This time, it is Chrome’s turn to feel the crisis. Many other browsers that were once suppressed by Chrome are also surrounded by a sense of crisis, but their enemy has become Microsoft Edge.
Chrome has formed an alliance with other browsers - Browser Choice Alliance. Except for Chrome, the members are Opera, BrowserWorks, Wavebox and other browsers that are usually counted as “Others”.
The purpose of Browser Choice Alliance
The alliance has only one purpose, which is to expose Microsoft Edge’s unfair means of grabbing browser market share on the Windows platform, and call on consumers to have the right to use their browser of choice on Windows devices.
The Browser Choice Alliance points out how Microsoft uses its control over Windows to prevent users from using other browsers:
- Creating hurdles for users downloading a different browser, including pop-ups and warnings, making it difficult for users to install other browsers.
When users search for other browsers with Bing, Bing also manipulates search results to induce users to use Edge browser.
- Creating hurdles for users to set their preferred browser as default, when users set other browsers as the default browser, many files are still opened by default in Edge.
Why did Chrome form the Browser Choice Alliance?
It is certainly wrong for Microsoft to use the systems and search engines it controls to implement its monopoly. In fact, Google also did something similar when it used its search engine market advantage to promote the Chrome browser.
Why does Chrome want to join other browsers in resisting Edge at this time?
We looked up the historical data of browser market share on the Windows platform and found an interesting fact: in 2019, Google Chrome’s global market share peaked at nearly 70%; but Microsoft Edge grew rapidly after its launch, and Chrome’s market share began to decline.
Today, Edge’s share is close to 13%, Chrome’s share has dropped to 66%, and Edge’s growth trend is still strong. As Windows 10 retires and more and more devices upgrade to Windows 11, Edge, as a pre-installed browser for Windows 11, will further increase its market share. It is not difficult to understand why Chrome, although still the dominant browser in the Windows platform, feels a sense of crisis.
Recently, there is another piece of news that has dealt a serious blow to Google. The US Department of Justice has officially proposed to the court to force Google to sell the Chrome browser and has not given up on splitting the Android system. This move is to combat Google’s monopoly in the search engine market.
We all know that Google is essentially an advertising company. Search engines, Youtube and other services are just platforms it has set up to sell advertisements. Operating systems and browsers are the best entrances to these services. It is conceivable what losing Android and Chrome means to Google.