Never understood why the government seems to have such a hard-on against Google.<p>Somehow, Apple / Microsoft / Amazon / … skate by without getting the same beat-down.
I'm surprised to see so much confusion here. Google pays some kind of "market rate" to Apple to be default search engine on iOS, this change'll first and foremost result in them paying similarly to be default in Chrome.<p>Hopefully through that Google will end up with less influence to force anti-consumer decisions, like the recent adblock downgrades, on Chrome.<p>Fair enough, right? Of course all this is assuming decent oversight by DOJ, not allowing the sale to someone with monopolistic incentives of their own, e.g. Microsoft.
Just thinking: So, Google makes life easier for users by creating Chrome and getting us respite from IE. When they moved the web really forward and way faster than others (Edge/Opera switched to Chromium too) - the DOJ wants them to give it away. It's like raising an exceptional child only to be asked to be adopted when they grow to be an adult.
Honestly, what would selling Chrome do for Google's search monopoly? I actually agree with a lot of the things the DOJ is requesting in there, but the Chrome part is a bit baffling to me and seems to come more from a "hell yeah break 'em up" vibe than actual remedy.<p>The best argument I could make is that owning chrome allows you to see the searches people make on Google in the address bar (and if you were unscrupulous, on Google's Search page as well)? Maybe that's strong enough?<p>I'm genuinely concerned as a lover of the web that this will slow the innovation we've seen in the space to a crawl. The web has grown so much since the bad old days in no small part due to Chrome. I wonder if Google's vested interest in growing the web (since as when the web grows, so does search and ads usage) would result in them investing in Firefox instead, but I strongly doubt it (at least, not to the same level).
Surprised this didn't reach the top of HN earlier.<p>This is outrageous from the DOJ, hopefully Google can appeal. Given how the Google ecosystem works together, I don't see how this doesn't hurt consumers in the end.<p>It's a huge blow to open source in practice. It means the government doesn't accept the business strategy of making excellent open source software as a complement to main business aims.
Who do you sell _Google_ Chrome to? This seems ill-advised. Who could possibly run it? Oracle? Broadcom? Is Elon Musk going to buy it and then we'll have X Browser?<p>None of these options seem likely to create anything better than what we have now.<p>On the upshot, Firefox is going to see a resurgence. Hey, maybe Mozilla buys it?