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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

#271

Post by dehugger »

swat535 wrote: post #266
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.

My question is, even if they do sell off Chrome, wouldn't Google just create another "Chrome" using the Chromium and use its monopolistic power to push it on everyone? What am I missing here? It doesn't sound like this would solve the issue..

Presumably part of the court order is that they can't just do the same thing again without suffering the same (or worse) consequences.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#273

Post by nuker »

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…

> Keep Google Chrome. Separate search. Sell it to private equity.

This. If Search + Google Ads is independent from Android + Chrome + Gmail, it will choke the user-data flow that Google Ads platform is feeding on. This opens doors to new competing search engines!

Android + Chrome + Gmail needs to be bundled with hardware purchases, like Apple does with Safari + iCloud. This will create incentive to make them actually privacy focused, and could be its selling point. No need to feed Google Ads with data anymore!

Yeah, dreaming.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#274

Post by surajrmal »

maxclark wrote: post #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…

Get ready for having your data sold to everyone. Rather than just a few major players having access, anyone willing to pay will get the raw data rather than something obfuscated through an ads platform.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#275

Post by loeg »

bobthepanda wrote: post #227
loeg wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It’s not clear that Chinese owned monopolies are any good at breaking out. They seem to suffer from the same problem as Japan where their market is so unique and insular that a lot of products do not carry over all that well. WeChat, for example, is the end all be all megaplatform in China but never took off with any Western consumers simply because they’re uninterested.

Alibaba and ByteDance have both successfully broken out.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#276

Post by asadotzler »

swat535 wrote: post #266
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.

My question is, even if they do sell off Chrome, wouldn't Google just create another "Chrome" using the Chromium and use its monopolistic power to push it on everyone? What am I missing here? It doesn't sound like this would solve the issue..

Are you assuming the people crafting remedies haven't thought of this? You should tell them immediately!!! LOL. of course they've thought through that and will have a "you can't just rebuild it" clause in the remedy. This isn't hard unless you're trying to make it hard and I'm not sure why anyone would want to do that except to side with Big Tech over consumers trying to muddy the waters and convince others it's all just too darned hard to do anything about so we should let our betters in Big Tech continue dictating our lives.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#277

Post by relaxing »

jfengel wrote: post #161
relaxing wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And I still don't understand why. I expected it when I started my career, and here nearing the end it's still really rare. And it should have gotten easier in that time, what with the Internet. Time zones and culture and language and all that, I suppose. But the world is full of very smart people who have a decent grasp of American and European culture, and would work for a tenth the price.

It’s hard enough to get developers to build what you want when they’re sitting one cubicle over.

> But the world is full of very smart people who have a decent grasp of American and European culture

Haha no. And maybe even more importantly, the Americans have zero grasp of theirs.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#278

Post by asadotzler »

mattlondon wrote: post #241
stefan_ wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

So please enlighten us, how will someone make money from the free product that is free and no one pays for because it is free? Selling user browser data obviously won't fly (and note that Google has never explicitly nor directly sold user's browsing data as far as I know, but they do have a huge ad network that utilises cookies...), so what's the plan? Put ads in the browser? "Premium" features? The only thing I can…

Why won't selling data fly?

Why not sell premium features?

Why not add affiliate codes to links?

Why not sell ads on new tab pages?

All of these are fine examples of how a not-Google Chrome could make money. They could even get paid by Microsoft or some other not-Google search for that traffic.

This isn't hard unless you're trying to make it hard to convince us all we should just give up and let Google continue running our online lives through monopolization.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#279

Post by asadotzler »

loeg wrote: post #225
Clubber wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is essentially just forcing Google to fire the Chrome developers. To be fair, Google could reassign them to something else. Firing everybody will be Google's decision that wasn't forced on them.

I don't really know if they would be allowed to divest the IP but retain the developers. Maybe!

Of course they could. They could just cancel Chrome, shut the whole browser down and reassign all the staff, and the DOJ would be fine with that. Cancelling it, or selling while keeping 100% of the employees are in no way counter to the proposed remedies.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#280

Post by AJ007 »

surajrmal wrote: post #274
maxclark wrote: post #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…

Get ready for having your data sold to everyone. Rather than just a few major players having access, anyone willing to pay will get the raw data rather than something obfuscated through an ads platform.

There are companies who have actually done this, like the whole Avast Jumpshot debacle. They aren't the only ones.
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