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Noah
Noah
Jan 19, 2025, 10:38 AM
Forwarded from another channel:
Forwarded thread from another channel:
Ryan Jones
Ryan Jones
Nov 22, 2024, 10:26 AM
what's everybody's take on Google being forced to sell chrome? I think it ends badly for SEOs and the only people who benefit here are MS. CHrome itself doesn't make money without being tied to a search engine or ad network. just look at FF, 80% of it's revenue is from the search deal and 20% is from donations/grants.
If google can't bid on that default search box then it's not worth shit if Bing/brave are the only bidders (remember DDG is bing)
Moreover, SEOs lose too. no more crux data/apis powered by chrome. No more knowing googlebot is chrome. googlebot will have to be re-written to be something else we don't have access to. I just don't see it as a win for anybody.
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 22, 2024, 10:34 AM
My take is: let's see. Its a proposal, who knows how long it will take if it happens, will users still choose Google as their search engine of choice because there's nothing much better, etc.
Brent Rangen
Brent Rangen
Nov 22, 2024, 11:15 AM
NDB imo - par for the course on monopoly/antitrust cases. Reminds me of Windows and IE case.
Ryan Jones
Ryan Jones
Nov 22, 2024, 11:29 AM
there are definitely similarities, but the main complaint with IE was that it came by default. Here, Chrome is the largest browser and users have to go download it on 90% of machines sold. so it's clearly user choice to me.
Brent Rangen
Brent Rangen
Nov 22, 2024, 11:40 AM
correct, but being default (maybe only in some countries now) on Chrome is very similar - If divested, Chrome's new owner might have the incentive to make search engine selection more competitive and I believe that is how the it will be processed in the hearing.
Brent Rangen
Brent Rangen
Nov 22, 2024, 11:42 AM
Chrome’s market share isn’t purely the result of user choice but of its privileged positioning:
• Google Search pays billions to device manufacturers and browsers (like Apple Safari) to make Google the default.
• Chrome integrates deeply with Android, YouTube, and Google’s ad ecosystem, creating a feedback loop of dominance.
Dave Smart
Dave Smart
Nov 22, 2024, 11:59 AM
One of the things that stand out to me is would Google still invest such dev resources into chromium? If they have no incentives to do so, because it's not coming downstream to a chrome they own I doubt they would invest at least as heavily. Will Microsoft take up that slack for the sake of edge? Or brave? Or ark?
CrUX could theoretically become a service you pay to access, Google being one customer I suppose. But I do question how viable that would be.
I don't think many site owners would pay for it directly, when they're able to collect nearly the same data directly with browser APIs.
It's interesting that folks don't shout about Brave's use of their browser to do all the metrics and measurements, and indeed they actually _DO_ use it to off-load their crawling too, (something whilst they don't exactly hide, they don't exactly shout about either). But I guess that's also because they are far from the dominant position Google are in.
Dave Smart
Dave Smart
Nov 22, 2024, 12:03 PM
I also wonder who would want to buy Chrome, and for what purpose. How would they fund it and make it viable? Would it be out of the frying pan, into the fire?
Dave Smart
Dave Smart
Nov 22, 2024, 12:08 PM
There's also things like the V8 JavaScript engine, that's part of chromium / chrome, but is also used in things like nodejs
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 22, 2024, 12:10 PM
Create a separate entity if they feel there's monetary value from it, then buy it. Ex: Search partnerships, just like Apple, Firefox, etc.... oh, wait...
IMO Forcing Google to sell Chrome is a dumb idea from a regulator POV. I don't see it doing anything besides possibly killing a browser or creating another entity that will just sell the data because they have to monetize it somehow. A much more effective area to target would be ad exchange.
Ryan Jones
Ryan Jones
Nov 22, 2024, 12:25 PM
I think the most logical buyer is OpenAI. they need a browser/crawler badly. They could do it through their partnership with MS, or they could do this.
Either way, if an AI company buys it I fully expect them to discontinue it being opensource.
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 22, 2024, 12:55 PM
Why do they need a browser?
Ryan Jones
Ryan Jones
Nov 22, 2024, 1:20 PM
AI as a standalone website is going to die soon. by owning chrome they can ensure openAI gets used (and trained) across the web.
Dave Smart
Dave Smart
Nov 22, 2024, 2:07 PM
Yeah openAi would be a potential for sure. I mean they could fork chromium now, but would probably love to get the operation as it stands. Especially the people, if they could retain them.
Must be worrying times for Chrome staff, there's some genuinely lovely folks over there too, who are great at outreach and DevRel things.
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 22, 2024, 3:55 PM
Why not a desktop app? It may embed a browser, but I feel like we need to be considering future tech vs today's.
David Blažević
David Blažević
Nov 25, 2024, 3:06 AM
I'm not sure that this will be the outcome of the Google trial, several reasons why:
Trump won, and he and his BFF Musk are pro BigTech, so Google will get a big fine and a slap on the wrist and then its business as usual. There is too much money involved and nobody on the market can pay the sum Google would be asking for Chrome.
Microsoft faced similar outcome back in the days, but then Bush won and the rest is history.
Kyle Faber
Kyle Faber
Nov 25, 2024, 8:52 AM
Really interesting ideas and thoughts here!
@David Blažević I noticed you edited out your comment about being naive - thank you for that. I was going to mention avoiding comments like that as it’s generally not an inclusive and positive way to approach conversing on a topic.
Separately, and this is a fine line for us in this community, we do have a “no politics” policy. I think this conversation has a lot weighing on it from a policy standpoint which is good to discuss, but I also think it’s best for us to avoid speaking too much to people, parties, etc so we can stay on the right side of it.
David Blažević
David Blažević
Nov 25, 2024, 8:58 AM
@Kyle Faber thank you for your input. As for your comment on the policy, I can respect that, but the thing is that this topic (DOJ vs. Google and the outcomes) is connected to big business and that is always connected to politics, that is why I made that kind of comment. I'm not agitating for either side, just stating the obvious facts
Kyle Faber
Kyle Faber
Nov 25, 2024, 9:01 AM
Totally, @David Blažević!
I 100% agree that you cannot disconnect this topic from policy decisions—they are 100% connected. That’s why I said it’s a fine line and as long as we stay away from speaking about parties or people, I think we can stay on the right side of it.
Richard Gargan
Richard Gargan
Nov 25, 2024, 12:04 PM
Who knows what will happen, they seem all over the place to me lol
Vance has said “it’s time to break Google up”
Trump has recently threatened to prosecute Google
Trump has said he doesn’t want to break Google up but to make it “more fair”
Richard Gargan
Richard Gargan
Nov 25, 2024, 12:37 PM
Longer term it would be better for SEO’s to have a more diverse search market imho. It can’t be right that Google has the power to destroy businesses even if we agree with some of their decisions (eg the site reputation abuse crackdown)
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 25, 2024, 1:23 PM
Agreed, but this is not only an SEO mindset that needs to change. It is about creating sustainable orgs and diversified acquisition channels, not just search.

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