Google doesn't have to listen to anyone, this is what having a browser market share of 70%+ grants you. Question is, will their move chip away at that market share? If people actually care, it should.
Switch to FireFox, it's way better than ever, and integrates so well across devices.
What holds one back is that Chrome has made itself indispensable. It's remembered your passwords, your credit cards, your addresses, etc. All part of a plan to keep you happily in its garden.
> It's remembered your passwords, your credit cards, your addresses, etc.
That's the one of the first things I disable when I install a browser or create a new profile. Along with history, third party cookies, search prediction stuff, etc. Also clear all cookies and cache when I exit the browser.
Yeah I use other tools for passwords, etc and turn off a lot (though not history! that's serious business)
I also use a pihole to block ads and trackers more completely, but I do like having an additional browser-level feature with "enhanced tracking protection"[1] – if it did nothing else, I like simply having the list of attempted-tracker on every site easily available at all times.
> Switch to FireFox, it's way better than ever, and integrates so well across devices.
I still use Firefox but it is not way better then ever... they keep removing useful features... especially on mobile where you can't even use most extensions anymore.
uBlock origin is one of the most useful, but I also need at least Redirector to fix Reddit, Keepass helper, Smart Referer, Theater mode Youtube to fix youtube and a few others that are very useful.
But it is Ridiculous that only about 15 out of the thousands of addons work with the latest version of Firefox Mobile.
All of them used to work in the previous engine of Firefox Mobile... nice downgrade.
I think it exposed exactly the reason why it's so bad to have a browser monopoly.
I hope it will also spur others like Microsoft to reconsider using Chrome's codebase and thus add to browser diversity. Because Google will keep making it harder to cut this stuff out.
I never understood why microsoft was suddenly so hell-bent on rebuilding edge. The engine they used had nothing to do with me not using it. I just didn't want to jump from one corporate toy to another. This still goes except they're marketing it so heavily to enterprises now that it's become the standard browser at work. I still use Firefox there when I can though :)
I want to say it's that they learned their lessons from history.
IE, and to a lesser-extent, pre-Chromium Edge became instruments of active developer hostility. I know people who still have to support an embedded IE7 component.
To truly fix Edge, they'd have to keep a constant and large development effort to match Chrome/Safari/Firefox point for point. For a product that even their strongest advocates will admit is basically a "pack in" product of relatively minor market share. It's like telling them "You've got to retool MS Paint to compete with Photoshop."
Of course they'll pick the easy road, slapping some paint and customizations on Blink. Although they could have at least bought into Gecko.
Yes but they could have had that with the old Edge.. I just don't understand how the browser engine was a barrier to adoption. It didn't perform badly at all every time I tested, it worked just fine.
I think it was just the marketing effort that got Edge Chromium more adopted, not the move to chromium itself. Every time we had a call with a MS consultant (about any unrelated topic) they had to bring it up again, it was crazy.
It didn't have enough adoption despite the ads in Windows 10. Also it there was too much functionality to duplicate. So they decided to use Chromium instead, keep the Edge UI andthe ads. A good decision actually. Less bug to bug compatibility needed as most websites target Chrome anyway. I'm happy about it, there's one less browser engine to support that I dont care about. We target FF and Chromium. Safari is enough of a nuisance, only high impact bugs get fixed. It's the new IE.
I suspect there will be a preference to turn it off by the time it launches for real. Then, maybe people who care will turn it off instead of switching?
What holds one back is that Chrome has made itself indispensable. It's remembered your passwords, your credit cards, your addresses, etc. All part of a plan to keep you happily in its garden.
No conspiracy, just business.