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Comment by redbell | Hacker News Reader

Apparently, MS didn't learn from its IE antitrust experience in the 90s. The FTC should take action now..

I have Chrome installed on my Windows machine but haven't launched it in months. I also have Edge installed and set as the default browser, but guess what? The other day, I needed to test some work related to web-sev on Chrome, and the moment I clicked its icon in the taskbar, windows showed up a pop-up notification that read something like: "use Edge instead, a fast, secure.. bla bla browser".

Edit: I definitely agree that Google is behaving the same, in a way or another but what pains me in the Microsoft’s case is that I already paid for my Windows license, so I expect some level of freedom unlike using Google for free.

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Chrome and Google search have their own nudges right? I get many notifications from gmail telling me to install their mail app, or from google search telling me Chrome is better.

What's the legal argument that could apply to one but not the other? Chrome has a better case of being called a monopoly in the browser space.

And Windows has a better case of being called a monopoly in the desktop space. Preferably both of these should be met with antitrust suits.

Break them all up!

The FTC has been finally doing it's job recently, so unless the other side wins the next election and guts them, I think the tech industry might actually have a future that isn't just more miserable dystopia.

As far as I remember, I only see "Install the Gmail app!" nudges when I'm using Gmail web. Same for Yahoo mail and other "free" services.

Searching in Chrome for "Microsoft Edge download" results in no nudges to keep using Chrome (on my MBP). Same for Safari - no nudges to keep using it when I search "Firefox download" or "Chrome download".

So, MS is using their dominance in the desktop OS market to drive use of their browser. And then adding friction (via nudges and surveys) to retain that browser marketshare.

Maybe the previous poster is talking about when Google Search advertised for Google Chrome too.

They're doing this because they know regulators have been asleep at the wheel for decades. If they do wake up and make a fuss, they can roll it back and pay a small fine.

Chrome's nudges aren't built into the product that we paid a lot of money for?

It’s not a switch campaign but Google just begged me to login before showing me my search results. Both of you, stop. It’s a desperate look.

I live in constant fear that the Arc team (my beloved browser) will start chasing revenue with these privacy invasive services. Can I please have the option to just pay for the software? I’m so tired of being the product.

I feel the same about Brave. I'm just using it until it inevitably becomes another privacy invader one day.

Opera is crafting it's own unique and utterly bizarre behavior.

There's a new .exe that runs on browser launch, blasting users with very, very loud sound. There's no obvious way to disable it. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=opera+loud+startup+site%253Areddit...

When trying to upload a file, one might expect a file picker. Instead, Opera pops open a small window with some pictures of earlier downloads. There's no option to navigate to the file you need. There's no evident path to exit the experience or even a window title to indicate what it's called (easy-files). In short, you're stuck.

That's so confusing lol I was just thinking about Opera after reading this earlier and having some youtube videos on where people keep telling me I need to use it. Again makes me wonder, why is people using a browser so important to these companies when they distribute it for free? I mean, the answer is clearly, at least my assumption is, they're stealing data and they all want that sweet sweet data.

But, what is the user supposed to feel is the reason? I feel like the only reasonable explanation is that they're trying to rope more product in to sell data but they don't even seem to be trying to hide it. I just feel like I can't think of an alternative reason any company would care if we used their specific browser.

I was so gutted when Opera was sold to a chinese company... it was the last good browser.. now it's spyware

Isn't the company behind Arc VC funded + the browser itself proprietary?

Both of those things together basically guarantees they'll try to squeeze out as money as possible from their users as soon as the "growth" phase has been completed.

You need an Arc account to use Arc too, don’t you?

GitHub has started showing me a persistent login pop-out on certain pages. Literally no way to dismiss it, so I just uBlocked the element. I don't really want to log in to GitHub in the first place. If I'm there its to check out a public repo. I haven't pushed anything in years, I use my own server now.

The 7 tech companies are keeping the US economy afloat. They're also gigantic national and international surveillance operations. You're probably more likely to get suicided by the CIA for complaining than any kind of action being taken against Microsoft.

I laughed out loud even though it's so sad. Sad but true.

I’m surprised by their candor with all of this too. It’s ingrained in their culture.

I work in games at Microsoft and FWIW it really isn't, at least not any where near our team.

Well, your team isn't anywhere near the Windows or Edge team, is it?

here it's more like the Bing team.

It's all about targeted ads.

Is there a way to file a complaint online?

They did learn. They learned they could do it and it would take a long time before any action was taken and whatever fine came at the end would be an acceptable cost.

Microsoft learnt form the 90s that it could get away with it with a small slap on the wrist.

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