[kbelder]

You think Google is reducing info Chrome sends in its user agent string in order to limit the ability of Google to favor Chrome?

I can't imagine Google would be doing this without some sort of back-channel method of tracking this exact info. They're likely just removing this info from visibility to other websites, giving themselves a competitive advantage. Man, that sounds a little paranoid, but...

[jedimastert]

the brand and major version hints are sent with every request regardless of preferences, so no "back channel" needed.