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We're about to see the funding for all four major web browsers collapse before our eyes. As of today, the only way to make money developing a web browser is to
by dfabulich 1y ago
We're about to see the funding for all four major web browsers collapse before our eyes.
As of today, the only way to make money developing a web browser is to accept payment from a search engine.
That's how Firefox makes 95% of its revenue. That's also how Safari makes all of its money; the Safari team's dev budget is ~$14B, almost exactly the same as the amount Google pays Apple to be the primary search engine. Edge is a fork of Chrome that only exists to make Bing its primary search engine.
If Google is forced to divest Chrome and is no longer able to do those search-engine deals, 95% of the funding for all four web browsers will just go away.
Firefox will die immediately. And whoever bought Chrome would have no way to make money from it.
It's gonna be real, real bad out there.
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 1y agoGood. I hope mozilla does die. I hope chrome, safari, and edge all die. I hate mozilla for steadily ruining firefox over the past 15 years and I hate chrome for being the cause.
- gorjusborg 1y agoMy first reaction to this was horror. Then I remembered what life was like before 'the internet / world wide web' and thought that it might actually be beneficial to revert. One thing is for sure, it would make things unstable in the near term.
- tiffanyh 1y agoI don’t think enough people grasp this point. Google is the only major tech company who wants an Open Web. Meta (FB, IG, WA), Apple (App Store), etc would love a world where it is just a walled garden.
- mvid 1y agoWell that’s a farce. Google wants an “open web” as long as the definition for “open” doesn’t infringe in any way on their data collection. If they could redefine SSL to give them access, they would
- fouc 1y agoWhat's with the assumption that web browsers need funding? That web browsers need active development beyond what most open source development does?