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This is an extremely naive take. Sundar Pichai's claim to fame was getting the Google Toolbar and Chrome pushed into the Adobe Reader installer back in the day.
by ocdtrekkie 1y ago
This is an extremely naive take. Sundar Pichai's claim to fame was getting the Google Toolbar and Chrome pushed into the Adobe Reader installer back in the day. So many OEMs were shoving Chrome and Google into their default loads that Microsoft had to make a "Bing Edition" of Windows for a bit with a lower price to include Bing and Edge as default, and have now outright blocked the practice I believe.
When you visit Google Search or Gmail on your default browser, you get at least one but sometimes as many as three separate popups telling you to install Chrome for "faster" ability to search/email.
Today many product vendors incorrectly claim that their website or service will only work on Chrome, and refuse to provide support unless you switch to it.
Oh, and my personal favorite: If you aren't the admin of a PC, Chrome malware-installs in the user profile folder so you can circumvent your IT department!
Google's power to force Chrome on people is insane, and as the government has now determined, illegally anticompetitive.
- JustExAWS 1y agoThis is 2025. People who buy Windows get a Chromium based browser where Google Search is not the default yet they go to Google. I have a Mac, don’t use Chrome or a Chromium based browser and haven’t had an issue. And you are forced to install Chrome on Windows? Besides wouldn’t you want your applications to install without requiring admin access?
- ocdtrekkie 1y agoWait, are you suggesting you don't see an issue with people being able to install a web browser on a PC they don't own?
- scarface_74 1y agoHopefully you are being sarcastic. I have never in 30 years across 10 companies including one BigTech company not been trusted with admin access to my computer. However, admins have been able to lock down computers to not allow them to install software at least since Windows NT.
- ocdtrekkie 1y agoNo I am honestly terrified that the industry is that bad. Good Lord. You're telling me you've never worked somewhere which has ever complied with a bare minimum IT security policy ever? Has nobody where you work heard of defense in depth? We have built a temple to madness.
- scarface_74 1y agoI worked at Amazon - AWS Professional Services to be exact. They trusted their employees with admin access. You had to toggle an option and click on a box saying you would be responsible with admin access. I think AWS knows a little bit about defense in depth… Every blue badge employee at Amazon as far as I know has the ability to get Admin access by clicking on a button on the home built app. You also might be surprised that in the last 8 years since working with AWS technology, I’ve never worked at a company where I didn’t have Admin access to an AWS account. At AWS we could create as many sandbox accounts as we wanted to with Admin access and every client I have worked with for thd pass five+ years I’ve asked for a none production account with the “PowerUser” policy + iam::* permissions - which is admin in all but name.
- ocdtrekkie 1y ago> I think AWS knows a little bit about defense in depth… What you're telling me is that they do not. And that every mom and pop shop IT outfit is more qualified to secure a server than Amazon is.
- scarface_74 1y agoI am suppose to believe a random HN poster knows more about governing a large internal IT department - actually the second largest employer in the US and the largest cloud provider? If so, I still know some people inside AWS. I’m sure they will be willing to back up a shit ton of money to your doorstep to teach them the error of their ways.
- 1y ago