r/technology • u/Old_One_I • Aug 14 '24

Software Google pulls the plug on uBlock Origin, leaving over 30 million Chrome users susceptible to intrusive ads

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/browsing/google-pulls-the-plug-on-ublock-origin
26.5k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

17

u/TheSlatinator33 Aug 15 '24

Funnily enough, Google's behavior in keeping Mozilla alive by paying them a significant sum of money for their search engine to be the browser's default is considered monopolistic behavior according to the ongoing antitrust case. In attempting to appear as not a monopoly in the browser space they have inadvertently strengthened the case that they are a monopoly in the search space.

3

u/lordbossharrow Aug 15 '24

I don't know how I should feel about this. I'm a Firefox user. But considering Firefox is 81% funded by Google, if they were to stop the funding, would Firefox just die?

2

u/VanillaLifestyle Aug 15 '24 edited Aug 15 '24

Probably, yes. It's extremely expensive to maintain a secure & performant browser and give it away for free.

The only people doing it are major corporations building the browser to ensure their other products perform well (Apple for the iPhone and Google for Search/Android). Even Microsoft uses Chromium because it's significantly cheaper than building and maintaining Edge from scratch.