3 ms·

Except it doesn't make sense. Why not just use Firefox. Or improve the JS engine of Firefox. I reckon they made the browser to control the browser market.

baq 1y ago
their browser is their scraper. what you see is what the scraper sees is what the ads look like.
zinekeller 1y ago
> Why not just use Firefox. The reason why Servo has existed (when it was still in Mozilla's care) was because on how deeply spagettified Gecko's code (sans IonMonkey) was, with the plan of replacing Gecko's components with Servo's. Firefox's automation systems are now miles better but that's literally the combination of years of work to modularize Gecko, the partial replacement of Gecko's parts with Servo's (like Stylo: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/08/inside-a-super-fast-css-engine-quantum-css-aka-stylo/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/08/inside-a-super-fast-css-en...), and actively building the APIs despite the still-spagettified mess.
chrisco255 1y ago
V8 was dramatically better than Firefox at the time. AFAIK, it was the first JS engine to take the approach of compiling repetitive JS to native assembly. If it's true that V8 was used internally for Google's scraper before they even thought about Chrome, then it makes obvious sense why not. The other factor is the bureaucracy and difficulty of getting an open source project to refactor their entire code base around your own personal engine. Google had the money and resources to pay the best in the business to work on Chrome.
TZubiri 1y ago
"Why develop in-house software for the core application of the biggest company in the world at the time, worth more than 100B$. Why not just repurpose rinky dink open source browser as some kind of parser, bank our 100B$ business on some volunteers and a 501c3 NFP, that will play out well in a shareholder meeting and in trials when they ask us how we safeguard our software."
- glowiefedposter 1y ago
  Why didn't they do that instead of just forking WebKit?

baq 1y ago

their browser is their scraper. what you see is what the scraper sees is what the ads look like.

zinekeller 1y ago

> Why not just use Firefox. The reason why Servo has existed (when it was still in Mozilla's care) was because on how deeply spagettified Gecko's code (sans IonMonkey) was, with the plan of replacing Gecko's components with Servo's. Firefox's automation systems are now miles better but that's literally the combination of years of work to modularize Gecko, the partial replacement of Gecko's parts with Servo's (like Stylo: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/08/inside-a-super-fast-css-engine-quantum-css-aka-stylo/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/08/inside-a-super-fast-css-en...), and actively building the APIs despite the still-spagettified mess.

chrisco255 1y ago

V8 was dramatically better than Firefox at the time. AFAIK, it was the first JS engine to take the approach of compiling repetitive JS to native assembly. If it's true that V8 was used internally for Google's scraper before they even thought about Chrome, then it makes obvious sense why not. The other factor is the bureaucracy and difficulty of getting an open source project to refactor their entire code base around your own personal engine. Google had the money and resources to pay the best in the business to work on Chrome.

TZubiri 1y ago

"Why develop in-house software for the core application of the biggest company in the world at the time, worth more than 100B$. Why not just repurpose rinky dink open source browser as some kind of parser, bank our 100B$ business on some volunteers and a 501c3 NFP, that will play out well in a shareholder meeting and in trials when they ask us how we safeguard our software."

glowiefedposter 1y ago
Why didn't they do that instead of just forking WebKit?