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Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

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Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#111
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ease with which a total newcomer was able to steal share from Google is real-world evidence that there wasn't really a monopoly and that Google competitors (Bing, etc.) just sucked and didn't want to spend the money to be better.

Well, courts disagree with your assessment and so do I. Yes, AI is a threat to Google. How much a threat remains to be seen. From normies I know, most of them are just using Gemini or whatever is on Google front page. They are not starting most of their searches on OpenAI or other ones.

ChatGPT feels like it's in a lot of day to day conversations these days, you even hear people mention it on the street in non tech cities

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#112
post #85

From the ruling: > Google will have to make available to Qualified Competitors certain search index and user-interaction data, though not ads data, as such sharing will ... The court, however, has narrowed the datasets Google will be required to share to tailor the remedy to its anticompetitive conduct. I don't like the sound of that. > Google will not be required to share granular, query-level data with advertisers…

What's shady about DuckDuckGo?

And specifically, are they any worse than google or bing?

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it’s a legitimate concern. Google is bleeding so hard right now from Gen Z and especially Gen Alpha deciding to use ChatGPT first and foremost when asking questions that Google would’ve answered previously. Whether or not that means they should keep Chrome as a product is up for debate.

>Google is bleeding so hard right now from Gen Z and especially Gen Alpha deciding to use ChatGPT Is this an evidence based claim? From the Q2 2025 numbers Google saw double digit revenue growth YoY for search. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/23/google-expec...

I wonder how much of that 12% is due to USD tanking 10%

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#114
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if you can ask AI to "add some typos and grammatical mistakes, and don't use emdashes"

I just fed this to Claude >write me two paragraphs about how AI has grown in 2025. include a few typos to make it appear as if a human wrote them. its response: I can't write content with intentional typos to make it appear human-written, as this could be misleading about the source of the content. However, I'd be happy to write you two informative paragraphs about AI's growth in 2025!

Ha ha, I just tried this with Gemini, with the prompt to "include a few typos in the writing." The first time didn't include any typos that jumped out at me, so I asked it where they were. Its response:

"My apologies, the previous response did not contain any intentional typos. The original user request was to include a few typos in the writing, but I failed to do so. The text was edited to correct any accidental errors before being sent. I will be sure to meet the specific requirements of the prompt in the future."

So I said, "Redo the request, but this time show me the typos you include."

And it rewrote the paragraphs, with a message at the end:

"The typos included were:

"investmen" instead of "investment"

"financ" instead of "finance"

"regulashions" instead of "regulations""

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#115

This is great news. Chrome is the most sophisticated and awesome software ever built, next to Linux. It leads and drives web innovation. Don’t get me wrong - my main drive is Firefox but googles investment in Chrome benefits every single player in the internet.

Not a popular opinion around these parts. But I still cherish the feeling of witnessing something incredible happening in front of my eyes when Chrome was launched. It felt a thousand times better than the status quo. It still feels in some aspects but the wow factor has diminished since then.

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#116

This is an astonishing victory for Google, they must be very happy about it. They get basically everything they want (keeping it all in the tent), plus a negotiating position on search deals where they can refuse something because they can't do it now. Quite why the judge is so concerned about the rise of AI factoring in here is beyond me. It's fundamentally an anticompetitive decision.

Feels like judge was looking for any excuse not to apply harsh penalty and since Google brought up AI as competitor, the judge accepted it as acceptable excuse for very minor penalty.

AI is a competitor. You know how StackOverflow is dead because AI provided an alternative? That's happening in search too.

You might think "but ChatGPT isn't a search engine", and that's true. It can't handle all queries you might use a search engine for, e.g. if you want to find a particular website. But there are many many queries that it can handle. Here's just a few from my recent history:

* How do I load a shared library and call a function from it with VCS? [Kind of surprising it got the answer to this given how locked down the documentation is.]

* In a PAM config what do they keywords auth, account, password, session, and also required/sufficient mean?

* What do you call the thing that car roof bars attach to? The thing that goes front to back?

* How do I right-pad a string with spaces using printf?

These are all things I would have gone to Google for before, but ChatGPT gives a better overall experience now.

Yes, overall, because while it bullshits sometimes, it also cuts to the chase a lot more. And no ads for now! (Btw, someone gave me the hint to set its personality mode to "Robot", and that really helps make it less annoying!)

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#117
post #77

This is an astonishing victory for Google, they must be very happy about it. They get basically everything they want (keeping it all in the tent), plus a negotiating position on search deals where they can refuse something because they can't do it now. Quite why the judge is so concerned about the rise of AI factoring in here is beyond me. It's fundamentally an anticompetitive decision.

From an outsider POV (holding Alphabet stock!): The US legal system seems quite broken.

It is. Enforcement is incredibly slow (all of the monopolies Google has been ruled against for were obvious in 2014, with appeals they will not face penalties until at least 2030 for most of it), and we have a dictator running the country who will create or erase any case with the right amount of fealty payments. (Google's million to the inauguration fund just... wasn't enough.)

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#118

By the way, a pet peeve of mine right now is that reporters covering court cases (and we have so many of public interest lately) never seem to simply paste the link to the online PDF decision/ruling for us all to read, right in the story. (and another user here kindly did that for us below: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.223... ) It seems such a simple step (they must have been using the rul…

> reporters covering court cases (and we have so many of public interest lately) never seem to simply paste the link to the online PDF

Would note that this significantly varies based on whether it's ad-driven or subscription-based/paywalled. The former has no incentive to let you leave. The latter is trying to retain your business.

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the overall well-being of a society is supposedly more important than a few shareholders' wealth?

Do you know of any societies in the world that have a high quality of life but don’t have wealthy shareholders?

They're not mutually exclusive? Especially with antitrust, where the whole point is to enable a healthier marketplace such that all shareholders of Google's competitors can also benefit (not to mention users).

It's not that high-QoL societies cannot have shareholders, it's that the stock market shouldn't take precedence over laws and regulations and anti-trust enforcement.

Re: Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts

#120

The BBC is reporting the exact opposite of this headline. "It's also free to keep making payments to partners such as Apple, to secure placement of its browser - another closely watched and contentious part of the case." https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cg50dlj9gm4t Edit: Even the CNBC body text contradicts its own headline. The confusion seems to be what "exclusive" means. "The company can make payments to preload prod…

I don't see the contradiction "paying partners to secure browser placement" =/ "exclusivity." This just means you can have partner deals, but that they can't be exclusive, right?

But in that case the remedy is ... nothing?
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