happens to include a Browser Engine

#60

Post by mthoms »

user812 wrote: post #46
gondo wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did Google really defeated Apple on iOS devices?

When I think about it, no. People make the decision between different ecosystems, and Apple and Google are the biggest. Apple has a tight control over Safari on iOS. Safari has been defeated on Desktop though.

I disagree. Safari way outperforms Chrome on MacOS while using considerably less battery.

I know, it's behind on some features/standards though.

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