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>You. can. make. own. browsers You can't make your own browser anymore. The complexity of HTTP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and soon QUIC (in place of TCP) has grow

>You. can. make. own. browsers You can't make your own browser anymore. The complexity of HTTP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and soon QUIC (in place of TCP) has grown to the point where only a handful of large, well-capitalized institutions (and really only Google, if you consider WebKit's ubiquity) can develop and maintain a secure, efficient, modern web browser. Most alternative browsers, even forks of Firefox/Mozilla, have either been abandoned, or fallen so far behind that they have no future. This is almost certainly deliberate on Google's part. They want to control the browser, because outside of apps, it's through the browser that they deliver ads, and over 80% of their revenue comes from ads, and the more they control the browser, the harder they can make it to block ads. They don't even have to prevent it fully; just make it so difficult that only a small minority of technically-inclined, and sufficiently motivated users will do it.

2342352365246 6y ago
I should add: I have trouble these days even just using Firefox. Apparently, since its marketshare has dwindled to 3%, many sites either just don't support it, or their fraud detection algorithms view it as suspicious. E.g.: a bank I use has a website that supports Edge, but not FF; I tried to buy something through Amazon with FF a few months ago, and the account immediately got locked for "suspicious activity." Maybe I would have had similar troubles using Chrome on the iPhone, but I doubt it. Imagine how useless an alternative browser more obscure than FF would be; you wouldn't be able to buy or sell anything, do any banking, and even basic, passive web browsing would result in never-ending CAPTCHAs on many sites.
masa331 6y ago
Yes you can. It is complex, will take plenty of time and effort but you can. And that is what open means. Now if you complain about complexity that's another thing. Yes it is complex a lot. But it did evolve this way for some reason. Our communities, desires, tools, problems, they are all complex and that's why web is also complex. But if you don't like the complexity you can use only subset of the technologies. You can read only plain HTML blogs on web and don't use any eshops for example. Or not use technology or even web at all.
jefftk 6y ago
> really only Google, if you consider WebKit's ubiquity WebKit is the rendering engine that powers Safari, and is an Apple project. Did you mean to say Blink? (Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)

2342352365246 6y ago

I should add: I have trouble these days even just using Firefox. Apparently, since its marketshare has dwindled to 3%, many sites either just don't support it, or their fraud detection algorithms view it as suspicious. E.g.: a bank I use has a website that supports Edge, but not FF; I tried to buy something through Amazon with FF a few months ago, and the account immediately got locked for "suspicious activity." Maybe I would have had similar troubles using Chrome on the iPhone, but I doubt it. Imagine how useless an alternative browser more obscure than FF would be; you wouldn't be able to buy or sell anything, do any banking, and even basic, passive web browsing would result in never-ending CAPTCHAs on many sites.

masa331 6y ago

Yes you can. It is complex, will take plenty of time and effort but you can. And that is what open means. Now if you complain about complexity that's another thing. Yes it is complex a lot. But it did evolve this way for some reason. Our communities, desires, tools, problems, they are all complex and that's why web is also complex. But if you don't like the complexity you can use only subset of the technologies. You can read only plain HTML blogs on web and don't use any eshops for example. Or not use technology or even web at all.

jefftk 6y ago

> really only Google, if you consider WebKit's ubiquity WebKit is the rendering engine that powers Safari, and is an Apple project. Did you mean to say Blink? (Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)