Re:The DOJ Still Wants Google to Sell Off Chrome
by rootsudo on Saturday March 08, 2025 @06:40PM
(#43304633)
That's how it used to be, or did everyone forget Google Toolbar? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Toolbar It sucked in IE days.
But, it also goes back to browsers being built by the operating system, that was also a no-no, e.g. MSFT / IE.
Browsers then shouldn't be a profit center, but ironically google starting chrome made it one and then defined web standards. IE afaik wasn't a profit center, and MSFT hedged outsourcing all dev costs to practically google and forking it offically to Edge, lol.
Re:The DOJ Still Wants Google to Sell Off Chrome
by bluebarbet on Sunday March 09, 2025 @09:16AM
(#43308844)
In China, the vast majority of people are exclusively on mobile, where they use neither browsers nor even Android apps but rather manifold applets that are installed on top of a handful of nightmare spyware super-apps like WeChat.
Re:The DOJ Still Wants Google to Sell Off Chrome
by bsoft16385 on Sunday March 09, 2025 @01:29PM
(#43311426)
Incidentally, WeChat mini apps (and the equivalents in AliPay and other services) are essentially specialized websites.
WeChat itself on Android bundles a Chromium-based engine to run these mini apps.
Most people in China are using Chromium frequently, even if they don't think of it as a browser.
What would this business model be like, if, say, Google Chrome is eliminated?
As a reference, in China, very few people use Chrome because Google services are blocked. There are tons of third-party or vendor preinstalled browsers that bundles with bloatwares, put ads/clickbaits on every new tab, and spy on users. I'm pretty sure they are more sustainable than Firefox, former Opera, etc. But that's certainly a privacy dystopia :)