[jennyyang]

This is the behavior of a monopolist, and Google needs to be broken up. Google and the various sub-entities get away with no customer support or completely inadequate support and they are a vital part of the Internet.

If there were competition, then there's no way with Google not being able to answer urgent customer support tickets. Because they are a monopoly, they can get away with saving money on customer support. All their subentities like Chrome, Gmail, etc are funded by their search and ads monopoly.

The only way this gets better is by breaking up Google, and forcing them to actually compete. If Chrome had to earn money the same way all the other companies did without having the hundreds of billions that Google makes, it would be a totally different product. They would need to earn their money the same way Firefox does, and would need to earn a portion of their money from things like extensions, and then they would need to compete with better customer support. But because they are a monopoly, they don't have to. It's basically a form of raising prices with no recourse, except what they do is deny services to competitors by having no support.

The only solution is to break Google apart, and force the parts to earn money the way all their competitors have to.

[LatteLazy]

So, I thought chrome was a loss making project, and the only reason it exists is because Google fund it for the data it generated and as part of their wider "use our stuff in exchange for your data" business model.

So if you break up Google, chrome would have to cut its budget or stop existing. And either way, chrome extension Devs wouldn't be better supported than they are now would they?

This is always my question with "Break up X": then what?

[jedieaston]

A hypothetical Chrome Inc. (or Chrome Foundation) could make its money off of selling rights to the search bar (hypothetically to Google anyway), and, I suppose, donations. Enterprise support would be another thing they'd have to provide (and could sell), especially if they got the Chrome OS project.

It'd be a speed bump, and they wouldn't have the full resources of Google, but I think it could make it. (But I don't know if it should, the open-source Chromium base isn't committed to only by Google.)

[ocdtrekkie]

And bear in mind: The amount they make this way could adjust, Google would have to be prepared to outbid Bing for default search placement. Bearing in mind, that whoever is the default search engine on Chrome controls the Internet, there's a lot of money at stake.

[LatteLazy]

That's fine, but to out bid bing, you only have to outbid bing. Microsoft have been forced to divest under this new antitrust regime. A maybe yahoo or askjeeves will come to the rescue?

And remember, to improve chrome extension support, you need chrome to get more money from the new sponsor than they got from the Google, one of the richest companies on earth...

[LatteLazy]

But it needs to more than make it. It needs to increase revenue to spend more on correctly policing and supporting its extension store...

[Tiltowait--]

"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."

-- Robert Heinlein, 1939

[LatteLazy]

That's not what I said. I just said chrome relies on Google for survival. No Google, no more chrome.

[Tiltowait--]

I remember back in the day, before Google went evil, getting a reply from an actual human with a name. How times have changed.