
Edge vs. Chrome: Microsoft's Tracking Prevention Hits Google the Hardest - mandliya
https://www.zdnet.com/article/with-its-new-edge-browser-microsoft-takes-dead-aim-at-google/
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enitihas
Tracking prevention in Edge makes sense for Microsoft, as they already have
more than enough tracking in windows itself.

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AA-BA-94-2A-56
Do you think they’re trying to monopolise user data to sell to advertisers?

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Braggadocious
targeting ads is only one teeny tiny use case for user data. Building general
AI is a race and the more user data you have the faster your AI will learn.
You definitely want to limit the amount of data your competitors have.

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inetknght
How users use computers has very little to do for a useful AI.

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Infinitesimus
Probably true for AGI but the overloaded term "AI" could be applied to learn
from how people use software to _carefully_ suggest improvements.

Usage stats could help you improve a user interface, teach users new skills
(eg: "you always do this, here's a shortcut to save you time"), perhaps more
personalized operating system interfaces and defaults.

You probably don't need a fancy pseudo "AI" system for any of these, but
that's the current gold rush so someone's gonna do it

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dorkwood
I look forward to the day when the term 'AGI' gets co-opted by marketers and
we need to come up with a new term for true AGI (TAGI?).

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dudus
I can't tell from the article. Does anyone know if Google Analytics is blocked
by default? It says the default is Balanced mode and that the trackers blocked
are mostly from Google. But it doesn't make it clear if Google Analytics is
blocked by default.

Google Analytics uses first party cookies so it usually passes by default
blockers at least. If they are blocking that by default this is a massive
blow. Otherwise it's blocking things that are probably already blocked in
other popular platforms such as Safari on OSX and IOS, and this is much less
impressive.

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vmurthy
"Of that total, 552 were from Google domains. That's a mind-boggling 23.8% of
the total. To put that into perspective, the second entry on the list of
blocked trackers was Facebook, which represented 3.8% of the total. (It's
worth noting that these results shouldn't suggest any kind of conspiracy
against Google. The fact that Google is at the top of any list of online
trackers is a reflection of their business model and their ubiquity. Google
Analytics and Google AdSense are embedded on a staggering number of web
pages.)"

It sounds like Google Analytics is blocked by default at least in the
"Balanced" mode

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dudus
That's the quote I read and was confused about.

It says most trackers blocked are from Google but don't mention which ones.
Then at the end says Google analytics and AdSense are embedded in a lot of
websites which is obvious but doesn't make it clear if they are blocked by
default or not.

The blocked scripts might all be the double click 3rd party trackers which are
also omnious.

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mrtksn
There are claims about Google "mistakenly" breaking Youtube etc. on Firefox. I
wonder what happens if Microsoft "mistakenly" breaks Chrome and the updater?

Because when these companies truly take on to each other, they do play dirty.

I would prefer to watch such a fight, instead of browsers becoming non-
standard. Default ad-blocking shouldn't be a thing, what's next? Browsers with
default Reddit enhancement suits?

The default should be, browsers render whatever the HTML and JS say and leave
it to the users to choose to modify this through ad blocking extensions and so
on.

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iamaelephant
Google is already doing this with Edge, too. Google Maps on Edge will give an
error message, "Google Maps does not have permission to use your location," no
matter how you have your permissions set. I'm very sure there will be other
examples. Google very subtly breaks things intentionally on competing
browsers.

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bishalb
Also this [https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18148736/google-
youtube-...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18148736/google-youtube-
microsoft-edge-intern-claims)

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chkaloon
With the new Edge Zdnet articles like this one maybe will be more readable
without garbage all over the page.

~~~
sorenjan
It's very readable with the reader mode in Firefox.

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petilon
Chromium-based Edge will curb abuses by both Google and Microsoft. Now we can
use Edge when using Google's services such as Gmail, and Chrome when using
Microsoft's services. This will prevent abuses such as Chrome logging you into
the browser itself when you log into Gmail, thereby enhancing their
surveillance.

Incidentally, Chrome had a longstanding bug where the setting that prevents
Chrome logging you into the browser just didn't work. Recently it has started
working. Is it a coincidence that this got fixed just weeks before Chromium-
based Edge is due to be released? I think not! Hurrah for competition!

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paulcarroty
Hard to believe if you know about their Windows deals, especially super funny
ignoring blocked Microsoft telemetry hosts by default firewall.

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ropiwqefjnpoa
And they're doing it with Chromium, this is all a little poetic.

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finchisko
MS turning Google owned guns, against them. But I shed no tear here. Browser
wars are actually quite amazing battlefield to follow.

~~~
machinecoffee
MS also attempting to use its monopoly position on the desktop to damage a
competitor, there's no heroes in this fight.

I say attempting because, thank goodness, MS no longer has the stranglehold
that it used to have - due to Google attempting itself trying to get a
stranglehold on all computing devices that people use through Android.

I'm surprised that Fuchsia hasn't made an appearance yet as that will probably
also be pitched as a competitor to Windows, hoping to further erode MS's
position in the market.

I kinda hope they make Fuchsia a full-fledged desktop OS other than the same
online-only offering that Chromium was.

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asadkn
Hit hard with what? The 1% marketshare it will eventually get like the
previous Edge versions?

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rasz
Not if they refuse Manifest v3 and remain the only Blink browser with full
uBlock Origin support.

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thoughtexprmnt
> simple text files called Tracking Protection Lists (TPLs) to allow or block
> third-party requests from specific domains

Sounds like a hosts file, and the same end result could be achieved in any
browser/system-wide by using a curated one such as:

[https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts](https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts)

Or is Edge Tracking Prevention more effective in some way?

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bishalb
Does it block trackers for Bing display network ads or not?

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maelito
I'm still looking for a browser that lets me pay websites visited in exchange
of being served no ads.

I don't understand why Mozilla doesn't offer this kind of subscription in
Firefox. That could solve their funding problem too.

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joecool1029
>I'm still looking for a browser that lets me pay websites visited in exchange
of being served no ads.

Isn't that the entire premise of Brave's browser?
[https://brave.com/](https://brave.com/)

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maelito
I thought so at first, but :

> Earn rewards by opting into our privacy-respecting ads

That's not what I want. My problem is with ads, as a dumb consumption
catalyser and weak revenue model, not with privacy-concerning ads.

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keithnz
I believe you can simply buy brave currency also, so you don't need to look at
ads at all.

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rogerkirkness
In what way is this _not_ the extend phase of embrace, extend, extinguish?

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wayneftw
You need a majority market share to extinguish something. Edge has 2%.

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golemiprague
It will have much more once the chromium based one comes out. You won't
believe how many people still use explorer out of the box, they just get told
to use Chrome once some website is not working. But if they will work all the
same there won't be any reason to switch.

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bishalb
I think more people install chrome when they visit Google.com and are prompted
to install it.

