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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

#71

Post by pcwalton »

kentonv wrote: post #64

I feel like there's some implied assumption here that this change lets Google do something evil that they couldn't do before, but I don't really see what. If you're logged into Google properties (independent of browser), Google can already track you across most of the internet, via their Ads and Analytics embedded in a rather large percentage of web sites. If you don't want Google to track you on non-Google web sites…

Firefox has containers that allow you to effectively run multiple profiles at once.

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

#72

Post by codedokode »

I don't like that different Google services are linked together. It would be fine if Youtube would remember what videos I prefer, but I don't want Google to save my search phrases to the same account, don't want Google to know what sites I visit (using Google Adsense and Google Analytics that are present on most sites). That would be too much information and I don't want to share it with Google.

So when I need Gmail or Google Maps, I have to open it in a private window. Not very convenient, so I don't use them often.

By the way, if you use Chrome and haven't changed the default search engine from Google, then your browser pings Google every time you open a new tab. You can check it yourself with Developer Tools: a new tab page is loaded from Internet and it sends cookies. It can be fixed by creating and choosing as default a new search engine with Google's URL, but using other name (for example, Gogol instead of Google). Then Chrome will load its start page from disk, not from Internet.

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

#73

Post by [deleted] »

codetrotter wrote: post #55
user812 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

[deleted]

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

#74

Post by sbr464 »

sbr464 wrote: post #70

This update really broke a lot of things. There are a lot of services that rely on the first logged in google account. I used to log into chrome with a personal account, and log into gmail/etc first with my business account. That way, my bookmarks and history would stay with me personally, but things that I use a lot, work email/google cloud etc would open as default under the work account. One common issue is some s…

Also meaning you need to manage two piles of bookmarks, on new devices, add the second profile, go through 2factor login processes twice during setup etc. There doesn’t seem to be a central, personal identity any longer, separate from google services, which they didn’t really think through.

The thought of switching between two windows just to copy a bookmark or a note from another browser add on, seems crazy in 2018. You can’t have tabs from different chrome profiles in one window, which is understandable, but wasn’t really a concern before this change.

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

#75

Post by etaioinshrdlu »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #65

Is it possible to run Chrome in a sandbox on Linux? I no longer trust Google enough to run with regular permissions. I'm only using Chrome for testing web apps anyway, and haven't been using it for web surfing for almost three years now.

Chrome can run in Docker, I have tried it with Browserless which is the headless version -- but I see no reason why you can't run it with an X11 connection just the same.

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

#76

Post by kevingadd »

eightysixfour wrote: post #22
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.

Except battery, it is a battery destroyer unfortunately.

There's some potential for the new WebRender stack to improve battery life a lot - part of the reason why Edge is so good at saving battery is that it makes good use of modern GPUs to save power, and Firefox's new graphics stack is another modern one that attempts to avoid wasting CPU/GPU to do old-style rendering of web pages

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

#77

Post by LeoPanthera »

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…

Available in Homebrew Cask as "eloston-chromium"

(Though frankly, if you're using a Mac, Safari should be your browser of choice, if only for privacy reasons.)

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

#78

Post by JoshMnem »

kentonv wrote: post #64

I feel like there's some implied assumption here that this change lets Google do something evil that they couldn't do before, but I don't really see what. If you're logged into Google properties (independent of browser), Google can already track you across most of the internet, via their Ads and Analytics embedded in a rather large percentage of web sites. If you don't want Google to track you on non-Google web sites…

You can run multiple Firefox profiles at the same time, each with multiple containers.

For multiple profiles (for different combinations of browser extensions), I use this:

    alias ff='firefox -ProfileManager -no-remote &'

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

#79

Post by [deleted] »

sbr464 wrote: post #74
sbr464 wrote: post #70

This update really broke a lot of things. There are a lot of services that rely on the first logged in google account. I used to log into chrome with a personal account, and log into gmail/etc first with my business account. That way, my bookmarks and history would stay with me personally, but things that I use a lot, work email/google cloud etc would open as default under the work account. One common issue is some s…

Also meaning you need to manage two piles of bookmarks, on new devices, add the second profile, go through 2factor login processes twice during setup etc. There doesn’t seem to be a central, personal identity any longer, separate from google services, which they didn’t really think through. The thought of switching between two windows just to copy a bookmark or a note from another browser add on, seems crazy in 2018.…

[deleted]

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

#80

Post by amelius »

Jaruzel wrote: post #6

I am seriously considering rolling my own browser by embedding the Chromium Embedded Framework into my own GUI (or WebKit, or Gecko). A browser should just render pages (incl. JavaScript), and save cookies if you need it to. Beyond that, there's nothing else it needs to do. Round about Netscape 4 and IE6, browsers were functionally complete. Since then they've just been gilding the lily and creating an artificial 'fe…

> I am seriously considering rolling my own browser by embedding the Chromium Embedded Framework into my own GUI (or WebKit, or Gecko).

I admire the determination, but why not just use Firefox instead?

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