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The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

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521–530 of 718 posts

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#521

At this point, tech's major competitors are overseas. Never thought I'd be making this argument, but does breaking up the search monopoly help America or up and comers?

Monopolies lead to no competition, leading to reduced innovation, economic stagnation, consolidation of wealth and power. That directly harms the American people and if left unchecked other countries may actually start to get ahead, especially if they maintain a fair market environment within their own country and ban American monopolies.

If the concern is that people will start using Baidu search, then the solution should be to ban Baidu search. It shouldn't be to let some monopolies run rampant with the hopes that other countries will never be able to compete, while forgetting that free market economy is what made America

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the claim was that it's coming default on prebuilt PCs. If you're installing Windows, that's not the situation where Chrome would be the default.

Right but what OS is installed on a pre-built PC if not Windows?

not sure what exactly that has to do with prebuilt versions of Windows that come with bloatware/adware or other nonstandard customisations?

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#523

Here's something I don't understand. If you want to switch your search engine for Safari on iOS, you open Settings, tap Safari, tap Search Engine, and tap your preferred search engine. Not many users do this, and the conclusion is that the default has an unfair advantage. If you want to make Chrome your desktop browser, you open the default browser, search for Chrome, click the correct result, download the installer,…

It's a common misconception that tons of users manually install Chrome, but Google just pays PC makers to make Chrome the default browser. Chrome is the only browser with a business model that makes sense to do this. Microsoft just doesn't make enough money from Bing/Edge to pay PC makers to leave Edge as the default. Firefox makes no money at all, and makes 95% of its revenue from Google's payments to be the default…

Since Chrome's engine is used by Edge, Opera, Brave, etc.. Probably the best move is to become a non-profit and have all those organizations chip in.

The main reason even Microsoft gave up and rebased their browser on top of Chrome is because of the breakneck speed at which Google introduces new standards and features to the ecosystem. Having them be forced to slow down might be a good thing for browser diversity and the future of the Internet.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#524
post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromebooks are a thing, and are extremely popular

> extremely popular for really small amounts of "extremely" (outside US K-12 they are hardly a thing)

And Australian K-12 too :)

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#525
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not relevant. Chrome has the most market share, so its decisions become de facto standards. What happens in some fork by a 2 men crew doesn't matter.

The cancellation of the web integrity api is evidence against this claim.

How? Which 2 men crew (temporarily) defeated that API?

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#526
post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that it doesn't make business sense for anybody else to buy Chrome. Bare in mind that 99% of Chrome is the free Chromium open source project, so you're not buying any sort of technological asset. You're just buying a big pre-existing user base, which would be extremely difficult to monetize without making the product much worse, although I'm sure Microsoft or Facebook would be happy to give that a go.…

> The problem is that it doesn't make business sense for anybody else to buy Chrome I don't see why divesting it necessarily means selling it to another company. Google could create a non-profit like Mozilla, or a for profit and float it as its own business.

If Google controls the spin-off, then the problem is not resolved. The whole point is that the government doesn't want Google to control it. And if Google does not control it, then who does? The judge?

There are a lot of seemingly simple "solutions" to this problem that just don't hold up under a modicum of scrutiny.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#527

Here's something I don't understand. If you want to switch your search engine for Safari on iOS, you open Settings, tap Safari, tap Search Engine, and tap your preferred search engine. Not many users do this, and the conclusion is that the default has an unfair advantage. If you want to make Chrome your desktop browser, you open the default browser, search for Chrome, click the correct result, download the installer,…

Chrome is the default on every non-Apple system in common use. Windows (Edge), Chrome OS, Android…

Every non-apple system in common use? So linux? I don't think so...

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Android Chrome is preinstalled and cannot be uninstalled

It makes sense why it can't be _removed_... it's required for core OS interaction features such as a known-working login portal framework and probably tons of other 'reuse the rendering engine from the browser to display stuff' portions of the shell and settings pages. If you wanted to de-google your phone _that_ much it probably requires a custom firmware blob that's shipped with a different browser... if that's eve…

It's not really required. Android comes with a separate webview (that cannot be overridden). Sure it's based on Chromium but that means there should zero reliance on Chrome the product, and those known working login portals can continue working without Chrome.

It's well known that Google requires manufacturers to install their apps and requires it to be uninstallable. This includes Gmail, Google, and others.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#530

Here's something I don't understand. If you want to switch your search engine for Safari on iOS, you open Settings, tap Safari, tap Search Engine, and tap your preferred search engine. Not many users do this, and the conclusion is that the default has an unfair advantage. If you want to make Chrome your desktop browser, you open the default browser, search for Chrome, click the correct result, download the installer,…

The real question is whether Chrome's dominance comes from unfair practices (bundling, aggressive prompts, discouraging competition, etc.) or simply being a product people want to use.
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