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The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

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Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#211

Post by kylehotchkiss »

nashashmi wrote: post #156

Keep Google Chrome. Separate search. Sell it to private equity. (I bet DoJ didn’t think about that whammy.) And start charging for everything else out there like maps, street view, and browser. And buy cloudflare while at it. Push themselves into everything related to connectivity and internet properties. The search business is the cash flow that is being a thorn in the side of Google. And it doesn’t even make sense…

Cloudflare has been a continual breath of fresh air compared to Google Cloud and AWS. Please oh please don’t suggest selling it to google to let it atrophy its way to the graveyard

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#212

Post by delfinom »

dehrmann wrote: post #206

Who would even buy Chrome? No one's building new browsers, and MS even walked away from the browser game. Mozilla and Firefox haven't been relevant for a decade. The only buyer I can see is private equity, and that's sort of the big boy version of buying an abandoned browser plugin so it can track you and show more ads.

[flagged]

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#213

Post by delfinom »

manquer wrote: post #118
qwerty456127 wrote: post #84

> 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?

It will hurt but it won’t be their death. They have been saving up a bit last year if you see the financial reports their reserves are just above $1B now and there are others who paid in the past (like Yahoo did till 2017) who will pay Firefox a decent amount if not like Google does . My guess it is likely be Bing or probably a new generation AI company like OpenAI who will replace Google and perhaps even pay similar…

They can start by reducing their CEO salary from check notes $6.9 million in 2022. It increased by millions in just a decade while their market share declined and they layed off hundreds.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#215

Post by stefan_ »

loeg wrote: post #195
crote wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same way it worked in the past with monopolies like Ma Bell? Those teams can keep working on Chrome, they'll just have to fall under some new kind of separate Chrome Inc. structure instead of under Google Inc., and Google will have to sell most of its shares of Chrome Inc. to third parties. Splitting off Chrome really isn't the problem. Making the new Chrome Inc. profitable without accepting bribes from big tech, on…

Yes, that's sort of the problem. An independent Chrome probably wouldn't be profitable. This is essentially just forcing Google to fire the Chrome developers.

I love how people in this thread just unilaterally declare and accept as fact that you can't possibly turn the monopolistic browser and browser engine powering millions of devices and with billions of users into a profitable business. Aim low I guess?

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#216

Post by tiberious726 »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #106
jcfrei wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In my opinion Firefox is better in all the ways except speed - Chrome still feels faster on old computers. And I prefer the browser market to still have some technical diversity no matter who actually runs it.

Eh, I tried using Firefox again for a few months when manifest v3 was announced, nothing worked quite right, then I ran into this: https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/firefox-chromium.ht...

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#217

Post by ImJamal »

thrance wrote: post #203
loeg wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans marginally benefit from American owned monopolies over Chinese owned monopolies.

How so? They pay almost no taxes, they capture a huge share of the market, they stifle innovation, they regularly engage in anti-user practices... The bottom 90% is owning an ever smaller share of the economy, while the real economy doesn't seem to grow that much.

If a Chinese company has a monopoly you get All those things, minus the US jobs.

It seems like you are comparing small companies vs large companies, rather than US vs Chinese.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#218

Post by rafram »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #165
theptip wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we are not discussing Chromium. Google’s browser is Chrome, and that product has search exclusivity deals that have been deemed monopolistic. Google could divest the Chrome product and keep contributing to Chromium, but the value proposition is really unclear when that OSS investment doesn’t buy you billions of dollars of browser lock-in value.

Thus why the Linux Foundation is gunning for Chromium. (When do we rename the Linux Foundation? Only 3.2% of their revenue goes to Linux development these days...) https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-foundation-annou... https://www.linuxfoundation.org/supporters-of-chromium-based...

> Several leading organizations have already pledged their support for the initiative, including Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Opera.

Doesn't read like a takeover attempt to me...

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#219

Post by MyOutfitIsVague »

3vidence wrote: post #70

(Googler opinions are my own, don't work on chrome) Chrome has just been a better product for the last 10 to 15 years. Every other company has just failed to make a good browser because they lack the incentives to do so (have gone back and forth as a Firefox user). The only competitive browsers are those already built on chrome or safari. I'm not personally a big fan of Safari but it's bigger issue is that it is only…

> But just survey the actual browser market in the last 10 years to understand Chrome's dominance

I feel like most people here wouldn't understand that to inherently indicate superior quality. I'd argue that the absolute dominance of Chrome is mostly evidence of the monopoly power that Google yields. It got on top via search, becomes the gateway to the web for people, leverages that to sell advertisement and also convince tons of people to use the browser. It's been all leverage.

I'd also disagree on it even being a better browser. Firefox has issues, but on actual usability and feeling like a user agent, it's head and shoulders above Chrome. It is more flexible, more customizable, and I find that it runs significantly better on every website that isn't owned by Google. If Chrome was a better browser, they wouldn't have had to sabotage Firefox on their sites for years (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38349357).

It's Google that can't compete, if they have to use back-channels and leverage their other powers to maintain dominance. They aren't competing with the product alone.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#220

Post by thrance »

ImJamal wrote: post #217
thrance wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? They pay almost no taxes, they capture a huge share of the market, they stifle innovation, they regularly engage in anti-user practices... The bottom 90% is owning an ever smaller share of the economy, while the real economy doesn't seem to grow that much.

If a Chinese company has a monopoly you get All those things, minus the US jobs. It seems like you are comparing small companies vs large companies, rather than US vs Chinese.

Ok, well in that case, sure. But the alternative to US monopoly is not automatically Chinese monopoly. No one was advocating for the destruction of Google in favor of Baidu or whatever.
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