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The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

wired.com

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Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#11

Post by lolinder »

To try to stem the tide of "Trump will just make this go away because ${corruption}", I want to remind everyone of a few things:

* This is not a Biden-admin lawsuit. It was launched by the first Trump admin.

* Of the 14 co-plaintiffs, only 1 (CA) is a state that didn't vote for Trump in 2024. The Colorado Plaintiff States include another 16 red states, for a total of 29 red states represented.

As much as it's trendy in 2025 to talk about this admin as though it's entirely unprincipled, it's actually been doing exactly what it said it would do to satisfy its base. This lawsuit was started by them in the first place and if the list of Attorneys General is anything to go by has overwhelming support from the base that Trump is acting to satisfy. Google's not getting out of this from just a small amount of kowtowing now, it's far too late for that.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#14

Post by awnird »

lolinder wrote: post #11

To try to stem the tide of "Trump will just make this go away because ${corruption}", I want to remind everyone of a few things: * This is not a Biden-admin lawsuit. It was launched by the first Trump admin. * Of the 14 co-plaintiffs, only 1 (CA) is a state that didn't vote for Trump in 2024. The Colorado Plaintiff States include another 16 red states, for a total of 29 red states represented. As much as it's trendy…

The tiktok ban was the same way, until it wasn't. Remarkable that people are still falling for this.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#15

Post by keepamovin »

lolinder wrote: post #11

To try to stem the tide of "Trump will just make this go away because ${corruption}", I want to remind everyone of a few things: * This is not a Biden-admin lawsuit. It was launched by the first Trump admin. * Of the 14 co-plaintiffs, only 1 (CA) is a state that didn't vote for Trump in 2024. The Colorado Plaintiff States include another 16 red states, for a total of 29 red states represented. As much as it's trendy…

At the risk of smoting from the Google Gods ( I should be careful, I make a product that depends on their browser ), I think the best thing that should happen to Chrome, if it's going to be sold off - is it becomes a "public utility" and basically is a model for actually publicly stewarded open development. Like maybe what the Mozilla Foundation should have been, like what many actual C-based open source OS projects seems to be (tho I'm no expert).

Why? Because it's essentially the defacto way/portal/thing to access to the biggest source of information humanity has: the web.

It's too big and important for any 1 company - tho saying that, I'm okay with Windows being owned by Microsoft which is (was) basically the same thing in a way.

My unsolicited advice to Google: sacrifice it, focus on AI. To all the people on the Chrome team? They should be financially taken care of, and should be part of the foundation that develops it if they want. The foundation should not be controlled by Alphabet, but should be truly public.

This is all probably too vague and unspecified for you lot...but it is just an idea.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#16

Post by lolinder »

awnird wrote: post #14
lolinder wrote: post #11

To try to stem the tide of "Trump will just make this go away because ${corruption}", I want to remind everyone of a few things: * This is not a Biden-admin lawsuit. It was launched by the first Trump admin. * Of the 14 co-plaintiffs, only 1 (CA) is a state that didn't vote for Trump in 2024. The Colorado Plaintiff States include another 16 red states, for a total of 29 red states represented. As much as it's trendy…

The tiktok ban was the same way, until it wasn't. Remarkable that people are still falling for this.

The TikTok ban was overwhelmingly unpopular among several important demographics and undoing the ban formed a part of Trump's 2024 campaign. His decisions with TikTok this year were a reversal from 2020 but entirely expected based on his 2024 campaign, so that's not a valid comparison.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#17

Post by scarface_74 »

This is the absolutely dumbest thing that I have read. Who would buy Chrome and why? If you just want the codebase, you have Chromium. Chrome only monetizes because of ads.

Then what happens to Chromebooks? Can Google no longer ship a browser with Android?

Besides, unless you have an Android - which is only 30% of the US market or a Chromebook, everyone who uses Chrome went through the process of downloading it and made a purposeful choice to use it

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#20

Post by scarface_74 »

newsclues wrote: post #7

I don't care that Google, Apple or Microsoft have their own browser. Especially not when there are other third party browsers. Wouldn't say no to a government funded one that was secure and tested with government services. There are some issues with the big tech giants that is likely harmful to consumers and the industry, and I'd welcome anti-trust investigations into all of them, but I feel like minor issues like br…

> third party browsers. Wouldn't say no to a government funded one that was secure and tested with government services.

Yes because the government is so well run with competent people waiting in line to join it in the era of DOGE?

Do you think that a web browser would be free of politics?

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