Comment by dismalaf | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dismalaf | Hacker News Reader

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> For those who've lost track of that situation, can you provide a link or two?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/06/technology/google-search-...

I mean, it's the same situation as last year. Google lost the lawsuit, got declared a monopoly, the DOJ said they'll force Google to stop paying Apple and Mozilla for placement on their devices/browser (for Mozilla that means losing $500 million in ARR), Google is appealing but as of right now it'll come into effect in the second half of 2025. Which is the impetus for Mozilla to try find a lot of extra revenue. Also Trump isn't a fan of Google so unlikely he'll save them. Although ironically, Apple and Mozilla are the biggest losers: Apple gets billions from Google and Mozilla $500 million.

A hellish irony then that weakening the near-monopoly on search redounds to strengthening the duopoly of web browsers.

Kind of, yeah. The DOJ IMO is pretty ignorant.

That being said, I also don't think the browser "duopoly" is as entrenched as market share suggests. As Chromium is open source, the cost to the consumer of switching browsers is minimal; Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera and un-googled Chromium all offer very similar browsing experiences and the main difference is small UI things. If Google does something anti-consumer, people can jump ship very easily. Other corporations can also fork Chromium very easily (as some have already done).

Are any of the Chromium-based browsers going to retain manifest v2, or are they all stuck with neutered extensions? A quick search says even Vivaldi is going to lose v2 support later this year. Brave and Edge are non-starters.

Honestly don't know. I've never cared much about extensions. Most people seem to care about ad blockers, which Vivaldi has built in. I don't see many ads because the sites I frequent most often, I pay to see.

I could be wrong, but (after all the appeals are said and done) I don't think this is going to happen under Trump.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-urges-doj-reverse-...

Google kissed the ring and donated $1 Million to his inauguration fund.

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-donates-1-million-tru...

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