zlacker

>>neelc+(OP)
Firefox once was the only alternative to internet explorer. Then Google came along to become the new and improved alternative to the alternative and it became quite successful. MS eventually threw in the towel and their browser market share is lower than it has ever been. And most of that is now Google Chrome.

And now history repeats itself and we have Firefox being the alternative to the mighty Google Chrome and Google emulating more and more of what people hated about Microsoft's stewardship of Internet Explorer and dictating to users what they must have their eyeballs exposed to. In Microsoft's case that was obnoxious popups and popunders, shitty toolbars, and endless crap they came up with to somehow lock users into all that. Now Google is whining that nobody wants to see their shitty ads (correct) and somehow feels entitled enough that they can dictate browsers to respect their authority regarding what users can and cannot block. It's the same behavior. And the fix is the same: abandon the Chrome ecosystem. The more users do that, the more the web will basically remain outside of the control of Google.

>>jilles+Hq
> somehow feels entitled enough that they can dictate browsers to respect their authority regarding what users can and cannot block. It's the same behavior. And the fix is the same: abandon the Chrome ecosystem. The more users do that, the more the web will basically remain outside of the control of Google.

This is fundamentally the problem isn't it. They feel entitled _because_ they can dictate terms to the rest of the web, or at least they think so. There's no fixing this by changing Google's mind, only by forcing their hand by making this decision hurt their wallet. And as you point out, that only happens if people stay outside of the Google garden.

>>genoci+kr
Microsoft thought they can do that too. Where is IE now?

>>gmerc+Rt
I think circumstances are different now because alternatives to IE provided superior user experience, so there was a motivation for "normies" to switch. At present it seems to me that "normies" are quite content with Chrome and enticing them to switch is going to be quite challenging.

Not sure what is the solution here. Several years ago it seemed to me that Mozilla may be on track to get their shit together, then they decided to lay off Rust/Servo people, left their Firefox for Android team barely staffed so they couldn't even handle more that handful of supported extensions and instead spent all the money on their CEO bonuses. Guess this is going to be quite a painful decade for the open Web...