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Google Can Continue Paying for Firefox Search Deal, Judge Rules
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this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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Google has the final say on what goes into Chromium. However, they don't have the final say on what each individual Chromium-based browser decides to do. Google definitely influences the decision, but they can't dictate it. This is made apparent in the responses of Chromium-based browsers to the changes that are perceived as counter-productive.
The one with that final say is the one in the final end of the chain producing the browser. The one who ultimately decides whether to update/rebase to the new version of chromium or not; or abandon chromium entirely and maybe use something else, like Webkit, that many other Linux browsers are using; or coordinate together to maintain a version with certain features removed; or maybe just simply abandon the project and contribute this way to the death of the Chromium ecosystem. Google has no say in who decides to raise their voice and publicly expose Google practices in blog posts that have been linked already in this thread.
Plus, the second most used browser is not Firefox.. it's Safari, another non-Chromium based browser independent of Chrome's current codebase, and that has also opposed to those changes. It's engine is used in products from many other companies independent from Google that are no small fries (Amazon, Sony Playstation, Nintendo, Valve, Samsung's Tizen, etc.) and it no longer shares code specific to Chrome, Google's influence over WebKit ended when they moved over to Blink.
I gave examples of the opposite in an earlier comment. Though it's unclear what level of APIs you refer to here, specially given that you said "same deal with webkit" (which, again, is not under google). You might as well apply the same deal to gecko too.
This is a contradiction. If few browsers will do it, then my statement that it can happen is correct, and I included that just as one among a list of many other possible choices, including entirely killing their project and contributing to the death of Chromium's ecosystem, making a scene about it and further sway public opinion towards alternatives... in fact, another option could be to have their team move over to contribute to one of the existing Webkit alternatives, or fork one of those with whichever cosmetic changes their userbase likes. The point was that the final say on what those projects will do is a decision those projects can make, not Google.
Then your "same deal with webkit" statement was equally immaterial.
That argument isn't negating the sentence I wrote. I think you used "incorrect" when you meant "correct, but...".
However, I don't think Mozilla is better funded than Apple and the other companies I mentioned behind Webkit.
And I didn't directly mention specific chromium browsers as 'alternatives'.. the alternatives I was talking about were options those browsers could take against Google... I don't think you understood the point.
Ironically, NOT developing/adding features has been the major way in which the opposition has been successfully pushing against Google's "standards". Webkit being the second top engine in users and opposing those features while still being a stable and well maintained base (it's not like they don't have a pipeline) with many corporations behind it (not just Apple, even Valve partnered with WebkitGtk maintainers), is a blockade to Google's domination just as much as Gecko.
The web is already bloated enough.. I think we need browsers that are more prudent when it comes to developing/adding new features and instead focus more on maintenance.