undefined | Better HN

0 pointsjnordwick8y ago0 comments

Firefox beta on Android is slow, but wrorst is if you use Google's search tools (like time range) Google sends Firefox a search results page without that ability or many other things (plus side, there's no amp).

How about some browse neutrality from Google?

0 comments

8 comments · 2 top-level

gruez8y ago· 4 in thread

there's an extension to fix that: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chrome-ua-on-...

eitland8y ago

It's pretty amazing that Google can discriminate so obviously against competitors and not be punished like Microsoft rightfully was whem I was young...!

Proof of monopoly abuse right here: no technical reason, just a wish to crush competition.

Or am I missing something?

jnordwickOP8y ago

There are a few of them, but i didn't want to keep fighting against Google and chrome is going to take up space on my phone regardless. I only have 16gb of internal storage so I'm often struggling with that. (Android seems to work their hardest to make the expandable micosd not very useful).

eitland8y ago

Reasonable in your case but I'll remind everyone here that we used to fight tooth and nail against Microsoft back in the days

- and we won: I'm now free to use Linux at work. I think cloud computing as we know it happened as a result of the liberation of server class operating systems etc.

So my suggestion is we continue to make noise until we get meaningful change.

(And just like with MS back in the days I don't think everyone working for Google is evil, it just seems to be next to impossible to have that kind of power as a company and not abuse it.)

mnx8y ago

Oh, thanks for this.

falcolas8y ago· 2 in thread

If not forced to by some external entity, why would they ever do that? It's not in their best interests for any sense of the word.

simias8y ago

For the same reason that they expect websites not to display a different content when they see the googlebot UA for instance? It's pretty shady behavior IMO, that's not how the web is supposed to function. It's something I would've expected from Microsoft more than 10 years ago. I guess chrome really is the new IE.

I also expect them to do the right thing because of "Don't Be Evil", but that doesn't really mean much anymore, right?

jnordwickOP8y ago

Google depends on external things too - especially the foss community. Eg, if github sees a connection coming from Google that is /not/ their indexing bot, give them a limited page.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

8 comments · 2 top-level

gruez8y ago· 4 in thread

there's an extension to fix that: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chrome-ua-on-...

eitland8y ago

It's pretty amazing that Google can discriminate so obviously against competitors and not be punished like Microsoft rightfully was whem I was young...!

Proof of monopoly abuse right here: no technical reason, just a wish to crush competition.

Or am I missing something?

jnordwickOP8y ago

eitland8y ago

Reasonable in your case but I'll remind everyone here that we used to fight tooth and nail against Microsoft back in the days

- and we won: I'm now free to use Linux at work. I think cloud computing as we know it happened as a result of the liberation of server class operating systems etc.

So my suggestion is we continue to make noise until we get meaningful change.

(And just like with MS back in the days I don't think everyone working for Google is evil, it just seems to be next to impossible to have that kind of power as a company and not abuse it.)

mnx8y ago

Oh, thanks for this.

falcolas8y ago· 2 in thread

If not forced to by some external entity, why would they ever do that? It's not in their best interests for any sense of the word.

simias8y ago

I also expect them to do the right thing because of "Don't Be Evil", but that doesn't really mean much anymore, right?

jnordwickOP8y ago

Google depends on external things too - especially the foss community. Eg, if github sees a connection coming from Google that is /not/ their indexing bot, give them a limited page.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse