• Jamie@jamie.moe
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    1 year ago

    Google and Chrome really need to be broken up. Maybe people should start writing (physical) letters to the FTC asking to review Google’s recent actions as monopolistic behavior.

    It wouldn’t be the first time. But showing the interest is the best way to get the ball rolling that we can do.

    • WindyRebel@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Honest curiosity on your answer to this.

      Google is the developer of Chromium and the Chrome browser which uses Chromium. Chromium is free and open source (though owned by Google).

      I’m not sure how you break up Chrome and Google. That’s literally their product. Who are we giving this to? There are browsers that do not use Chromium (e.g., Firefox and Safari being the big ones).

      • Jamie@jamie.moe
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        1 year ago

        Companies have gotten broken up before, like AT&T once did many years ago. In this case, a Google breakup would probably separate some of their services into different companies. At the very least Google (the “advertising” company) should be separate from Chrome (the “browser” company), because it creates a conflict of interest and creates monopolistic behavior.

        In any case, trying to do something is better than doing nothing and hoping it turns out all right.

        • PixelPlumber@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I think the poster is making a good point though- In this split, google the advertising company can freely contribute to the open source chromium. You need some model that leads the chromium maintainer to reject changes like this.

          • Jamie@jamie.moe
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            1 year ago

            I’m sure there’s some mechanism in antitrust to prevent the broken up companies from doing things like that. Otherwise, a “primary” company would just contract out the old other pieces and they’re basically whole again.

            • PixelPlumber@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              That’s true, I just wonder if open source changes anything, legally. Unless one term of the breakup is “will not contribute to chromium”

      • foggy@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Google isnt Google anymore. It’s Alphabet. Alphabet includes Google domains, Android, Gmail, YouTube, chrome, Google search, search ads, play store, fuscia, Google maps, authenticator, chat, classroom, assistant, meet, nest, pixel, waze, Gboard, messages, google tv, Google photos and the rest

        Each one of these have their own presidents, their own boards, their own teams. They are all directed by Alphabet.

      • LostMyRedditLogin@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Spin it off on their own and survive like Firefox. Browsers make money putting links in the homepage and adding search engines.

      • Jamie@jamie.moe
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        1 year ago

        I didn’t include details because I still had to research after the comment, but this page details several methods of contact. The antitrust email looks like a good place to start if you don’t want to mail anything. But physical mail is harder to ignore, it actually has to get into someone’s hands and be dealt with. So I’ll try to write up a letter and send that to maybe the regional office nearest Google’s HQ.

        • ArcticCircleSystem@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Have people not been trying that for years already? How do we know if there’s a good chance that’ll even do anything beyond get tossed in the trash? ~Strawberry