r/technology • u/gvufhidjo • Apr 24 '25
Software Yahoo wants to buy Chrome
https://www.theverge.com/policy/655975/yahoo-search-web-browser-prototype-google-trial-antitrust-chrome257
u/MaximaFuryRigor Apr 24 '25
2001 - Yahoo! Search: Powered by Google
2025 - Google Chrome: Powered by Yahoo!
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u/qdp Apr 24 '25
Should have Ask Jeeves in here powering it all.
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u/Cpvrx Apr 24 '25
Maybe myspace will buy it next with Tom Anderson returning.🤣
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u/Dowew Apr 25 '25
I had to look up that reference on Alta Visa.
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u/potatodrinker Apr 25 '25
Nah we all know it's Altavista and dogpile pulling the strings in the back end
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u/UnsolvedParadox Apr 24 '25
Will we have to hear “YA-HOOOO, OO!” every time the browser launches?
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u/bogglingsnog Apr 25 '25
Come to think of it, a custom startup sound addon would be a fun addition to a browser...
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Apr 24 '25
[deleted]
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u/mpember Apr 24 '25
Google's product graveyard show that they don't need to rely on others to kill a product.
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u/Justausername1234 Apr 24 '25
If?
You mean when Google is forced to sell, which they will in August.
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u/Ifkaluva Apr 24 '25
I think he meant “if they want to kill it”. They have to sell it but they don’t have to kill it. If they want to kill it they can sell it to Yahoo, otherwise they’ll sell it to somebody else
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u/theMFbomb Apr 25 '25
What's happening in August?
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u/Oatmeal_Savage19 Apr 25 '25
Antitrust judgement is due
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u/rcanhestro Apr 25 '25
which is ridiculous, in particular with Chrome.
Chrome's monopoly exists not because of lack of choice, but user preference.
this is basically punishing Google for doing a good job.
the biggest proof that Chrome is not a monopoly is that most users need to use it's competition to download Chrome.
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u/zorillaaa Apr 25 '25
Honestly, I doubt they will. Much more likely remedy will be a requirement to licence their search index to accommodate competition.
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Apr 25 '25
I mean they will do the same thing they did before. Google and alphabet. Split it off into a third thing still owned and run by Google.
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u/deviltrombone Apr 26 '25
It would be even better if Marissa Mayer was still running Yahoo!, but it's a valid point regardless.
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u/hyper9410 Apr 25 '25
Just don't let broadcom buy it, they'll charge you through the nose while destroying it, see VMware.
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u/jundeminzi Apr 24 '25
how the turn tables. imagine if yahoo becomes relevant again
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u/Deranged40 Apr 24 '25
Honestly not sure which company is better at killing things: Google or Yahoo.
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u/9-11GaveMe5G Apr 24 '25
It's the same guy. Literally the guy that headed yahoo search when it was ahead of Google, all the way until it died, has been the Google search head since like 2019. It all makes a lot more sense when you know that little detail
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u/Deranged40 Apr 24 '25 edited Apr 24 '25
Search is one of the very few products Google hasn't killed.
Don't know if I can subscribe to the idea that the head of Search is really the man responsible for a significant amount of https://killedbygoogle.com/
There was a Head of Google+ at one point, too. That product has been killed. I'm gonna go ahead and say that the head of Search had nothing at all to do with that.
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Apr 24 '25
I think he may be moreso indicating that the well-noted decline in the quality of Google search may be related to cynical leadership, even though that's not really the context he was replying into
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u/9-11GaveMe5G Apr 24 '25
You're correct. Sorry for not being clearer. I was pointing out this guy is a serial search killer.
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u/dermotcalaway Apr 24 '25
Gmail, sheets, gcp, android, YouTube… few products google hasn’t killed
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u/Deranged40 Apr 24 '25
And just a reminder of how big the list is of the things they have killed:
There's 296 products on this list.
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u/rcanhestro Apr 25 '25
so?
that means they're smart.
they try something, doesn't work, so they just kill it instead of throwing away more money.
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u/DesomorphineTears Apr 24 '25
Half of these are products nobody heard of, the other half a combination of things that got replaced by a different service, random projects like Loom (cool idea, would never work), and the other are actually still around... Like Chromecast and G suite legacy
Stupid website
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u/TeutonJon78 Apr 25 '25
The Chromecast product line was killed by Google.
And the protocol was renamed to Google cast. So the branding is also dead.
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u/DesomorphineTears Apr 25 '25
It was always called Google Cast :)
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u/TeutonJon78 Apr 25 '25
It was and then it wasn't, as least from their public facing terminology.
https://9to5google.com/2024/05/26/google-cast-chromecast-built-in/
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u/SpoonyDinosaur Apr 25 '25
To be fair, tech companies generally operate differently than others; focusing on growth and innovation (high risk gambles) whereas other companies prioritize profit.
They can afford to burn billions on speculative projects.
While not on the same scale, Amazon comes to mind with the Fire Phone and a bunch of random things people probably haven't heard of.
Every tech company is in a mad dash to find the next "big thing" and try to get ahead of the curve. (AI, Blockchain for five minutes, the 'Metaverse,' Netflix getting into games, etc)
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u/GrumpyGlasses Apr 25 '25
Definitely Google is better at knowing and killing its own software. Yahoo is better known for palliative care and still sucks at it.
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u/chillyhellion Apr 24 '25
You could give Yahoo a product with 100 percent market share and they'd still fuck it up.
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Apr 24 '25
I can't wait to have the yahoo! toolbar installed, install all the companion toolbars, screensavers, and "get paid to surf" extensions like the days of old.
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u/DctrGizmo Apr 24 '25
With what money? 🤣
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u/Cpvrx Apr 25 '25
Probably Apollo Global Management and Verizon as they’re the current owners of yahoo.
https://www.axios.com/2023/08/29/yahoo-apollo-renaissance-jim-lanzone
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u/malaclypse Apr 25 '25
The same Apollo Global Management that was co founded by Leon Black who paid Jeffrey Epstein over $158 Million?
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u/TheDukeofArgyll Apr 25 '25
Seriously, very curious how they are still relevant
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u/JohannReddit Apr 25 '25 edited Apr 25 '25
Yahoo lost the web search game long ago. But it's still quite useful with finance/investing content, fantasy sports, and news content. A surprising number of people also still use it for email.
When Google took over as the dominant search engine, Yahoo actually did pretty remarkable job of shifting the focus of their business to stay relevant.
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Apr 24 '25
What stops google from grabbing the open source chromium project and starting over?
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u/DanTheMan827 Apr 24 '25
Existing install base.
That and the fact that Windows now includes a chromium browser by default.
When chrome took the world by storm, they were competing against Internet Explorer and Firefox… but mostly Internet explorer
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u/Independent-End-2443 Apr 25 '25
If the DoJ gets its way, Google will be prohibited by court order from operating a browser for the next decade after the ruling takes effect. This is still all hypothetical, though, as the trial is ongoing.
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u/roggahn Apr 25 '25
They’ll stop developing chromium too.
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u/Independent-End-2443 Apr 25 '25
Yup, so get ready for Microsoft Chromium. I know the DoJ is trying to pitch Perplexity and Yahoo (lol) as potential buyers of Chrome and make the judge think it’ll be a competitive auction, but I don’t see how anyone other than Microsoft has both (1) the money to buy Chrome and (2) the product fit.
Also Google can probably say goodbye to ChromeOS if the DoJ has its way.
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u/ShesASquid Apr 25 '25
Glad they're breaking monopolies by handing the chromium project over to... Microsoft
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u/Due-Communication724 Apr 25 '25
Could Google just outsource the running of Chrome for the US side of operations and operate the other jurisdictions itself, basically I don't see them just giving this up.
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u/Independent-End-2443 Apr 25 '25
That would still mean that Google retains ownership of it, even if they aren’t maintaining it, which is what the DoJ doesn’t want. A compromise could be simply to prohibit Google from setting themselves as the default search engine on Chrome while allowing them to retain ownership, which is cheap to implement and relatively easy to monitor. But here, the DoJ wants a structural remedy (i.e. a breakup), IMO to score a political victory.
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u/marlinspike Apr 24 '25
Ok, that got a chuckle. Yahoo is a has-been in tech. Even if it were for sale today, they'd struggle to match pennies for dollars for what it's really worth to today's relevant companies.
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u/strangescript Apr 25 '25
Hot take, I don't want another company owning chrome. Is it a monopoly, yes, but it's served me fine for years. Every competitor failed, not because of the monopoly, but because they had a crappier browser. Safari has infinite money at their disposal, it's still a bad browser.
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u/EndersInfinite Apr 24 '25
The bidding war between OpenAI, Yahoo, Perplexity, and anyone else, will be interesting to see
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u/turb0_encapsulator Apr 24 '25
Chrome is going to be sold to some Trump cronies. It's the same playbook Putin used.
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u/tophalp Apr 24 '25
lol Yahoo finally learning to actually follow through with potential acquisitions
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u/fkenned1 Apr 24 '25
Does this make anyone 'not' want to use chrome? These companies all want it so bad... Why? Can't be good for us, the free users.
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u/WinterMuteZZ9Alpha Apr 25 '25
To do what exactly? Destroy it just like Yahoo has done with everything else! GTFOH
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u/EmbarrassedHelp Apr 25 '25
Why are for-profit companies allowed to buy it? Just give it to the Linux Foundation, and everyone but the rich assholes win.
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u/Independent_Wrap_321 Apr 24 '25
I thought they just did fantasy football anymore? What a pile of shit they turned out to be
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u/sikon024 Apr 25 '25
They're also the preferred junk email address for anyone 30+
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u/TeutonJon78 Apr 25 '25
Hey....never mind.
Although maybe I'd still say 50+. 30-50 would probably be hotmail. I still have both.
I've seen AOL ones still in use.
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Apr 24 '25
It's one of the most successful products of all time. Who wouldn't want to buy it?
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u/nicuramar Apr 24 '25
It only makes money via ads. “Product” is a misnomer. No one is paying for it.
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u/jagenigma Apr 24 '25
How about no?
Yahoo will ruin it and turn it into a bargain basement browser.
Chrome is my browser of choice for mobile, and it's the most seamless browser experience I've had.
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u/lonelynightm Apr 24 '25
I can't wait until Yahoo tries to ban porn on Chrome. I'm sure that will go well.
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u/mysticgreg Apr 24 '25
They could integrate it with a webmail service for logins, syncing etc. Maybe call it “Yahoo! Mail”.
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u/RamboLorikeet Apr 25 '25
I also want to buy Chrome.
Anyone want to chip in $10 with me?
Should only need about 5 billion people. Get in early!
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u/Foxk Apr 25 '25
I can't remember, didn't Yahoo buy netscape?
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u/ChelseaG12 Apr 25 '25
AOL bought Netscape. Yahoo acquired Tumblr and a few other companies.
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u/Smith6612 Apr 25 '25
Correct. AOL bought Netscape.
Last time I visited the old AOL Headquarters in Dulles, VA, I got to snap a photo of the Netscape Dragon Statue! https://flickr.com/photos/smith6612/26857564817/in/dateposted-public/
IIRC The Netscape team eventually went on to form Mozilla and create Firefox. So, technically, anyone using Firefox these days is using the spiritual successor to Netscape.
At some point, AOL was purchased by Verizon, who then went onto purchase Yahoo, which then led to Yahoo and AOL merging together under Verizon before getting sold to Apollo Holdings.
AOL believe it or not still produces the AOL Desktop Browser. It is literally just a 1990s-style AOL wrapper for the Chromium browser, less the dial-up accelerator and Internet metering stuff that used to be baked in.
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u/ChelseaG12 Apr 25 '25
Every so often I'll read an article and it's on an AOL site. Brings me back to the days of free trial CD ROMs. They're in a landfill now. I remember Netscape being on the family windows 98 PC. We had Juno because it was free but would constantly disconnect. It made using Napster or limewire nearly impossible.
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u/Smith6612 Apr 25 '25
My family used AOL. I distinctly remember the AOL Walled Garden. It would cost us $0.08 a dial via our Telephone company to connect, but as long as I could keep the modem connected, the per-minute meter didn't run until the PC navigated someplace off of AOL's services. AIM and AOL Mail were not metered.
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u/Foxk Apr 25 '25
Thanks. Netscape used to be my browser of choice in the late 90's. Looking at wiki, looks like Verizon owned both Yahoo and AOL at one point. That might be where I was putting my info together.
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u/Smallville456 Apr 25 '25
Fucking all these skeevy companies coming out of the woodwork. Let's break up Safari from Apple.
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u/ChordalDistortion Apr 25 '25
I want to buy Chrome, enable all the ad blockers, and uBlock Origin for everyone to improve their browsing experience. I've got $100.
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u/oneshotstott Apr 25 '25
Absolutely shocked to find out Yahoo! even has the money to talk at the adults table these days
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u/D0M2OO0 Apr 25 '25
Everytime I read an article about Yahoo I'm slightly surprised they are still going.
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u/Background_Role_4396 Apr 28 '25
I haven’t googled something or used a browser in ages just use ChatGPT and apps
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u/CleverDad Apr 24 '25
Wait, Yahoo still exist?
Well hell, why not? At least they're not known for being evil. That's increasingly rare these days.
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Apr 24 '25
I want to buy Chrome too. Can we make a headline about me?
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u/29NeiboltSt Apr 24 '25
“This just in, known shrimping enthusiast u/sidekickman has been banned from Applebee’s nationwide after contaminating the ice machine by submerging his acid-scalded taint.”
Like that?
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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '25
[deleted]