[sarcasmic]

People don't download Chrome because EdgeHTML-Edge sucks; they download Chrome because it's familiar, and ironically doesn't nag the person to enable half a dozen Microsoft's services one by one. There's two greater truths here: that some people are more comfortable using Google's services over those of Microsoft, and that the power of defaults matter, even when they feel skeevy to a part of the population. Google proved that defaulting to all the services enabled by default is reasonable not just with a discretionary application (like Chrome) but also when the user barely has any other choice on the device (like Android), and years of these defaults have resulted in a userbase that relies on them and seeks out the product for this reason.

It also shows that past precedent can lead you down a gauntlet of bad PR: Microsoft has tried to be pushy with many features of Windows 10 (telemetry, inking, online login, Cortana, always-online search) in the same vein that we've long seen from Google, but their strategy contrasts unfavorably against long legacy of a less invasive Windows. Google has pursued a policy of opt-out from the beginning, and by doing so they escape a fair bit a bad press.

Firefox has the worst of it: their users are the most discriminating, the hardest to please -- even if some of Mozilla's controversies were poor choices, the level of uproar was immense. Posts like this just encourage the migration of users driven by causes. This would be less of an issue if it were entirely community-supported, but Mozilla has paid developers and evangelists, and deriving revenues from a discriminating userbase is a challenge.

[AaronFriel]

As a counter-point, I've had to set up Chrome with ad blockers even for computer illiterate family members and friends because they eventually have it installed anyway. Why? Not because they knew they were installing it, but because every time you visit "google.com" in Edge, you get an intrusive message that says:

"Switch to Chrome Hide annoying ads and protect against malware on the web [No Thanks] [Yes]"

And that then appears on every single search. And if you click no thanks, it reappears.

And then when they go to youtube, they see this:

"Watch YouTube videos with Chrome Google recommends using Chrome, a fast and secure browser. Try it? [Yes] [No Thanks]"

Again, every page load. It's a dark pattern. What about Gmail?

"Google recommends using Chrome Try a fast, secure browser with updates built in [No Thanks] [Yes]"

EVERY PAGE LOAD.

[eridius]

To be honest, I think it's pretty bad that the company with the largest influence on the web is also the company that controls the largest web browser. Chrome should be moved to a different Alphabet company and Google forbidden from promoting it.

[aequitas]

It's not limited to Google Search/Youtube. A few years back Google had an incentive program that would reward 3rd party websites to put up a "This page is faster in Chrome" banner. Not a regular advertisement, a separate banner.

[berbec]

You'd think there'd be a super-slim version of uBlock that only blocked Google's nag messages to install chrome

[hannasanarion]

Doesn't it already? I've never noticed the nags when using Firefox

[executesorder66]

I use Firefox with the vanilla uBlockOrigin. I don't notice any google nagging except on the google translate page.

[gdfasfklshg4]

Start a list...

[holtalanm]

I don't use Chrome, and can honestly say I don't remember the last time I saw one of these messages.

Granted, the browser i use is Blink-based. Probably has something to do with it, but it is still _not Chrome_.

[culot]

Those messages don't appear for me in Firefox, but they do when using Edge. Clicking 'no thanks' sometimes dismisses them, however sometimes they come back at next load.

[acdha]

> they download Chrome because it's familiar, and ironically doesn't nag the person to enable half a dozen Microsoft's services one by one

More accurately, they install it because google.com, Gmail, YouTube, etc. will constantly nag you to install Chrome and will sometimes display errors telling you that a feature requires Chrome even though the browser you’re currently using also supports it.