So, like, you know how Google’s Chrome browser is super popular and awesome? Well, the head honcho at Chrome, Parisa Tabriz, spilled some tea in court about how only Google can handle all the cool features and stuff that Chrome has. She mentioned how Chrome has been around for 17 years and is like a big happy family with the rest of Google. Trying to separate them would be a total nightmare, she said.
Tabriz went on to talk about how some of Chrome’s features, like its safe browsing mode, rely on Google infrastructure that’s not just for Chrome. So, it’s not like you can just recreate Chrome out of thin air, she added.
The Justice Department is all up in Google’s business, asking them to sell Chrome and share search data. They also want Google to stop paying for search engine defaults, especially for their AI products like Gemini. Google’s Chrome browser is like the king of browsers, used by about 66% of people worldwide, according to Statcounter. It’s based on this thing called the Chromium Project, which Google created but gets help from other companies like Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp., and the Linux Foundation.
James Mickens, a computer science expert, thinks Google could pass Chrome to another company without messing things up too much. He’s all about that divestiture life. Mickens even helped out Epic Games Inc. in their beef with Google over Android. But Tabriz isn’t so sure about all this talk. She mentioned how Google has been doing most of the heavy lifting for Chromium since 2015 and has a whole army of engineers dedicated to the project.
Google is also getting into the AI game with Chrome. You can now add cool AI extensions to Chrome, like ChatGPT or Perplexity AI, to make your browsing experience even fancier. Gemini is the main AI assistant in Chrome right now, but Google is looking to add more AI agents in the future. They want Chrome to do all sorts of cool automated tasks, like filling out forms or finding the best deals online.
So, yeah, Google is basically the Chrome master, and it looks like they’re not slowing down anytime soon. Who knows what the future holds for Chrome and all its AI buddies. Not really sure why this matters, but hey, it’s kinda interesting, right?
