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Well, if chrome did have 90%+ market share maybe we would finally see some antitrust regulation against Google's monopoly (ideally splitting chrome off from Goo

by thayne 4y ago

Well, if chrome did have 90%+ market share maybe we would finally see some antitrust regulation against Google's monopoly (ideally splitting chrome off from Google). Although there is no guarantee that would happen.

toyg 4y ago
This. If Chrome reaches certifiable monopoly levels, it becomes easier to use anti-monopolistic instruments to force them to unbundle browser-making from other activities - which is really how things should be.
- MBCook 4y ago
  That moves too slow. They could do a ton of damage in the time it takes for anti-trust measures to be placed on them. That’s kind of the point I was trying to make. You need to do that stuff before, or at the same time as, opening iOS. Otherwise we’ll just have a disaster.
- mturilin 4y ago
  I think this won’t work because Chrome doesn’t have independent business model. Also, if Chrome is removed from Google they could create another alternative based on Chromium since it’s open source.
  - toyg 4y ago
    > Chrome doesn’t have independent business model. Wut? Independent browsers existed before Google, and still do. The browser is such a key element of the web experience that the possibilities for commercial exploitation are fundamentally endless; the number of players in the space is kept low only by the amount of resources required to really compete with the biggest IT companies on the planet. If you could forbid such players from being in the market, you'd see a plethora of new entrants. > if Chrome is removed from Google they could create another alternative based on Chromium The point is not to remove Chrome, the point is to forbid web-giants like Google from being in the browser market, because it enables monopolistic practices towards their web properties. So they would obviously be forbidden from restarting the project as "ReChrome" or whatever.
- ascagnel_ 4y ago
  - You're assuming that there's the political will to do so. In the US, the Department of Justice would prosecute an antitrust case, and cases in the past (most notably Microsoft's antitrust case) have been dropped as political winds have shifted. - Antitrust proceedings are slow. The Microsoft case (which was a much more cut-and-dry antitrust case) was filed in May 1998 and settled in November 2001 -- three and a half years. Given that Google today moves faster than Microsoft in the late 90s, 3.5 years is enough time to drive a critical mass of users away from other browsers, which effectively kills any market. - What antitrust behaviors could be forced that would restore a competitive browser market? I could see Google being forced to spin off Chrome into its own company or donate the code to a third-party, open-source organization, but these only shift the problem around, they don't get at the root issue of there not being a competitive browser market.

by thayne 4y ago

toyg 4y ago

This. If Chrome reaches certifiable monopoly levels, it becomes easier to use anti-monopolistic instruments to force them to unbundle browser-making from other activities - which is really how things should be.

MBCook 4y ago
That moves too slow. They could do a ton of damage in the time it takes for anti-trust measures to be placed on them. That’s kind of the point I was trying to make. You need to do that stuff before, or at the same time as, opening iOS. Otherwise we’ll just have a disaster.
mturilin 4y ago
I think this won’t work because Chrome doesn’t have independent business model. Also, if Chrome is removed from Google they could create another alternative based on Chromium since it’s open source.
- toyg 4y ago
  > Chrome doesn’t have independent business model. Wut? Independent browsers existed before Google, and still do. The browser is such a key element of the web experience that the possibilities for commercial exploitation are fundamentally endless; the number of players in the space is kept low only by the amount of resources required to really compete with the biggest IT companies on the planet. If you could forbid such players from being in the market, you'd see a plethora of new entrants. > if Chrome is removed from Google they could create another alternative based on Chromium The point is not to remove Chrome, the point is to forbid web-giants like Google from being in the browser market, because it enables monopolistic practices towards their web properties. So they would obviously be forbidden from restarting the project as "ReChrome" or whatever.
ascagnel_ 4y ago
- You're assuming that there's the political will to do so. In the US, the Department of Justice would prosecute an antitrust case, and cases in the past (most notably Microsoft's antitrust case) have been dropped as political winds have shifted. - Antitrust proceedings are slow. The Microsoft case (which was a much more cut-and-dry antitrust case) was filed in May 1998 and settled in November 2001 -- three and a half years. Given that Google today moves faster than Microsoft in the late 90s, 3.5 years is enough time to drive a critical mass of users away from other browsers, which effectively kills any market. - What antitrust behaviors could be forced that would restore a competitive browser market? I could see Google being forced to spin off Chrome into its own company or donate the code to a third-party, open-source organization, but these only shift the problem around, they don't get at the root issue of there not being a competitive browser market.