this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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Privacy
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This is the result of the world blindly using Chrome and other Chromium based browsers. Now with effectively full control over the browser that more than 90% of the world uses Google can force its will on the internet
Given that Firefox is now faster than Chrome I see no reason to remain.
Momentum. And it's likely most people won't be about to tell, or regularly run comparisons to find out for themselves. Theres enough value added to Chrome that people kind of assume it's "the best" ... It took me years to convince my boss to switch, but the one thing that did it for him was just that the PDF viewer is better in Firefox.
People have weird preferences that don't always line up with what software developers expect.
but isn't Firefox itself basically paid by Google? I can't see it as a threat to Google full control of the web
Google is their biggest donor. They pay $$$ to be the default search engine in Firefox.
But Microsoft would happily give a not-insignificant amount to have Bing be the default search engine, and everyone knows it.
It's a symbiotic relationship. Google sorta need to pay up. Firefox needs the funding.
Google does not control the running of Firefox.
If you rely on Google donation in order to survive, at the end of the day you are under some sort of control. I'm not saying that Google is running Firefox directly, of course, but if Firefox would grow enough to became a problematic competitor for Chrome, they would definitively have the power to step in. So, how really free can they be?
Mozilla's definitely aware of this, but since all the competitors' browsers are free it's hard to make inroads on other means of profit.
I thought Google funding Firefox was the cheapest way to fend off an antitrust issue?
Wait, is Google in the process of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish on the free internet?
Always have been, and they're in it for the long game. They've already acquired a stupid amount of control on the web and web standards with everything from Chromium to Youtube, not to mention it doesn't help that they basically control the world's most popular mobile OS. Google wants it all if we let them.
Yes.
And we saw this was going to happen at least 5 years ago. But since the majority don't care, we get what we deserve I guess.
Let's just hope this doesn't go through.
A move like this sounds like a great way to end that monopoly.
i'm not really a tech-savvy guy here, so can someone explain if having DRMs like this would make ad-blocking near impossible for other chromium-based browsers too?
As I understand, if implemented, websites would basically be able to force you to see the page however it wants.
So if you view the page in Chrome, it might force you to not have any adblock.
If you view it in another chromium browser, like Arc, it could just force you to view it in Chrome.
It would also mean that you can’t use extension that modify the page, not only affects ad blocks but things like blocking Facebook “like” buttons or Google trackers. Right now we need more people to use non-chromium browsers, like Firefox, so hopefully Chrome looses market share and with it Google starts loosing control over the internet.