Live data from Hacker News

Google Chrome's fear of Microsoft Edge is revealing its bad side

laptopmag.com

31–40 of 289 posts

Re: Google Chrome's fear of Microsoft Edge is revealing its bad side

#31

There are people using Microsoft Edge with Google Docs? What sort of logic puts one in this position?

You ARE aware that a world of users outside of tech exists, right?

I'm a user in tech who uses Edge with Google Docs. I don't use the offline feature, so to me, the user experience is no different than it was with Chrome.

Re: Google Chrome's fear of Microsoft Edge is revealing its bad side

#32
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty interesting article. > "Google Chrome ads started appearing next to Firefox search terms. Gmail & [Google] Docs started to experience selective performance issues and bugs on Firefox. Demo sites would falsely block Firefox as 'incompatible'," he said. > "All of this is stuff you're allowed to do to compete, of course. But we were still a search partner, so we'd say 'hey what gives?' And every time, they'd say,…

> Google Chrome ads started appearing next to Firefox search terms Why don't webdevs fight back and put "best viewed on Firefox" pop-ups on their pages (whenever the user is using Chrome).

Microsoft can and does do this now in retaliation, they own enough web properties that this makes a difference. Firefox doesn’t have a huge web presence though, nothing anywhere on par with Google advertising their browser in their search engine and email client.

Unfortunately, from my experience many third party web developers only test in Chrome, and hence actually encourage Chrome use even when there’s no incompatibility with Firefox or Edge.

Re: Google Chrome's fear of Microsoft Edge is revealing its bad side

#33

It was incredible to me how aggressively Microsoft came out supportive of the Chrome team and how loudly they discussed the wonderful amount of collaboration the two companies had been up to since starting work on the new Edge. I've seen Googlers responding to Edge developers about how they'll get some mishandling of Edge fixed internally at Google. But really, this is just the same story as before: The "oops" have b…

Pretty interesting article. > "Google Chrome ads started appearing next to Firefox search terms. Gmail & [Google] Docs started to experience selective performance issues and bugs on Firefox. Demo sites would falsely block Firefox as 'incompatible'," he said. > "All of this is stuff you're allowed to do to compete, of course. But we were still a search partner, so we'd say 'hey what gives?' And every time, they'd say,…

If you replace "friend" with "courtesan" or "prostitute" your analysis is correct.

Re: Google Chrome's fear of Microsoft Edge is revealing its bad side

#34
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty interesting article. > "Google Chrome ads started appearing next to Firefox search terms. Gmail & [Google] Docs started to experience selective performance issues and bugs on Firefox. Demo sites would falsely block Firefox as 'incompatible'," he said. > "All of this is stuff you're allowed to do to compete, of course. But we were still a search partner, so we'd say 'hey what gives?' And every time, they'd say,…

> Google Chrome ads started appearing next to Firefox search terms Why don't webdevs fight back and put "best viewed on Firefox" pop-ups on their pages (whenever the user is using Chrome).

I’ve started doing this. In the case of CCPA, GDPR disclosures and “do not track” requirements I suggest uninstalling Chrome and all Google software and switching to Firefox with proper as locking software enabled. I think Google is compliant with neither, and if a user is actually concerned about their privacy they definitely shouldn’t be using Chrome.

Re: Google Chrome's fear of Microsoft Edge is revealing its bad side

#35

If Google were truly behind open web standards then they would have nothing to fear and no need to promote one standards conforming browser (Chrome) over another (Edge, Firefox or whatever). This just shows that the ultimate desire of all these corporate backed browsers is some degree of vendor lock in, which is why they feel the need to advertise their browser when their competitor's is almost 99.9% identical in fun…

This is just not true... What Google is concerned about is decades of bad behavior by Microsoft. Prior to the last decade Microsoft used embrace, extend and extinguish very aggressively to take control over nearly 96% of the desktop market and web platform via IE6. It's only fair the same developers who worked on Netscape, IE, Mozilla and now Chrome should be a little concerned with the history and motivations of a company such as MS. There is a reason people refer to them as M$. All that said, I think the world has changed and IMO Edge migrating to Chromium rendering engine is a really great thing and most likely these fears are mis-placed since the incentives are more aligned for MS to want to benefit from the web platform with Azure and Bing driving more $$ to the company now days... So maybe MS can be aligned with Google and focus on a better web platform.

Re: Google Chrome's fear of Microsoft Edge is revealing its bad side

#36
post #5

They're probably just user agent sniffing for non-Chrome browsers. I see this plenty when using Firefox or Safari. That said I wonder if all the State and DoJ investigations about anti-competitive behavior will force Google to stop promoting their own browser on their properties.

The sad thing is when Google websites refuse to work on Edge Chromium. Switch your user agent to match Chrome's, you're all set.

Which websites?

Re: Google Chrome's fear of Microsoft Edge is revealing its bad side

#37
post #35

If Google were truly behind open web standards then they would have nothing to fear and no need to promote one standards conforming browser (Chrome) over another (Edge, Firefox or whatever). This just shows that the ultimate desire of all these corporate backed browsers is some degree of vendor lock in, which is why they feel the need to advertise their browser when their competitor's is almost 99.9% identical in fun…

This is just not true... What Google is concerned about is decades of bad behavior by Microsoft. Prior to the last decade Microsoft used embrace, extend and extinguish very aggressively to take control over nearly 96% of the desktop market and web platform via IE6. It's only fair the same developers who worked on Netscape, IE, Mozilla and now Chrome should be a little concerned with the history and motivations of a c…

If Google is only trying to stop the evil Microsoft empire why are they also trying to gently smother Firefox? It seems clear that Google wants to own the platform, which is perfectly understandable but doesn't fit in with the narrative of Google fighting to maintain the open standards of the Web.

Re: Google Chrome's fear of Microsoft Edge is revealing its bad side

#39

It was incredible to me how aggressively Microsoft came out supportive of the Chrome team and how loudly they discussed the wonderful amount of collaboration the two companies had been up to since starting work on the new Edge. I've seen Googlers responding to Edge developers about how they'll get some mishandling of Edge fixed internally at Google. But really, this is just the same story as before: The "oops" have b…

Pretty interesting article. > "Google Chrome ads started appearing next to Firefox search terms. Gmail & [Google] Docs started to experience selective performance issues and bugs on Firefox. Demo sites would falsely block Firefox as 'incompatible'," he said. > "All of this is stuff you're allowed to do to compete, of course. But we were still a search partner, so we'd say 'hey what gives?' And every time, they'd say,…

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Re: Google Chrome's fear of Microsoft Edge is revealing its bad side

#40

It was incredible to me how aggressively Microsoft came out supportive of the Chrome team and how loudly they discussed the wonderful amount of collaboration the two companies had been up to since starting work on the new Edge. I've seen Googlers responding to Edge developers about how they'll get some mishandling of Edge fixed internally at Google. But really, this is just the same story as before: The "oops" have b…

If you're ever wondering how much data Chrome sucks out of you, the amount of effort Google goes through to try to keep people from using even Chrome-Edge, let alone Firefox, should give you a rough idea.

Microsoft probably won't be much better though in the long run...

Post reply on HN