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by pedalpete
1009 days ago
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I'm struck by how much this seems to parallel the Microsoft DOJ case of 2001.[1] At the time, Microsoft was bundling IE and trying to block use of other browsers. However, the browser wasn't really where the value was, and we all ended up with Chrome, while Microsoft completely missed the internet era and lost search to Google. I find the timing of this interesting as we are seeing a shift to AI being able to answer the questions that Google once provided, and now the DOJ is saying Google blocking other search engines is anti-competitive, when that game has already been played, and the next game has already started. Am I thinking of this correctly? Or do you think if Microsoft had been able to maintain IE dominance (which it kinda did until Chrome anyway) the internet would have ended up being shaped significantly differently? [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor.... |
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The IE engine was quirky, and it was common for webdevs to only target IE. I think there was a real danger that a large portion of the web was going to be IE only, vendor locking everyone.
I think ultimately iPhone/Android did as much to break this as Google Chrome did, as all the eyeballs went to from desktops/laptops to smartphones. Google Chrome was released after the iPhone.