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submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by Joker@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world

Note: Original report by Bloomberg, article by Reuters proxied by Neuters to bypass paywall.

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[-] barkingspiders@infosec.pub 134 points 5 days ago

Lit. It's a good ask although it's not clear what separation means here. Not going to hold my breath, the big corpos seem to usually win these kind of games.

[-] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 72 points 5 days ago

Chrome is now owned by a company, owned by a company, owned by another company, that is owned by Google.

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 71 points 5 days ago

And even in the case where there is actual separation, and competition, it will only be temporary!

see history of telco consolidation after a monopoly breakup in 1984

Chrome is now owned by a separate conpany with the same major stock holders.

[-] Eldritch@lemmy.world 40 points 5 days ago

It's like they're a company pretending to be another company, disguised as another company. Tropic Thunder all the way down.

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 39 points 5 days ago

They can just wait it out until it becomes the corpo-friendly Dept. of Injustice on Jan. 20th.

[-] normalexit@lemmy.world 66 points 5 days ago

This seems like a sensible consumer protection to not let the ad company control the biggest web browser. I won't hold my breath, but I'm glad they are trying something.

AWS should also be split from Amazon.

[-] Zetta@mander.xyz 4 points 4 days ago

AWS is amazing's money maker, they might as well just sell Amazon and keep AWS lol

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[-] Rogue@feddit.uk 98 points 5 days ago

Google will bribe trump and this'll be undone immediately

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 94 points 5 days ago

Google is such a good company, one the best. Everybody says it. I was just talking to John Google the other day, and he tells me, no really he did, he tells me we're going to do amazing things together. Oogles of googles. That's what we'll sell. Everybody will know about google by this time next year. It's true.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 21 points 5 days ago

You forgot the unrelated rant in the middle about toasters being too dark these days or some shit.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

He also didn't say his name three times in 10 seconds. Then sort of fade off and vaguely look off into the distance.

They said to me Donald, Donald, they said Donald, they do amazing things, real bigly things, my father, my father, said to me Donald, they do big things Google land. Really good things.......... Yeah.......... Big things...........................

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[-] errer@lemmy.world 21 points 5 days ago

God damnit.

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[-] 0xb@lemm.ee 19 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

That would be the logical thing according to common sense and probably according to pichai a few weeks ago, but trump just nominated an anti big tech and musk friend to the FCC. musk is behind almost everybody in ai and autonomous cars so he'll definitely push to hamper all competitors.

Sure, we don't know how far would they go or how long will musk keep having white house influence and I personally think breaking up google is now off the table, but I don't think they will get off the hook too easily.

So surely a very big bribe.

[-] julianwgs@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 5 days ago

I‘ve actually when something like this will happen. A few years ago German energy providers and distributors needed to split, because it gives you an unfair advantage if you own both. Whole companies were split in two. People working for years together would no longer work together. In the end consumer were much better off after the split. I feel the same way with internet browser. It is unfair if you own the infrastructure (Chrome, energy grid) and the services that run on it (YouTube, power plants).

[-] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 20 points 4 days ago

The US did this to AT&T. It was broken up into dozens of "baby bells". Then it gradually bought them all back up and now it's as big as it ever was

[-] Inucune@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

Bell telephone. AT&T was one of the resulting companies.

[-] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

Thats stupid of the US to not block the merges again then.. :p

[-] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago

Well this process also spawned Verizon, so they do have legitimate competition now and that's what matters to antitrust actions

[-] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Very true, but in due time verizon could also be bought. Hence fcc should technically block it, like the nvidia and arm merge.
Or microsoft and activision ( which was heavily contested ).
Both were heavily contested worldwide

[-] very_well_lost@lemmy.world 53 points 5 days ago
[-] Twitches@lemm.ee 27 points 5 days ago

If you're talking about edge browser, edge is chrome.

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[-] vortexal@sopuli.xyz 38 points 5 days ago

If this happens, I'd be interested in seeing how this effects ChromeOS. I don't use it but my mom does.

Also, if you're confused as to why ChromeOS would be effected, while it's based on Gentoo Linux, ChromeOS uses a modified version of Chrome as it's Desktop Environment.

[-] btaf45@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Yes I would like to know what that means for ChromeOS and Chromebooks. If the new "Chrome" company got ChromeOS also that would be huge. But if that is not a requirement Google could just put another Chromium browser in ChromeOS. They could also continue to sell Chromebooks but based on a ChromiumOS fork.

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[-] nyan@lemmy.cafe 21 points 5 days ago

And whoever buys it won't also have some kind of ulterior motive? Chrome isn't likely to be a money-maker on its own. If it were, Firefox would have less trouble staying afloat. Anyone who buys Chrome most likely will have plans for it that are no more in the end-user's best interest than Google's.

[-] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 22 points 5 days ago

It's not about dispelling any ulterior motive. The idea of anti-monopoly enforcement actions is that if the "business ecosystem" is good and healthy, then other companies who don't own Chrome will be able to compete with whoever owns Chrome, giving the consumer choice that people who like the free market say will reduce consumer exploitation. (If you can't tell from my tone, I am dubious, at best, of this logic)

[-] ulterno@programming.dev 14 points 5 days ago

Google: Sure, we'll sell it to anyone who pays off our Russian Govt fine.

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[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

How do you force someone to sell something thats open source?

Can the government please force me to sell my open source software too? If they could be my sales department, I'd love that. Pretty please.

[-] btaf45@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

I don't see how a "Chrome" company would make any money. Now if the Chrome Company also owned ChromeOS and Chromebooks that might be interesting. But it could also be bad, because such a company would probably want to take a cut of every Chromebook in order to actually make money.

[-] ccdfa@lemm.ee 7 points 5 days ago

Chromium is open source, Google bases their Chrome off of it, but Chrome is not open source.

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[-] Scrollone@feddit.it 9 points 5 days ago

It will never happen. But it would be a good thing for the openness of the web. More Firefox, less Chrome.

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[-] ptz@dubvee.org 13 points 5 days ago

Ugh. Just link to Reuters.

[-] Joker@sh.itjust.works 15 points 5 days ago
[-] woelkchen@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago

It has a soft paywall.

I think the common practice is to link to the original in the URL bar and then use the body text to do paywall/loginwall removals.

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[-] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 11 points 5 days ago

LoL they won't, even if they buy it for 1 trillion dollar

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this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2024
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