Note: Original report by Bloomberg, article by Reuters proxied by Neuters to bypass paywall.

  • @btaf45
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    14 minutes ago

    [Google controls how people view the internet]

    This doesn’t quite make sense. How does Chrome “control how people view the internet”? Isn’t html/css the main thing that controls how people view the internet?

    [ and what ads they see in part through its Chrome browser, which typically uses Google search,]

    But it is trivial to change your default search agent right?

    Is this move something we should view as a good thing, and if so, then why?

  • @[email protected]
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    224 hours ago

    If this happens, I’d be interested in seeing how this effects ChromeOS. I don’t use it but my mom does.

    Also, if you’re confused as to why ChromeOS would be effected, while it’s based on Gentoo Linux, ChromeOS uses a modified version of Chrome as it’s Desktop Environment.

    • @btaf45
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      313 minutes ago

      Yes I would like to know what that means for ChromeOS and Chromebooks. If the new “Chrome” company got ChromeOS also that would be huge. But if that is not a requirement Google could just put another Chromium browser in ChromeOS. They could also continue to sell Chromebooks but based on a ChromiumOS fork.

    • 0xb
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      3 hours ago

      That would be the logical thing according to common sense and probably according to pichai a few weeks ago, but trump just nominated an anti big tech and musk friend to the FCC. musk is behind almost everybody in ai and autonomous cars so he’ll definitely push to hamper all competitors.

      Sure, we don’t know how far would they go or how long will musk keep having white house influence and I personally think breaking up google is now off the table, but I don’t think they will get off the hook too easily.

      So surely a very big bribe.

    • @Lost_My_Mind
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      445 hours ago

      Google is such a good company, one the best. Everybody says it. I was just talking to John Google the other day, and he tells me, no really he did, he tells me we’re going to do amazing things together. Oogles of googles. That’s what we’ll sell. Everybody will know about google by this time next year. It’s true.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 hours ago

        You forgot the unrelated rant in the middle about toasters being too dark these days or some shit.

      • @errer
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        144 hours ago

        God damnit.

  • @[email protected]
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    767 hours ago

    Lit. It’s a good ask although it’s not clear what separation means here. Not going to hold my breath, the big corpos seem to usually win these kind of games.

      • @Eldritch
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        296 hours ago

        It’s like they’re a company pretending to be another company, disguised as another company. Tropic Thunder all the way down.

    • @[email protected]
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      477 hours ago

      Chrome is now owned by a company, owned by a company, owned by another company, that is owned by Google.

      • @WhatAmLemmy
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        375 hours ago

        And even in the case where there is actual separation, and competition, it will only be temporary!

        see history of telco consolidation after a monopoly breakup in 1984

  • Optional
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    24 hours ago

    HA!

    What a joke.

    • @btaf45
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      44 hours ago

      What’s to stop them just making another browser?

      Nothing. Chromium is open source. So they could just fork it and declare a new “official” google browser and it would be a lot like Chrome.

      I’m not sure why the govt thinks forcing google to give up a particular fork/branch of an open source browser is all that meaningful. It might make more sense if Chrome was a closed source one of a kind browser.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 hours ago

        I’ve worked in the aftermath of DoJ agreements like this one. The DoJ is not stupid (or at least didn’t used to be) and will have stipulations about removing Google employees from governance/write permissions to the project, with follow up check-ins every few months to make sure any shenanigans aren’t occurring.

        …none of that matters though now that the DoJ is going to be dissolved.

      • @[email protected]
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        33 hours ago

        That’s exactly what I was thinking. It also makes Chrome essentially worthless to anyone except Google.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 hours ago

          Maybe as a whole package, but node.js servers are ubiquitous and have a ton of stakeholders that have nothing to do with web browsers.

          • @btaf45
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            119 minutes ago

            What does Chrome have to do with a node.js server?

    • @Lost_My_Mind
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      75 hours ago

      Not needed. Internet Explorer existed for years after the 90s. It wasn’t killed by the courts. It was killed by the fact that it’s only function was to install a better browser on first boot.

      • @[email protected]
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        74 hours ago

        I think you are severely underestimating how many people don’t even understand the difference between windows, explorer, a web browser and even the Internet itself during the 90’s well into the 2000’s even 2010’s.

        That’s who kept IE alive

        • @atrielienz
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          22 hours ago

          No offense but it was the US Government. Most of their websites were coded for it, and quite a few of them didn’t work properly or reliably in other browsers as a result. This was true up until it was sunsetted and they were forced to update to edge and some of the websites still haven’t been properly moved over to chromium. When the pandemic hit and the Armed forces had to setup remote work for thousands of people Microsoft basically built them a fork of Teams. The US Government is kind of running hand in hand with Microsoft on a lot of stuff if you just hazard a cursory look.

    • @grue
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      34 hours ago

      They didn’t make the first one! They got it from Apple, who themselves got it from KDE.

      • @woelkchen
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        107 hours ago

        It has a soft paywall.

        I think the common practice is to link to the original in the URL bar and then use the body text to do paywall/loginwall removals.

      • Admiral Patrick
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        -156 hours ago

        Then leave that to every one else to deal with; don’t make other people wear your tin-foil hat. Or just start your own community and call it “Dot’s Offbrand Extravaganza” or something.

        • @xodoh74984
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          23 hours ago

          Pretty sure this is more about access and performance than privacy. I never knew about this site before, but damn, a news article that only contains words on a page and loads quickly? I thought news websites were supposed to be hostile to users?

        • snooggums
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          14 hours ago

          don’t make other people wear your tin-foil hat

          The words, they mean nothing!

  • @danc4498
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    06 hours ago

    This is probably the real reason corporate America had no interest in endorsing Harris.