Ask HN: If Google will sell Chrome, is that a good thing?
Google has always done a great job with Chromium. Delivering consistent updates and very good security. Do we actually want this to disappear? What if another company takes it and ruins Chromium?
It depends on who buys it and what their incentives are. Chromium itself is open source and won’t vanish just because Google sells Chrome. The bigger risk is that whoever takes over Chrome might push it in directions that serve their business rather than the web. We’ve already seen how default choices in a browser can shape the whole internet. If the new owner respects open standards and invests in security like Google has, it could be fine. If not, fragmentation or neglect could hurt the ecosystem.
> The bigger risk is that whoever takes over Chrome might push it in directions that serve their business rather than the web
This is already the case, with Google using Chrome to push the web in the direction that serves their business rather than the users
Depends on who this other company is and what their goal is. Perplexity? Most likely no.
Some open-source foundation? Maybe.
Think about the second, third, fourth and fifth order events.
What do you think would happen to Mozilla?