
Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are bringing back the browser wars - joeyespo
https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/26/probeat-google-chrome-and-mozilla-firefox-are-bringing-back-the-browser-wars/
======
clouddrover
> _Google is doubling down on the user experience by focusing on ads and
> performance, an opportunity I’ve argued its competitors have completely
> missed._

I don't agree they've missed the opportunity. Both Brave and Firefox have made
the point that their built-in tracking protection can improve the user
experience by cutting page load times in half:

[https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/tracking-protection-
always-...](https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/tracking-protection-always-on/)

And this is something the article author himself reported on in 2015:

[https://venturebeat.com/2015/05/24/firefoxs-optional-
trackin...](https://venturebeat.com/2015/05/24/firefoxs-optional-tracking-
protection-reduces-load-time-for-top-news-sites-by-44/)

Additionally, even with the change to WebExtensions, Firefox's add-on API
offers more capability to developers of blocker add-ons than Chrome does.
Giorgio Maone, the developer of NoScript, considers Firefox's add-ons API to
be the best of any current browser:

[https://hackademix.net/2017/11/21/noscript-1011-quantum-
powe...](https://hackademix.net/2017/11/21/noscript-1011-quantum-powerball-
finish-and-rebooting/)

~~~
ragnarrr
The ideal future of web browser evolution in my view:

\- Brave overtakes chrome.

\- Blockstack overtakes Brave.

Eventually (I hope) users will demand full control over both their data and
the content they view.

------
twblalock
Firefox's market share has not increased recently. According to the data I can
find, it is slightly down over the past several months. Chrome is still just
over 60% on both desktop and mobile.

So, why would Google be worried about Firefox? If anything, they would be
worried about Safari, which is the primary mobile competitor to Chrome and is
being marketed on the desktop as having increased performance and strong
privacy features.

~~~
biehl
Because Firefox is actually great now. I just switched back to Firefox as my
primary browser. I suspect others will do as well.

~~~
fellellor
Firefox is excellent when it works. I've experienced pretty long loading times
for a bunch of websites. I have experienced these for sites like gmail,
youtube, a bunch of blog sites and Udacity. I know this is a Firefox problem
because, the load times didn't persist when I immediately switched to Chrome.
This is not consistent though, and Firefox is fast and really light on memory
usage which is nice, as long as I can see the page in the first place.

~~~
Sylos
Well, at least two of the sites that you mention are Google property, so it's
not certain that Firefox is at fault there, just because it works better in
Chrome.

~~~
fellellor
While I can make a choice between Chrome and Firefox, I'm not really going to
stop browsing some websites just because I switched browsers.

------
Dolores12
Switched to Firefox after Google supported inclusion of DRM into w3c standard
and never looked back. It turned out latest Firefox is pretty decent browser.

~~~
hungerstrike
So, you support an open web except not for people who want to protect their
content?

~~~
parent5446
How exactly does DRM facilitate an open web for anybody, including content
creators?

~~~
hungerstrike
It lets content creators put their content on the web without fear of
everybody ripping it off? Why don't you explain wow it prevents an open web
for anyone at all?

Regardless of your answer, I'm _super_ glad that things didn't go the way that
your crowd wanted them to. I got what I wanted and I'm so glad I can watch
Netflix in my browser. :)

~~~
voidr
> It lets content creators put their content on the web without fear of
> everybody ripping it off?

It doesn't prevent anything, I can still rip off the content if I want to. DRM
was never affective at anything, other than making life harder for everyone.
Show me a single DRM technology that hasn't already been defeated.

> Why don't you explain wow it prevents an open web for anyone at all?

If Netflix won't release their binary blob to your platform/browser you won't
be able to access it. You are forced to run code made by an organisation that
doesn't have your best interest in mind.

See:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal)

> I got what I wanted and I'm so glad I can watch Netflix in my browser. :)

You basically got Flash, that's what you got. :D

~~~
hungerstrike
> It doesn't prevent anything, I can still rip off the content if I want to.

So, you should throw away the lock on your front door and your car too because
anyone can break into those just as easily.

> If Netflix won't release their binary blob to your platform/browser you
> won't be able to access it.

I don't care about that at all.

> You basically got Flash, that's what you got. :D

What I got is the movie companies and the streaming companies sending me their
content. If they want me to run the equivalent of Flash, that's fine with me.

A toddler would basically agree with my argument. Some big content creators
want your web browser to be able to do certain things that _you personally_
don't want them to be able to do. By not allowing them to do things the way
they want, you're closing the web off to them.

Nobody is stopping you (or anyone else) from creating content and using non-
DRM distribution. So you're actually arguing for a closed web, not me.

------
milansuk
This is original browser war Netscape vs Microsoft and honestly, I don't see
nothing like that today:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEFu-B1wj1E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEFu-B1wj1E)

------
sachleen
I tried to switch to Firefox recently but couldn't do it. Here are my main
issues with Firefox:

\- not all settings get synced across devices \- All extensions are enabled in
private mode without any way to turn it off. I like to sign in to another
account in private mode without having my password manager auto-fill my
accounts information.

------
pfraze
As is the Beaker Browser! Next release coming in February.

~~~
rapnie
yes, was about to mention this one :)

decentralized! (but based on Chromium, no?)

[https://beakerbrowser.com/](https://beakerbrowser.com/)

~~~
pfraze
Yep, chromium fork

