[jmyeet]

I have no idea how a for-profit company can exist that solely produces a browser.

There's only one model that can work long-term here: collective ownership. The closest model is probably the Wikimedia Foundation. Firefox and the Mozilla Foundation are here, obviously, but they've tried to act like a corporation with rising costs and lower earnings going over years. The money Google pays them is basically poison.

Linux has survived and thrived with something analagous to this but it's also dependent to an unsettling degree on one person (Linus Torvalds). I realize his power has decentralized over the years (intentionally, by Linus) but there's still the constnat risk of a schism.

Google and Chrome is just one small part of the problem. Apple's Safari monopoly on iOS is also a problem. Browsers really need to be a common good.

I suspect none of this will happen. Even though these efforts began in the Biden administration, I suspect this will now become a shakedown. This administration will look to Google to fall in line and kiss the ring. That is now the cost of doing business.

[alt227]

A Browser with 65% share of the worlds web access can be leveraged to do a lot of things.

[VladStanimir]

The big question is, would it keep that market share without Google. The big selling point of Google Chrome is the seamless integration with all the other Google services.

[alt227]

> The big selling point of Google Chrome is the seamless integration with all the other Google services.

People keep saying this, but everybody I have spoken to dont care about that. They are just used to pressing the coloured circle icon to get on the internet. That muscle memory and brand recognition will be around for many years to come.

[Ferret7446]

That share will plummet to near 0% the moment it is transferred because people will just switch to Chromium.

The only difference between Chrome without Google and Chromium is the name and logo. You lose all integration with Google services like sync, suggestions, etc.

You'd be stuck with only the captives that can't switch because they're using older appliances with Chrome baked in.

[alt227]

People only know the name and logo, they dont care whos behind it. 99% of users just click that little coloured circle to open 'the internet', they know nothing past that. They will continue to download Chrome for many years to come.

The market share will drop, but slowly and over decades. That will give some greedy company plenty of time to milk it for all its worth.