[HN Gopher] Windows 11 update changed default browser to Edge, C...
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       Windows 11 update changed default browser to Edge, Chrome search-
       engine to Bing
        
       Author : qwertyuiop_
       Score  : 23 points
       Date   : 2022-01-30 20:25 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (old.reddit.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (old.reddit.com)
        
       | errantmind wrote:
       | I'm happy to see Microsoft digging their own grave. They don't
       | see this as different from how it went down in the late 90s and
       | early 2000s. They don't have the same moat they used to, but they
       | think they do.
        
       | imbnwa wrote:
       | The problem is that OOTB Chrome, the market leader, comes with
       | search set to Google. Even if they were required to present a
       | choice on first startup after install, most people wouldn't
       | bother changing it. This makes controlling the browser table
       | stakes for operating a successful search engine (Brave now has
       | its own search engine, Brave Search, set to the default; the beta
       | MacOS-only Webkit browser Orion has its search set to its parent
       | company's search, Kaagi Search).
       | 
       | MS is certainly cheating by using OS updates to pull a switcharoo
       | but I imagine the alternative to possibly converting a Windows
       | user, a fairly large demographic of computer user, to Bing is
       | further entrenchment of Google's dominance, so in a weird way I'm
       | somewhat sympathetic. Google's control of Chromium and its search
       | dominance gets criticized but barring legal separation of the
       | browser from the search engine, what else should MS do? Saying
       | "well, make Bing better" can only be a partial answer when the
       | larger demographic of browser users _never see your search
       | engine_. Techie Evangelism hasn 't saved Firefox, Google's
       | leveraging an existing monopoly to push Chrome has seen to that
       | angle no longer being enough.
       | 
       | Its right to read the situation as "M$FT gonna M$FT", but in
       | terms of the browser/search markets and their synergetic
       | leveraging, this also speaks to the scope of the problem of
       | Google's dominion.
        
       | warning26 wrote:
       | So sketchy -- I actually like Chromium Edge, but I stopped using
       | it because of Microsoft's increasingly slimy tactics they're
       | using to push it and Bing.
        
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       (page generated 2022-01-30 23:02 UTC)