Opinion When Donald Trump entered the White Home, I anticipate Google thought its worries had been over. 1,000,000-dollar “donation” for the inaugural ball, some face time between Sundar Pichai and Trump, and President Joe Biden’s pesky Division of Justice (DoJ) demanding Google divest itself of its Chrome net browser would all be forgotten.
Proper? Mistaken. As an alternative, Trump’s DoJ nonetheless needs Google to unload Chrome.
Darn it! As nineteenth century American politician Simon Cameron mentioned, “An sincere politician is one who, when he’s purchased, will keep purchased.” You’ll be able to’t depend on anybody lately.
So what occurs subsequent? Effectively, moreover the plain of a much bigger contribution to say the 2028 Trump presidential marketing campaign.
Here is what’s within the playing cards. First, Google might find yourself promoting Chrome. Chrome is price severe cash. It is simply the preferred net browser. The perfect market numbers for browsers, I’ve discovered, are these supplied by the US federal authorities’s Digital Analytics Program (DAP). It provides us a working depend of the final 90 days of US authorities web site visits. Whereas it would not inform us a lot about world net browser use, it is the most effective info we have now about American net browser use.
In line with DAP, Chrome is primary, as of Might seventh, 2025, with 51.7 p.c. Safari, because of the iPhone, is second with 30.3 p.c. My guestimate for Chrome on the desktop could be near 70 p.c, whereas Statcounter exhibits it at 66.19 p.c.
With that type of market share, there are already quite a few would-be consumers. There are, in no explicit order:
OpenAI: The ChatGPT maker has expressed sturdy curiosity in buying Chrome to combine its AI capabilities immediately into the browser. The purpose right here could be to create an “AI-first” searching expertise.
This is able to allow OpenAI to develop its person base and embed AI-powered search and brokers extra deeply than present Chrome extensions. OpenAI’s head of product testified about this curiosity throughout the antitrust trial, highlighting the strategic worth of Chrome’s huge person base and information for advancing AI applied sciences.
Yahoo – sure, Yahoo, keep in mind them? – after years of being barely an afterthought on the internet, needs again within the sport. Yahoo views Chrome as a essential asset for its comeback technique, aiming to re-enter and compete within the search market. Proudly owning Chrome would supply Yahoo with speedy scale and distribution, supporting its ambitions in search, social engagement, and promoting.
Now, you would possibly nicely ask, “How can Yahoo afford this?” I’ve seen estimates of Chrome being price $50 billion, whereas frankly, I feel it may go for lots extra. In line with Yahoo’s search GM Brian Provost, the corporate would possibly be capable to pull it off with backing from its guardian firm, Apollo World Administration.
OpenAI’s not the one AI energy that lusts for Chrome. Perplexity, the AI-driven search startup, has additionally proven curiosity in shopping for Chrome, thereby leveraging the browser’s huge attain to spice up its personal providers. Whereas Perplexity is creating its personal browser, Comet, let’s face it, buying Chrome could be a shortcut to person acquisition and improve information assortment for tailor-made promoting.
Would you imagine DuckDuckGo, the anti-Google search engine, needs Chrome? Consider it. Though CEO Gabriel Weinberg expressed curiosity in Chrome as the muse for a privacy-focused different, Weinberg acknowledged DuckDuckGo in all probability cannot afford Chrome’s excessive price ticket. Nonetheless, hope springs everlasting.
Whereas not explicitly confirmed, phrase is that Microsoft, too, is . In any case, it already has investments in browsers, the Chrome-based Edge, search, and Bing. Nonetheless, buying Chrome would elevate antitrust considerations about consolidating browser market energy.
What about Mozilla? It has its personal worries. The very last thing Mozilla needs is for Google to be pressured to surrender Chrome. What’s that you just say? Is not Firefox Chrome’s arch-enemy? Please. Cease with the fanboi nonsense. Mozilla cannot survive with the money it will get from Google search.
Do not imagine me? Would you imagine Mark Surman, President of Mozilla? In a weblog submit, giving Mozilla’s response to DoJ’s calls for on Google, Surman mentioned, “The massive unintended consequence right here is the handing of energy from one dominant participant to a different. So, from Google Search to Microsoft, or Bing for instance – whereas shutting out the smaller, impartial challengers that really drive browser innovation and supply net customers privateness and selection.”
With out this cash, Mozilla feels it could not develop and preserve Gecko, Firefox’s net browser engine. That, in flip, means, Surman claimed, “it is sport over for an open, impartial net. Look, Microsoft — a $3 trillion firm — already gave up its browser engine in 2019, and Opera gave up theirs in 2013. If Mozilla is pressured out, Google’s Chromium turns into the one cross-platform browser engine left.”
There’s one other card in play, which I have never seen talked about. You could not have seen, however I certain did, that again in January, Google and the Linux Basis introduced the founding of Supporters of Chromium-Primarily based Browsers. It is a impartial house the place builders and the broader open supply neighborhood can collaborate to assist Chromium tasks. Guess what? Main tech corporations, together with Meta, Microsoft, and Opera, already assist this initiative.
What this implies, I feel, is that even when Google is pressured to promote Chrome, it may substitute it with a real open supply net browser with broad business assist. This fashion, Google would technically comply whereas nonetheless having a browser to name its personal.
Like I mentioned to start with, we’re residing in attention-grabbing instances. ®
Opinion When Donald Trump entered the White Home, I anticipate Google thought its worries had been over. 1,000,000-dollar “donation” for the inaugural ball, some face time between Sundar Pichai and Trump, and President Joe Biden’s pesky Division of Justice (DoJ) demanding Google divest itself of its Chrome net browser would all be forgotten.
Proper? Mistaken. As an alternative, Trump’s DoJ nonetheless needs Google to unload Chrome.
Darn it! As nineteenth century American politician Simon Cameron mentioned, “An sincere politician is one who, when he’s purchased, will keep purchased.” You’ll be able to’t depend on anybody lately.
So what occurs subsequent? Effectively, moreover the plain of a much bigger contribution to say the 2028 Trump presidential marketing campaign.
Here is what’s within the playing cards. First, Google might find yourself promoting Chrome. Chrome is price severe cash. It is simply the preferred net browser. The perfect market numbers for browsers, I’ve discovered, are these supplied by the US federal authorities’s Digital Analytics Program (DAP). It provides us a working depend of the final 90 days of US authorities web site visits. Whereas it would not inform us a lot about world net browser use, it is the most effective info we have now about American net browser use.
In line with DAP, Chrome is primary, as of Might seventh, 2025, with 51.7 p.c. Safari, because of the iPhone, is second with 30.3 p.c. My guestimate for Chrome on the desktop could be near 70 p.c, whereas Statcounter exhibits it at 66.19 p.c.
With that type of market share, there are already quite a few would-be consumers. There are, in no explicit order:
OpenAI: The ChatGPT maker has expressed sturdy curiosity in buying Chrome to combine its AI capabilities immediately into the browser. The purpose right here could be to create an “AI-first” searching expertise.
This is able to allow OpenAI to develop its person base and embed AI-powered search and brokers extra deeply than present Chrome extensions. OpenAI’s head of product testified about this curiosity throughout the antitrust trial, highlighting the strategic worth of Chrome’s huge person base and information for advancing AI applied sciences.
Yahoo – sure, Yahoo, keep in mind them? – after years of being barely an afterthought on the internet, needs again within the sport. Yahoo views Chrome as a essential asset for its comeback technique, aiming to re-enter and compete within the search market. Proudly owning Chrome would supply Yahoo with speedy scale and distribution, supporting its ambitions in search, social engagement, and promoting.
Now, you would possibly nicely ask, “How can Yahoo afford this?” I’ve seen estimates of Chrome being price $50 billion, whereas frankly, I feel it may go for lots extra. In line with Yahoo’s search GM Brian Provost, the corporate would possibly be capable to pull it off with backing from its guardian firm, Apollo World Administration.
OpenAI’s not the one AI energy that lusts for Chrome. Perplexity, the AI-driven search startup, has additionally proven curiosity in shopping for Chrome, thereby leveraging the browser’s huge attain to spice up its personal providers. Whereas Perplexity is creating its personal browser, Comet, let’s face it, buying Chrome could be a shortcut to person acquisition and improve information assortment for tailor-made promoting.
Would you imagine DuckDuckGo, the anti-Google search engine, needs Chrome? Consider it. Though CEO Gabriel Weinberg expressed curiosity in Chrome as the muse for a privacy-focused different, Weinberg acknowledged DuckDuckGo in all probability cannot afford Chrome’s excessive price ticket. Nonetheless, hope springs everlasting.
Whereas not explicitly confirmed, phrase is that Microsoft, too, is . In any case, it already has investments in browsers, the Chrome-based Edge, search, and Bing. Nonetheless, buying Chrome would elevate antitrust considerations about consolidating browser market energy.
What about Mozilla? It has its personal worries. The very last thing Mozilla needs is for Google to be pressured to surrender Chrome. What’s that you just say? Is not Firefox Chrome’s arch-enemy? Please. Cease with the fanboi nonsense. Mozilla cannot survive with the money it will get from Google search.
Do not imagine me? Would you imagine Mark Surman, President of Mozilla? In a weblog submit, giving Mozilla’s response to DoJ’s calls for on Google, Surman mentioned, “The massive unintended consequence right here is the handing of energy from one dominant participant to a different. So, from Google Search to Microsoft, or Bing for instance – whereas shutting out the smaller, impartial challengers that really drive browser innovation and supply net customers privateness and selection.”
With out this cash, Mozilla feels it could not develop and preserve Gecko, Firefox’s net browser engine. That, in flip, means, Surman claimed, “it is sport over for an open, impartial net. Look, Microsoft — a $3 trillion firm — already gave up its browser engine in 2019, and Opera gave up theirs in 2013. If Mozilla is pressured out, Google’s Chromium turns into the one cross-platform browser engine left.”
There’s one other card in play, which I have never seen talked about. You could not have seen, however I certain did, that again in January, Google and the Linux Basis introduced the founding of Supporters of Chromium-Primarily based Browsers. It is a impartial house the place builders and the broader open supply neighborhood can collaborate to assist Chromium tasks. Guess what? Main tech corporations, together with Meta, Microsoft, and Opera, already assist this initiative.
What this implies, I feel, is that even when Google is pressured to promote Chrome, it may substitute it with a real open supply net browser with broad business assist. This fashion, Google would technically comply whereas nonetheless having a browser to name its personal.
Like I mentioned to start with, we’re residing in attention-grabbing instances. ®
