Re:EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals
by palata on Wednesday September 27, 2023 @07:47AM
(#37673286)
> and that still carries with it the same risks as now
Would it, though? Paying to be the default search engine is not the same as controlling the whole stack.
Re:EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals
by throwaway45680 on Wednesday September 27, 2023 @08:45AM
(#37673814)
It's pretty clear that's not enough to succeed.
Written from Firefox.
Re:EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals
by palata on Wednesday September 27, 2023 @09:04AM
(#37674055)
But isn't that how Firefox survives?
Re:EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals
by throwaway45680 on Wednesday September 27, 2023 @09:14AM
(#37674201)
Yeah indeed, it just barely survives. Few years ago they had to shed all non-essential development (such as Servo).
Re:EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals
by palata on Wednesday September 27, 2023 @10:16AM
(#37674995)
> Yeah indeed, it just barely survives.
In a world where everybody uses Chromium, which is paid by surveillance capitalism.
I really don't know, but I could imagine a world where some people would pay for their browser (many would use the "community edition", probably), and where search engines would pay to be the default.
Google would probably still contribute to Chromium, they would just not directly have control over its governance. Maybe overall the web tech would move slower, but I don't think that would necessarily be bad.
Re:EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals
by throwaway45680 on Thursday September 28, 2023 @02:17PM
(#37693495)
In my world, people use whatever spying piece of crap browser a random app installed as a default for them. I really don't think anybody except a few enthusiasts would pay for a browser.
That’s nice in theory, but historically, browser only companies haven’t been very successful in the market. No one wants to pay for a browser and monetizing one is a full of a big pool of dark patterns.
The most successful browser engines have always been those that we tied to another source of income, namely, the OS or search. Doesn’t Firefox still get the bulk of its funding from Google?
Even as a separate company, Chrome would be beholden to some external entity (likely Google search) for money, and that still carries with it the same risks as now, just formalized with contracts.