[majorchord]

It's not so much forcing people to Chrome/chromium for specific features, but trying to increase market share through more subtle means, like paying to have their search engine featured, advertising their products everywhere possible (including inside other people's apps), slowing down their sites (like youtube) on other browsers, or tying in other services (along with way too much personal info) to try to keep people within their sphere of influence.

Is Linux also a monopoly? In a way sure, but I think a big difference is they're not "doing evil" as people claim Google is, and all the development/decisions are still made out in the open in a democratic way.

Former Google execs have even compared their setup to "running the New York Stock Exchange while trading on it."

At least Linux isn't trying to tell people what to do with their software.

[philipallstar]

> it is a monopoly by extending the internet in ways that force users into using their browser engine

2 messages later that seems to be contradicted?

> It's not so much forcing people to Chrome/chromium for specific features

I might've misread.

> but trying to increase market share through more subtle means, like paying to have their search engine featured

This isn't Chromium, the open source basis of many web browsers. Now you're talking about Google the company.

> Is Linux also a monopoly?

Monopolies in the sense worth discussing are highly popular things that are held in place by things other than competition. If anything, Google props up Chrome's competitors to reduce this.

[vel0city]

So now Chrome is a "monopoly" because they're "advertising their products everywhere possible". I guess I can only ever drink Redbull, they're a monopoly, because they're advertising their products everywhere.

Seriously? That's our standard of what is a "monpoply"?

Words have no meaning anymore.

You can choose to use something different. The device you bought probably came with an alternative! Otherwise, the device next to it on the shelf on the store where you bought it likely would have had an alternative browser, because most devices on the store shelves outside of some hypothetical physical Google store don't come with Chrome.

[Dylan16807]

> Seriously? That's our standard of what is a "monpoply"?

No. That part of the post was answering your question about how it impacts people. Not what makes it a monopoly.

[vel0city]

I'm asking what features force me to use Chrome instead of Firefox or Edge or Safari. I've yet to hear an answer other than it's advertised heavily and that it's popular.

[traderj0e]

There's nothing forcing you to use Chrome instead of Edge, but some websites don't work with Safari or Firefox because Google has pushed nonstandard stuff. And it's weirdly not only advanced WebWhatever stuff, but also some things that affects basic features like forms. Though sometimes they have a separate mobile site that was tested in iPhone Safari.

I find the discrepancy kinda minor though. It's enough that I have Chrome installed alongside Firefox and Safari, but not enough that I use it often. It used to be worse.

[vel0city]

> There's nothing forcing you to use Chrome instead of Edge

This is what I mean. How is it a "monopoly" when one can easily just use something else?

The only thing people are saying its "its a monopoly because it has high market share". But a high market share does not a monopoly make, there's more to it than just purely market share. A monopoly requries outsized market power, something that to me at least it doesn't seem like Chrome, the web browser has.

[traderj0e]

The argument others are making is that Google has a monopoly on browser engines, or that it's becoming that way. IE switched to Chromium partially to resolve compatibility issues. I don't have a strong opinion on this though.

[Dylan16807]

People being able to switch relatively easily means that they're a lot more likely to lose their market power in five years. It doesn't do much to diminish their current market power, which is enormous.

High market share almost always means high market power. That's why people focus on market share since it's easy to cite.