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DOJ will push Google to sell off Chrome

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Re: DOJ will push Google to sell off Chrome

#611

Post by fidotron »

One of the hidden costs of Chrome on society is it supports radically ramping up the complexity of web specifications in order to extend the moat around it. It is one of the most extraordinary software engineering projects ever done, with multiple components each of which are game changers. (ANGLE, v8 and libwebrtc immediately come to mind). It is no accident Rust spun out of an effort to compete with this complexity explosion without having infinite financial resources.

Personally I would prioritize spinning off Android though, and partly pragmatically since at least that would have a clear revenue stream. Maybe the Chrome App Store will experience a sudden surge in importance. A degoogled Chrome OS could almost start to look better than the direction Windows is going in.

Re: DOJ will push Google to sell off Chrome

#613

Post by bradleyjg »

moody__ wrote: post #525

A lot of discussion in this thread is pointing out that chromium is a thing and that it would be hard for a company to properly fund a web browser without the backing of a tech giant whose more direct revenue stream is elsewhere. I think this showcases a larger issue with the web as it stands today. Why has building a browser for the "open web" become such a complex piece of software that it requires the graces of a…

Can nothing be done to the web to lower the barrier to entry such that an independent group (a la OpenBSD or similar) can maintain their own?

Sure, we can have the original web with text and the occasional embedded photo. But if you want what amounts to a full blown operating system, with a rock solid sandbox, plus an extremely performant virtual machine, that’s going to be a high bar.

Re: DOJ will push Google to sell off Chrome

#614

Post by postepowanieadm »

niutech wrote: post #593
postepowanieadm wrote: post #524

Taking into account all the noise the EU is making about Internet, privacy, digital laws it's mind-bending that there is no the EU WebBrowser. There is Opera, there are original KHTML/Webkit creators - just use them and make an engine that's not adverts powered.

There are many EU web browsers: https://fosstodon.org/@niutech/113285649386968003

Like sponsored and controlled by the EU, the organization.

Re: DOJ will push Google to sell off Chrome

#615

Post by snapcaster »

madeofpalk wrote: post #601
rkharsan64 wrote: post #510

People here seem to be underestimating the advantages that Google gets just because of Chrome: - When you sign in to Google, you sign in browser-wide. Google now gets all of your browsing data, perfect for advertising. (If you ever doubt it, go check out Google Takeout. You'll be shocked at the amount of data you see there.) - They have special APIs and features that they get to use, and nobody else. Only because the…

I don't disagree, but I'm also not sure what the alternative is. Who's going to buy Chrome that also doesn't suffer from the same anti-trust problems? Who would want to buy Chrome? Who would want to fund Chrome? What browser would Android ship? In one view I kind of like the idea that Google would have to shop around and 'buy' a browser for its OS (competition good!), but also that seems ridiculous and easy to fall r…

Open source browsers already exist though

Re: DOJ will push Google to sell off Chrome

#616

Post by lofaszvanitt »

homebrewer wrote: post #585
lofaszvanitt wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Browsers should be developed by an intercountry nonprofit. Funded by all the countries' governments.

You might have missed recent news about Linux maintainers being kicked off for reasons having nothing to do with Linux. This will not work across "political borders" because psychologically we're all still cavemen in need of a tribe to stick to, and a group of "them" to hate on.

That is your assumption.

Re: DOJ will push Google to sell off Chrome

#617

Post by BeefySwain »

pjc50 wrote: post #548
rkharsan64 wrote: post #510

People here seem to be underestimating the advantages that Google gets just because of Chrome: - When you sign in to Google, you sign in browser-wide. Google now gets all of your browsing data, perfect for advertising. (If you ever doubt it, go check out Google Takeout. You'll be shocked at the amount of data you see there.) - They have special APIs and features that they get to use, and nobody else. Only because the…

The problem is this: - the browser is undeniably critical as everyone's window through which they view the online world; - the user gains a huge amount of value by a browser being integrated into the OS, webviews in other applications, etc - browsers aren't really a self funding product - having a single for-profit US advertising company control everyone's view of the online world, however slightly (e.g. by obstructi…

> browsers aren't really a self funding product

Yeah... Because massive companies use them anti-competitively as a moat against other companies, and as a loss leader to enable massive data collection and vendor lock in.

"browsers aren't really a self funding product" is a symptom of dysfunction, not the inevitable conclusion of a fair market.

Re: DOJ will push Google to sell off Chrome

#618

Post by cloudking »

winterbloom wrote: post #47
curiouscat321 wrote: post #5

Who would possibly buy Chrome? Letting any of the large tech companies purchase it (the only possible buyers) would just give someone else monopolistic power. Chrome can’t exist as a standalone business without being even more consumer hostile.

How would they even sell it, chrome is based off of chromium. What is there to sell exactly? You can already fork chromium

Good question. Chrome itself isn't a standalone business, the money generated through Chrome still primarily comes from Ads. The hardware tied to Chromebooks generates some revenue, but even ChromeOS is essentially free. They generate a tiny amount of revenue selling ChromeOS management tools in Workspace. Why not spin off an actual revenue driver like YouTube?

Re: DOJ will push Google to sell off Chrome

#619

Post by finnthehuman »

SpEd3Y wrote: post #417

Arguably out of the big 4 (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon) Google gave the most back to humanity: Android, Chromium, Kubernetes, Google Office suite, the Go programming language, Tensor Flow, Alpha Fold (and Google DeepMind), donating to Linux, etc. All these are things everyone has access to precisely because Google is such a big player and can afford to lose money on innovation that fails. What did Microsoft and…

I find selling product for money more honorable than buying indulgences with open source.

Re: DOJ will push Google to sell off Chrome

#620

Post by FergusArgyll »

hk__2 wrote: post #502
afh1 wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no monopoly. There are a lot of other browsers. A lot of people use them. Most people use one of them. They chose to do it. If you ask them, they think it's good. But no. There is a monopoly. It is bad for you. Only we the State can save you from it. A lie repeated a thousand times becomes truth.

> There is no monopoly. There are a lot of other browsers. A lot of people use them. There is market dominance: Chrome has 65%, Safari has 18% but that’s because of iOS, and the few others have the rest. It’s false to say there are "a lot" of other browsers when nobody can enter the space anymore. > They chose to do it. If you ask them, they think it's good. Most people don’t choose their browser, they just take what…

Edge comes pre-installed on Windows and it sucks so no one uses it.

In fact, windows keeps on making it the default for many file extensions and still no one uses it

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