Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

661–670 of 718 posts

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#661

Post by adastra22 »

jhasse wrote: post #632
surajrmal wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edge is chromium based not chrome based. Google is not the default search engine on edge nor does it have any real control over the edge experience which Microsoft couldn't change itself. ChromeOS is not popular by any means outside of the US education market. Chrome being the default on just Android is hardly a strong case when Android usage in the US is only 56%.

And on some Android devices it isn't even the default (e.g. Samsung Internet).

Samsung Internet is also chromium based.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#662

Post by surajrmal »

adastra22 wrote: post #661
jhasse wrote: post #632

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And on some Android devices it isn't even the default (e.g. Samsung Internet).

Samsung Internet is also chromium based.

But it's not chrome. This is important because things like default search engine are set by the product built on top of chromium. Control over web standards isn't really relevant.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#663

Post by adastra22 »

surajrmal wrote: post #662
adastra22 wrote: post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung Internet is also chromium based.

But it's not chrome. This is important because things like default search engine are set by the product built on top of chromium. Control over web standards isn't really relevant.

Control over web standards was very relevant to the previous antitrust fight with Microsoft’s over IE6.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#664

Post by zdragnar »

pjmlp wrote: post #129
zdragnar wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love for something to trounce chrome the way it did IE, and even FF (which was so slow chrome felt lightning fast by comparison). I'm not optimistic that it'll happen, but I'd still like to see it.

It starts by not shipping Electron garbage, and write browser agnostic Webapps.

Tauri and others allow using the system webview while still providing full native programming capabilities via rust or whatever language the particular framework uses.

There's more than just "website or electron", and things like vscode prove that they're all viable.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#665

Post by pclmulqdq »

flanked-evergl wrote: post #519
pclmulqdq wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter why you use any of this software. What matters is what it does to the ads market. This is not 1999 and this is not Microsoft. Google's product isn't software. It's the attention of its users.

Google's share of my attention is negligible to the point of barely existing when compared to HN, X, YouTube(yes I know, but I see no adds because I have premium), podcasts, audiobooks and many other things. Even Facebook probably takes more attention and I barely use it.

Google measures its share of your attention different than you do. You seem to think this is "attention paid to Google ads" but it's "attention paid to Google platforms," which correlates to their ability to target an ad directly to you. You see Google ads in many places around the web (even if you have an ad blocker), and their ability to serve you a good ad depends on how much attention you give to Google platforms, not just to Google's obvious ads. Google ads are 30% of ads on the web, not including the ads on its own platforms (search and youtube).

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#666

Post by jamesfinlayson »

dfabulich wrote: post #360
kweingar wrote: post #320

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…

> (Safari was available on Windows from 2007-2012, but it never captured much market share, because Apple was never willing to pay PC makers to make Safari the default.)

I think it must have been bundled with iTunes as I remember family members having Safari installed on Windows computers at the time.

But I think it being available for Windows right when Firefox and then later Chrome started to become popular didn't help - it was just some other browser that no one was recommending.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#667

Post by YetAnotherNick »

Ylpertnodi wrote: post #648
YetAnotherNick wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the user doesn't change anything they wouldn't have downloaded, installed and set chrome as default browser.

Those that have to use chrome at work install it at home. There are many that think it is the internet. That was my today, Sunday. I gave up trying to explain the difference between edge and chrome, many years ago. At least I get paid for my time.

Exactly same with Google, people think they it is the internet even if it is not the default.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#668

Post by HaZeust »

username332211 wrote: post #532
a2128 wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Monopolies lead to no competition, leading to reduced innovation, economic stagnation That sounds smart, but is it actually true? How many of the things enabling the existence of this website are inventions made in the research institute of the Bell Telecom company. On top of my head, there are transistors, C, Unix and a fair bit of cryptographical work. I'm sure others can add a lot more to the list. Hell, this we…

>"How many of the things enabling the existence of this website are inventions made in the research institute of the Bell Telecom company."

In both giving them the bankroll to research it pre-breakup, and the economic freedom to pursue it under separate ventures post-forced breakup - it was most likely equally valuable.

A lot of things that make our modern apparatus' possible came from both Bell Labs research, and Bell Labs branching out by force.

Re: The DOJ still wants Google to sell off Chrome

#669

Post by HaZeust »

ThePowerOfDirge wrote: post #385
bearjaws wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same commentary we had around the time of the ATT break up, and it all worked out fine.

It destroyed Bell Labs https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/realestate/severance-lumo...

Yeah but AT&T is doing fine.
Post reply on HN