I feel like I fully lack the words to describe what I mean here, although I’m confident in my understanding of the idea. (Which is to say, please give me charity when untangling my rambling.)
I share your sentiment and I’ve been thinking about this the past few days.
I’ve read in a few places that Musk is trying to turn twitter into a ‘one-app’ in the same way that WeChat is. The common pushback against that is that we already have that - it’s the web browser. The web browser isn’t going anywhere.
But turning the browser into a closed ecosystem that Google gets to set the standard for, harvest the data for, advertise through, and ensure that users are locked in to their version of the experience/data that they collect essentially makes Chrome the one-app.
In much the same way that google killed XMPP, Microsoft used its weight to hamstring open document formats - this seems like an effort to thread a rope around the neck of the open internet and use google’s considerable market share to close off the open internet.
Somewhat ironically, we may find ourselves in search of a ‘new, open internet’ if corporations continue to define our current internet.
Maybe we’ll call it “Web 1.0.”
I think Google will try, but we all know how it will end. Google and other for profit companies have this stage where they become “anti user” and just care about squeezing the more money out of everyone with no regard to the experience or the value they keep providing.
At that point Chrome will be a terrible experience and users will be looking for alternatives. Not the passive users, but the world is full of users who don’t just sit there seeing everything getting shittier and shittier every week. A large enough portion of users will hear about a better place and get curious.
I feel like I fully lack the words to describe what I mean here, although I’m confident in my understanding of the idea. (Which is to say, please give me charity when untangling my rambling.)
I share your sentiment and I’ve been thinking about this the past few days.
I’ve read in a few places that Musk is trying to turn twitter into a ‘one-app’ in the same way that WeChat is. The common pushback against that is that we already have that - it’s the web browser. The web browser isn’t going anywhere.
But turning the browser into a closed ecosystem that Google gets to set the standard for, harvest the data for, advertise through, and ensure that users are locked in to their version of the experience/data that they collect essentially makes Chrome the one-app.
In much the same way that google killed XMPP, Microsoft used its weight to hamstring open document formats - this seems like an effort to thread a rope around the neck of the open internet and use google’s considerable market share to close off the open internet.
Somewhat ironically, we may find ourselves in search of a ‘new, open internet’ if corporations continue to define our current internet.
Maybe we’ll call it “Web 1.0.”
Let’s call it the fediverse. :)
I think Google will try, but we all know how it will end. Google and other for profit companies have this stage where they become “anti user” and just care about squeezing the more money out of everyone with no regard to the experience or the value they keep providing.
At that point Chrome will be a terrible experience and users will be looking for alternatives. Not the passive users, but the world is full of users who don’t just sit there seeing everything getting shittier and shittier every week. A large enough portion of users will hear about a better place and get curious.