31–40 of 137 posts
Why would they build their own browser from scratch? That would be dumb without a significantly compelling reason. The author of this post reminds me of one of those guys who writes an entirely new game engine instead of using an off the shelf product and ends up never completing the game..
To be sure, a browser that retains a representation of every word you read on it, constantly synthesizing a profile on your preferences, using that profile to filter everything you see through a lens that consistently enforces and limits the worldview of a snapshot-of-you - all with a level of data retention that would be controversial for Google but that OpenAI's users will happily opt into, that Palantir and its go…
I am not sure if this is happening, but as blocking becomes more prevalent, having a widely-used browser will help.
So, Atlas, Comet, Edge, Dia, Brave, Opera, etc are all Chromium. And any browser on iOS uses the safari engine under the hood? Looks like we are down to two browsers.
Most of what most people do, who sit 8h a day in front of a computer, is in the browser. So I see where this product idea is coming from...
I would like to think that the "real" solution is strong web protocols and interoperability, And perhaps even something like an explicit anti-platform ethos. As it stands it seems like the strategy of being a platform is to outrace protocols in terms of offering new capabilities. But it would at least be nice if protocols are close enough behind that they're effectively a "safety net", or the equivalent of generic drugs, that everyone can fall back to.
Why would they build their own browser from scratch? That would be dumb without a significantly compelling reason. The author of this post reminds me of one of those guys who writes an entirely new game engine instead of using an off the shelf product and ends up never completing the game..
Most of what most people do, who sit 8h a day in front of a computer, is in the browser. So I see where this product idea is coming from...
Is this true? Most of mine is in a text editor. In a previous role, it was in Excel. My partner spends her day in Power BI, etc etc. Are we outliers? What jobs are mostly in browsers instead of task-oriented specific other software tools?
We should start calling browsers "Chromiums."
My favorite Chromium is Vivaldi, by the way. It doesn't have AI slapped on it, but it has native a RSS client, e-mail client, vertical tabs, notes, a way to separate tabs into "workspaces" and a way to save tabs into "sessions" that you can reopen later, and it native profiles like Chrome. There are also countless settings you can customize (and lots of terrible defaults that you will want to customize, like rocker gestures). It's pretty much Opera 2.0 without the crypto. These features feel to me far more useful than AI.
Why the negativity? A browser is the gateway between end user and technology/information/AI themselves. Of course everyone with money is racing trying to control it. It makes sense.
Because:
> A browser is the gateway between end user and technology/information/AI themselves. Of course everyone with money is racing trying to control it.
?
BUT -- that's missing the strategic point here:
- Everyone realizes that being the gatekeeper for user interaction is key: that's where all the context is and utility will come from
- AI is providing a unique opportunity to overturn a long-held monopoly (Chrome's dominance) by providing
Put another way, ChatGPT + Chromium = OpenAI's Trojan horse.
It would be foolish for them to waste resources innovating on the browser engine (which isn't their core competency) when they can use their actual competency (AI) to take their bet at capturing the market
Why the negativity? A browser is the gateway between end user and technology/information/AI themselves. Of course everyone with money is racing trying to control it. It makes sense.