zlacker

> Apple will reportedly receive 20 billion USD for having Google as the default search engine. Presumably, this is why they are fighting so hard against having any meaningful competition on iOS.

Dizzying rent-seeking fees

>>ommz+(OP)
It's also 20 billion Apple has to do almost nothing for, except ban the other browsers and set google as the default search engine in Safari. It's a significant proportion of their yearly profit.

>>mtomwe+k
This doesn’t make sense. There are other browsers on the App Store and, although they have to use Safari’s browser engine, they’re free to prioritise search engine preferences as they see fit.

>>steve_+U
The real versions of Firefox, Chrome and Edge etc have been banned. Instead Apple forces them to create new browsers which use their controlled, locked and unmodifiable WebView removing the majority of the ways that these browsers can differentiate themselves while providing features exclusive to Safari (like the ability to install Web Apps).

This ensures that none of the "browsers" can compete on iOS and this obvious by comparing browser market share of the same browser between iOS and Android.

>>ommz+(OP)
I have a naive question..what would happen if google simply stopped paying this money, and let the user decide?...I guess it wouldn't affect them much, google is still the best search engine.

>>steve_+U
There are no other browsers on iOS. They're all Safari wearing a different surface mask.

And even those exist only on sufferance of Apples reviewers.

>>steve_+U
(Unless of course they prioritize something that Apple deems to be against their rules.)

>>TimCTR+u1
Except Google rarely/barely is the best search engine anymore.

>>TimCTR+u1
Bing was the default 2012 - 2017. Apparently Google found that it is well worth it to them to pay these massive amounts.

>>steve_+U
You couldn't set any if these alternative browsers as the default until fairly recently. That ensured their market share was kept to a minimum and people have gotten so used to Safari few people find it worth switching now.

Also, Safari has some super powers compared to the others on iOS (things the other browsers are simply not allowed or even able to do like Add to homescreen)

>>mtomwe+p1
To be precise, the thing that makes a browser meaningfully different (the engine, Firefox has Gecko, Chrome has Blink, Edge also uses Blink, although Blink is often identified as chromium) isn't allowed to exist on iOS.

As you say, Apple only allows their own WebView to exist on iOS, which is an engine they both control entirely and is heavily locked down. Not helping matters is that WebView runs on WebKit (Safari uses WebKit as well), which is these days pretty much the equivalent of Internet Explorer in terms of browser shenanigans[0].

The result is that the only real thing you get from Firefox/Chrome/Edge on iOS is access to your synchronized bookmarks. Apple doesn't offer any form of a WebExtension implementation either to these engines (instead rolling their own version, which they confusingly also call WebExtension), and none of the previously mentioned browsers are even allowed to add the universal form of WebExtension support to WebKit. The result is that iOS also remains one of the few platforms where meaningful adblocking remains a crapshoot (entirely beneficial to Apple of course).

[0]: To be somewhat fair here, WebKit *is* very useful for more embedded/low powered devices that aren't intended to access a lot of websites to begin with. There are some uses for WebKit, IE had none near the end.

>>mtomwe+p1
You're all misunderstanding his point. True that the underlying engine is the same but they do still have control over the default search engine.

>>hauxir+Rd
Control over engine = browser differentiation = market share = search engine revenue

>>TimCTR+u1
Google is worried that Apple would then release a search engine and that would be worse for them than the somple payment.