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Comment by FirmwareBurner | Hacker News Reader

Wish we also covered the tricks that Google used to trick users into adopting Chrome, like paying every freeware vendor since 2009 to install Chrome automatically on your system if you forgot to untick the "Install Chrome" box, similar to any other spyware of the era like the Ask Jeeves or Yahoo! toolbars.

I remember back then, when Chrome just came out, asking non-tech people how they got it and they always answered "I dunno, it just showed up".

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At the time, Chrome was the scrappy new browser coming from the company that vowed to “don’t be evil”, challenging the well-entrenched and stagnant IE11. Most tech people started using Chrome because of this, and had no problem earning a few bucks promoting it.

>Most tech people started using Chrome because of this, and had no problem earning a few bucks promoting it.

That's how EEE works.

Who could forget the sticker campaign?

I was always impressed and terrified that a single click from IE could start the Chrome installer without any further user interaction.

At least you can always uninstall Chrome.

Not on Google-made OSes, no. Like most Androids.

Indeed. Living without Android seems mostly feasible however, while living without Windows looks quite difficult (meaning: more jobs require Windows than Android).

And Android is not pushing me ads for Chrome, it's basically like older Windows where it's installed but not an annoyance once we installed another browser.

It’s actually quite easy to live without android or windows these days. Of course, you are firmly in an apple world at that point, so pick your poison.

Only on countries of high income.

Or in China. But I guess it isn’t much difference these days.

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