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Australia Extends Tech Giant Probe To Google and Apple Browser Domination (zdnet.com) 34

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
With the News Media Bargaining Code out of the way, the Australian government has moved its tech giant battle to the browser scene, keeping Google in its crosshairs while putting Apple under the microscope. From a report: Led by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the new battle is focused on "choice and competition in internet search and web browsers." The consumer watchdog on Thursday put out a call for submissions, with a number of questions posed in a discussion paper , centred on internet browser defaults. It claimed Apple's Safari is the most common browser used in Australia for smartphones and tablets, accounting for 51% of use. This is followed by Chrome with 39%, Samsung Internet with 7%, and with less than 1%, Mozilla Firefox. This shifts on desktop, with Chrome being the most used browser with 62% market share, followed by Safari with 18%, Edge 9%, and Mozilla 6%.

The ACCC said it's concerned with the impact of pre-installation and default settings on consumer choice and competition, particularly in relation to online search and browsers. It's also seeking views on supplier behaviour and trends in search services, browsers, and operating systems, and device ecosystems that may impact the supply of search and browsers to Australian consumers. It wants views also on the extent to which existing consumer harm can arise from the design of defaults and other arrangements.
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Australia Extends Tech Giant Probe To Google and Apple Browser Domination More

Australia Extends Tech Giant Probe To Google and Apple Browser Domination

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  • Just remember, MS pre-installed IE2 on NT4...

    This was a *GOOD* thing. How else were we going to download Netscape?

    Similarly, they preinstalled IE (4, 5, or 6, don't remember) on XP. Again, how else were we to download Firefox?

    • Back then you could drive to Egg Head software and buy a browser, or spend a couple hours downloading over 14.4. Having a free browser (that was "part of the operating system") killed the market for a purchased browser. Forbidding retailers from preinstalling Netscape killed the market for browsers that weren't provided by the ISP (I think those AOL disks had a browser on them).

      Most people just stick with the default. I would recommend a law that allows carriers and manufacturers to install their own brow

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by torkus ( 1133985 )

      And Edge works well to install Chrome, TOR, etc.

      It amazes me that various governments continue to chase their tail after this topic 20+ years later. Especially considering Chrome has a 62% market share on desktops and ... *doesn't*come*pre-installed* on Windows or MacOS (unless you count chrome books as computers, but even so it's a very small %). It does come pre-installed with Android but google doesn't even prohibit Samsung from including their own browser when they re-package/skin Android for their ph

      • Its amazing that you side with an evil corporation over the Australian gov. The Au gov may not be perfect, but it actually does a lot of good to help Australians all shapes and sizes, unlike Google. And please dont tell me a search engine is more valuable to a country than good government that does schools, free healthcare, and a lot more.

  • How To Do It (Score:4, Insightful)

    by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Thursday March 11, 2021 @02:00PM (#61148542)

    1. Force Apple to port Safari to Android
    2. Force Google to make Opera the default browser on Android
    3. Force Microsoft to make Firefox the default browser on Windows

    Problem solved! Next we'll be tackling how to cure all diseases, and how to solve the problem of worldwide poverty.

    • 4. Force Apple to let any web engine on ios!

    • Or Maybe... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ytene ( 4376651 ) on Thursday March 11, 2021 @02:38PM (#61148704)
      We could get countries around the world to step up and enact some proper privacy-related controls on browsers. How about:-

      1. Much better, simpler user management of cookies
      2. Outright ban on tracking cookies, web beacons, etc.
      3. Much tighter control on server-side profiling of browsers [i.e. the zero-footprint technologies used to track a user around the web without placing anything on their end user device]
      4. Bans on targeted advertising
      etc.

      If governments can make it so that it is no longer economically viable for companies like Google to build vast data warehouses of profiles on their users, for psychological profiling and emotional manipulation [sorry, is that still called "advertising"?] then they will stop.
      • I look for the good man. I would be your Mistress!! Punish me! =>> http://bit.do/fNCuA [bit.do]

      • Brave (Score:2)

        by JBMcB ( 73720 )

        Why do I need a government to do that when I can just use Brave, Ghostery and NoScript?

        I've seen governments develop communication protocols, and I'd rather not have them designing communication protocols.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ytene ( 4376651 )
          Fair question.

          Let’s try: for a couple of reasons...

          First, because not everyone is going to have your technical acumen and the ability to set up their net-connected devices with a reasonable amount of privacy protection. One of the main reasons that we have a framework of laws is to ensure that society protects those unable to protect themselves. Well, that’s the theory, anyway.

          Second, because we need to send a clear message to big business that the uncontrolled and unregulated days of
      • How about banning third party cookies, problem basically solved.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ytene ( 4376651 )
          Basically, because there is such an easy way around it.

          Instead of advertisers giving a web site a code snippet to embed on their platform, the company will give them an entire executable stack to host on their network - maybe even offering them a turn-key appliance that does the job. The advertiser will offer to maintain the service remotely and the net effect is that anything served by that device to your browser will not be a third-party cookie because it will come either from the web server you access
          • > Basically, because there is such an easy way around it.
            Not true.
            > Instead of advertisers giving a web site a code snippet to embed on their platform, the company will give them an entire executable stack to host on their network - maybe even offering them a turn-key appliance that does the job. The advertiser will offer to maintain the service remotely and the net effect is that anything served by that device to your browser will not be a third-party cookie because it will come either from the w

  • Well, Apple are a very large player in phones and effectively force the use of Safari and google use their massive weight to push Chrome.

    There is no way chrome would have so successfully replaced Firefox to the current extent if (a) google didn't push chrome on the landing page (something no one else could buy) and all over their network and (b) they didn't treat Firefox as a second class system and keep "accidentally" breaking YouTube and other sites on non chrome browsers.

    They pull all the same dirty tric

    • Apple's case is a bit weirder since they don't have their own search engine to leverage any built-in advantage of having the default browser and even though you can install other browsers, none of them can use their own rendering engine so differences between browsers on iOS devices just come down to UI differences or other trivial choices.

      I still think Chrome would have overtaken Firefox even without Google's actions. Firefox was becoming kind of bloated in its own right and Chrome offered a far leaner

      • I still think Chrome would have overtaken Firefox even without Google's actions. Firefox was becoming kind of bloated in its own right and Chrome offered a far leaner browser when it was new.

        Quite possibly, and I would not be surprised if firefox had lost its majority. But unless (a) advertising doesn't work at all and (b) people don't care about random youtube breakage, then googles actions must have affected this a lot. Also Chrome is pre-installed on android and so firefox never had a chance.

        Firefox was

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Well, don't let the incompetence of the Firefox team lead to the downfall as well.

      Firefox management is incompetent and cost more marketshare. All Google did was provide people with a reasonable alternative to the abuse that they were getting from Firefox. The problems were well known, and Firefox team concentrated more on shiny doodads than fixing things. Then they insisted on breaking things in huge and incompatible ways such that you launch a new version of Firefox, and you aren't sure if it would work t

      • All Google did was provide people with a reasonable alternative to

        Yeah no. Google aggressively pushed Chrome, break some of the most popular sites in the world for firefox and bundle chrome on Android. No matter what the somewhat dubious Mozilla management do, google have done far, far more than merely "providing an alternative".

      • WHa ta load of rubbish, google abuse their market share all the time. Do you really think its pure chance their proudcts appear in ads or above otheres all the time.? Do you really think Chromecast etc pay for their ads on YT ?

  • Problem has solved itself (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Thursday March 11, 2021 @02:05PM (#61148566)

    Apple's Safari is the most common browser used in Australia for smartphones and tablets, accounting for 51% of use... ...on desktop, with Chrome being the most used browser with 62% market share

    Is this not the idyllic case? Where is the problem when you have Chrome based, and Safari based browsers each not having top market share on all devices?

    This way neither Safari nor Chrome can get too crazy, and anyone developing web apps has to make it work on a wider range of browsers than just Chrome.

    • the two top browsers have 113% of the market between them, leaves little room for firefox.

      • the two top browsers have 113% of the market between them, leaves little room for firefox.

        The leaves Firefox with at least 200% of room, maybe more! Once you go over 100%, sky's the limit!

    • The browser isnt owned by a Murdoc/Liberal party interest with automatic subscription to both on installation.

      EG: The Age browser and Fox (cable) browser for only $100 per month ontop of the phone contract.

  • Fund an independent browser engine (Score:3)

    by xack ( 5304745 ) on Thursday March 11, 2021 @02:14PM (#61148608)
    Australia should fund Servo or Goanna and pre install them on government computers.
  • They, like many other countries would be be much smarter to start scrutinizing the telecom industry for monopolistic practices. The rates most consumers pay for internet, cellular and TV services is far more of a problem that hits the consumer in hard cash directly. At least the effects of Google and Apple's default settings are something consumers can control if they really want to by simply changing the defaults to their liking. When it comes to paying for services there is almost never any decent afforda

  • The ACCC is no threat to anyone, they never do anything effective under the LNP govt.

  • This enquiry will have to extend to IoT devices which intrude, gather data, send it all back to a server farm for collection, correlation and analysis before on-selling the gathered intelligence for $$$.
    I used to worry about black helicopters, now I worry about the little black Bose box in the lounge room listening to our conversations and even our sexual practices (we're nearly perfect).

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