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Comment by ksec | Hacker News Reader

I disliked Google ever since they started their "Do No Evil" PR campaign. For as long as I remember I was the extreme rare few on internet against them.

And I also disliked Chrome. Especially the direction of the web they are using Chrome to push forward.

And I also disliked Electron.

But I am against DOJ forcing Google to sell off Chrome. Especially when most of Chrome is open sourced. I think this is just plain wrong. Why dont we force Apple to open source macOS? Microsoft to Open Source Windows? Or Selling off Office. SpaceX to sell its Engine?

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None of those exhibit the same sort of outsized influence that chrome does on global web standards. The app store duopoly might come close but still not to the same extent.

Being open source has nothing to do with it. Of course selling it off won't necessarily accomplish the desired result since at the end of the day it isn't the legal ownership per se that results in the influence.

Outsize influence combined with conflict of interest. The other branches of Google have too much to gain from being able to steer the direction of the web with Chrome, and the company as a whole benefits from writing its web apps in a way that makes them work better under Chrome, making for self-reinforcing hegemony. It’s just as bad as MS+IE, maybe worse since Chromium/Blink being open source has given them plausible deniability that MS didn’t have.

Chrome isn't bundled with Windows, but most Window users decided to install Chrome.

While I agree outsized influence that chrome does on global web standards, it is not like Apple doesn't or couldn't invent something as well. The reality is that no one has the incentive to make better web technology.

If Google sold off Chrome, who will buy it? Are Google even allowed to make another browser based on same technology? What is everyone just installed that again? Selling off Chrome doesn't make any sense at all. And as you said. Their influence on development of Blink is still, Google.

> None of those exhibit the same sort of outsized influence that chrome does on global web standards

Besides the renaissance in web interop we've been having recently under baseline and Interop, which quite a few commenters in this thread seem to have no idea about but still feel the need to share their opinion on web standards...

That has nothing to do with a search monopoly, which is what this remedy is trying to address.

Electron isn’t a google product…

Also why bring up disliking something as though you were ahead of the curve only to stop short of actually being in favor of taking action?

> Electron isn’t a google product…

Sure, but it's exacerbating the Blink monoculture anyway.

Concessive openings are a common means to lend extra weight to your conclusion. By signaling you're against $THING in general, your support for $THING in a particular instance is more profound than the support of a person who always supports $THING.

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