Live data from Hacker News

The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

wired.com

131–140 of 718 posts

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#131
post #99

> The Justice Department also kept a Biden-era proposal that seeks to ban Google from paying companies like Apple, other smartphone manufacturers and Mozilla to make its search engine the default on their phones and browsers. RIP Firefox?

If chrome is no longer owned by Google I'll use it. That's the reason I switched to firefox in the first place.

chrome no longer supports effective ad-blocking extensions.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#132
First I don't believe this is an effective remedy to break up a Google monopoly, but I have no influence on the DOJ.

I'm curious though, if Google can no longer pay browsers for search engine traffic what is the business model that will sustain development and advancement in the space?

How does a non Google owned Chrome support itself and continue development?

What happens to all the applications that rely on Chrome extensions?

As much as I dislike Google behavior, I don't see this as being a good thing.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#133

Google has to sell Chrome, a completely optional browser, and stop supporting Firefox, the best Chrome alternative, while Apple is allowed to completely lock down iOS without allowing installing alternatives to Safari, or any third party app stores. Not to mention that Apple for years exploited its dominant market position in the US by resisting messaging RCS Android compatibility, and pressuring teens into either bu…

Perhaps Apple is next?

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#134
If you look carefully at the Chromium project, it’s made up of teams that specialize in different components. The majority of the members of those teams are in turn Google employees. Presumably they have the best qualifications to be on those teams. I don’t see how a DOJ decision against Google would change any of that. Ban Google employees from participating in the project? And then who would replace them?

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox will be just fine. Mozilla CEO bonuses however...

This is complete nonsense. I don't love the CEO bonuses, but they are objectively less than half a percent of Mozilla's budget. Google search on the other hand is 85% of their revenue.

I think it's now at 1% $6.3M of $650M revenue which is a lot for a CEO failing to keep the company viable from a clearly obvious eventuality.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re still getting a friendlier NLRB, lower corporate tax rates, and an economic policy that is less focused on full employment; tamping down engineering wage growth

They already pivoted to hire offshore workers, so why would they care

Offshoring as the supposed death of the US software developer going on 40 years now remains greatly exaggerated.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#137

Google has to sell Chrome, a completely optional browser, and stop supporting Firefox, the best Chrome alternative, while Apple is allowed to completely lock down iOS without allowing installing alternatives to Safari, or any third party app stores. Not to mention that Apple for years exploited its dominant market position in the US by resisting messaging RCS Android compatibility, and pressuring teens into either bu…

Google is just incompetent at PR and legal. That is how Epic won against Google and lost against Apple, even though Android is far far more open than iOS.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#138
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either you need to service your computer or configure your Firefox. I went back to Firefox about 5 years ago and not even once missed Chrome since.

Why should the user need to do that? The browser should automatically configure itself for optimal performance on any reasonable hardware.

Firefox does, though. There really aren't these wild and crazy speed issues with it at all, even with fresh out of the box defaults.

The only time I've had to touch about:config in the last several years was due to some smartcard related bug caused by an external library, that forced me to tweak firefox's behaviour. Once that bug was resolved, I switched it back.

Firefox being slow is well into the self-perpetuating FUD territory.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#139

> The Justice Department also kept a Biden-era proposal that seeks to ban Google from paying companies like Apple, other smartphone manufacturers and Mozilla to make its search engine the default on their phones and browsers. RIP Firefox?

I recall it being claimed that Mozilla has the warchest to survive at typical spending levels for quite some time, without Google.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#140

Last time the DOJ declared a web browser monopoly, they lost the case on appeal, then the web browser does on its own. The problem isn't within Google. They aren't doing anything substantial to lock users into Chrome. The problem is unforced errors on the part of both Apple and Mozilla creating awful web browsers that aren't worth using.

Safari and Firefox are capable web browsers. Where do people get this outlandish take from?

Capable is a interesting word choice. Capable means something meets a bare minimum for success. A and B are great. C is fantastic. D is arguably first class. E is capable. When making a free choice, I want the best one, so any lackluster review feels like one of those southern backhanded compliments, getting the message across without insulting it in polite company. Capable perfectly describes my feelings towards Firefox and Safari.
Post reply on HN