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> I consider this betrayal - naturally by Google You're using a web browser built by a company whose primary income is advertising. What did you think would ha
by CrossVR 9mo ago
> I consider this betrayal - naturally by Google
You're using a web browser built by a company whose primary income is advertising. What did you think would happen instead?
A lot of people have this weird idea that companies are their friends and would defend their interests despite large financial incentives to betray that trust.
- h2zizzle 9mo ago"That's just how they make their money," is a common and terrible excuse.
- morcus 9mo agoIt's not making an excuse on the part of Google, it's pointing out the naivety of expecting otherwise from Google. Firefox still allows uBlock origin, and even on mobile.
- oreilles 9mo agoOne's expectations aren't in any way relevant in considering wether something is an asshole move or not.
- integralid 9mo agoCalling company strategy an "asshole move" is anthropomorphizing a lawnmower.
- amanaplanacanal 9mo agoCompany strategies are created by individual humans being assholes. Don't make excuses for them.
- hnbad 9mo agoBeing an asshole is incentivized by the system. If you don't want companies to behave like assholes, change the system to one that punishes that.
- BAM-DevCrew 9mo ago[dead]
- h2zizzle 9mo agoThe first step in disincentivizing being an asshole is pointing out that someone is being an asshole.
- skeeter2020 9mo agoThis is a parallel argument to the whole "to big to fail" nonsense and not really in line with the famous comparison of a single person to a machine. Company strategies are typically created by small groups of people who - especially in this case - know exactly what the impact and longer-reach implications of their decisions will be. It is entirely reasonable to hold the people of any organization accountable for the policies they enact via that organization.
- jaapz 9mo agoIt's still people who make up a company That strategy did not come into existence through some abstract entity
- rockskon 9mo agoFirefox has had poor stewardship for quite a few years now with an uncertain future. Even moreso - uBlock Origin doesn't block the modern equivalent of pop-up ads unless you manually block elements. Even then - half the time the block isn't even saved and needs to be redone every page visit.
- aembleton 9mo ago> needs to be redone every page visit Have you got an example of that?
- brookst 9mo agoExplanations are not excuses.
- PaulHoule 9mo agoI’m sure they’d love to include a blocker in Chrome that blocks all the competitive ad networks.
- saintfire 9mo agoIf they'd ever allow such a thing to exist.
- moffkalast 9mo agoWhy waste effort on something that's a rounding error at best?
- like_any_other 9mo agoIt is because of such effort that they are rounding errors: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/google-loses-ad-tech-monopoly-trial-faces-additional-breakups/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/google-loses-ad-...
- trinix912 9mo agoBut then they'd be one antitrust investigation away from losing it all.
- CrossVR 9mo agoWhat do you think uBlock Lite is for? They'll continue to cripple it until it is unable to block YouTube ads while still being able to block everything else.
- rockskon 9mo agoFinancial incentives, while a large motivator for companies, are frequently not the exclusive one. Google for quite a few years was seen as a good steward of the free and open Internet. To assert people shouldn't feel betrayed because "it's a company" fundamentally ignores why people had different expectations for Google to begin with.
- acheron 9mo agoWhen, 2001? By the time Chrome came out it had been clear that was not true for awhile.
- rockskon 9mo agoUp until roughly 2010 Google was a pretty consistent advocate and activist for the open Internet.
- CrossVR 9mo agoBecause it was in their financial interest to do so. Their business is dependent on the internet after all. The problem is that people are quick to assume a company is being altruistic just because the financial incentives happen to align with their own incentives.