343 pointsby ExMachina738 hours ago15 comments
  • liquid_thyme2 hours ago
    Chrome may be an excellent browser, but the venn diagram overlap with malware keeps getting larger.
  • fedpost6 hours ago
    It's okay, they're not a monopoly according to this administration. Nothing to see here, carry on!
    • pavon4 hours ago
      This administration has done nothing to end or undermine the antitrust cases against Google. In both cases the judges found Google in violation of antitrust law, but both handed down fairly mild remedies, despite the administration (prosecutor) pushing for much stronger changes. The judges were appointed by Clinton (Leonie Brinkema) and Obama (Amit Mehta).
    • pampas3 hours ago
      No politicians are going to fight a media company. They're in the PR and advertising supply chain.
      • lostlogin3 hours ago
        ‘Lake America’ buys breathing time too.
    • Mountain_Skies6 hours ago
      Google and the rest of the billionaire class thank you for ensuring everyone is too divided by red/blue tribalism to ever have enough unity to mount a fight against them. Well done!
      • asdf889905 hours ago
        Exactly. It is like Google has only emerged during this administration with their shenanigans.
        • usr11062 hours ago
          It seems to be very popular on this site to condemn surveillance capitalism and billionaires. But who built and still maintains the basis for their power, misusing it and the billions. So-called smart engineers like many of HN readers. If they rated morale higher than their personal 100Ks we would not need to wait for a government to stop the misery (in vain).

          Yes, I have worked for 400,000 employees corp, then for a 70,000. For the last 15 years I have staid under 100. The pay is less, but it's easier to look into the mirror each morning.

        • 8note5 hours ago
          iirc lina khan was appointed during the first trump admin and got most of her work done suing to split google during the biden admin?

          you are a bit out of the loop if you think this is a partisan issue, or specifically one thats only there when trump is in charge

          • manlymuppet3 hours ago
            Allow me to be anal for a moment, but what is the point of doing “if I remember correctly” for something like this?

            You can very easily look up exactly when Lina Khan was appointed and get answer very quickly. Is it not worth the effort checking these things before commenting?

            Ok rant over. Sorry to be an asshole. This is not your fault as much a standard which should be changed.

          • c0balt5 hours ago
            She got nominated by Biden in Biden's last term in March of 2021 and left in 2025 two weeks after Trump assumed office.

            She did not get appointed under Trump nor did substantial work done under his administration.

            Edit: I do not necessarily disagree with your comment on the partisan aspects of this issue. This is only meant to respond to the first paragraph.

          • thephyber4 hours ago
            Using Lina Khan as an example (your only example?) undermines your point because she started upset Biden and was quickly fired after Trump 2 started.
  • 17 minutes ago
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  • mgiampapa5 hours ago
    I feel like the obvious thing to check here is that all chrome processes have terminated between tests. If it's still running some zombie process of course the data would persist.
    • stkdump4 hours ago
      It would still be a (albeit convenient for google) bug, as the setting indicates closing all windows as the trigger for deletion.
    • frankacter5 hours ago
      At least on windows, closing chrome doesn't close the system tray process which keeps Chrome and Gemini prestaged and cached. Wonder if OP is experiencing a version of that on his Mac?
      • Tempest19815 hours ago
        Microsoft Edge does this too, iirc, for "Startup Boost".
      • lapcat3 hours ago
        > Wonder if OP is experiencing a version of that on his Mac?

        No.

  • flyingshelf5 hours ago
    When you log into Google, you also log into Chrome. This means that you'll have a lot of exceptions for Google websites or else a "clear history" would log you out of Chrome.

    Not justifying it (I don't use chrome) but that's likely what's happening here.

    • ande-mnoc5 hours ago
      This is what the “Allow Chrome sign-in” setting is for and is turned off by the post author.
    • demibabs5 hours ago
      In the article he explains he’s not signed into Chrome nor Google during the experiment.
  • Zarathustra304 hours ago
    While I absolutely believe this, the author should include a control. Go to a different website that sets data, and show that it is deleted when Google data is not.
    • lapcat3 hours ago
      I did: "As far as I can tell, www.google.com is the only site exempted by Chrome."

      My screenshots do not show this, but my screenshots were not intended as proof, merely as explanation. Chrome is available to everyone and used by millions of people, so anyone who wants proof can reproduce the issue themselves, and I hope that they do.

      • netsharc14 minutes ago
        The fact that the first screenshot is a totally empty browser window (just to show the address bar) made me lose faith about reading the rest of your writing...
  • procaryotean hour ago
    Just another reason to stop using chrome and it's related browsers.

    If you don't want to hand the biggest ad company a monopoly over web-browsing, start using a gecko based browser like librewolf, zen, mullvad or firefox.

  • est2 hours ago
    I used to search on google.ca exclusively with disabled js and cookie

    Until the day it no longer works. Sad.

  • bergheim2 hours ago
    I hate $THING Firefox does, and I'll complain about it, and I will use $CHROMIUM browser and not complain about that for some reason!
  • righthand4 hours ago
    Google/Alphabet is a bunch of useful good intentioned services wrapped around an nonuseful evil analytics core/monopoly. The people who work with good intentions that “just want to build cool things”, protect the monopoly and the people with bad intentions, who work to empower Google’s monopoly.
  • cute_boi4 hours ago
    > all Google Search results are now opaque https://www.google.com/goto?url= garbage rather than the site URLs!

    Can google justify why are they doing this? I wish google will die sooner if they start behaving like this.

    • avaer3 hours ago
      1) So the backend can track you across fingerprinted links

      2) So you can't know what's searched without getting tracked

      You're the product, not the customer.

    • 1e1a2 hours ago
      Interesting observation: As soon as you right click on a link, it switches from that to https://www.google.com/url?...
    • iririririran hour ago
      they do that because they added this dark pattern on gmail almost two decades ago and absolutely nobody ever complained.

      why wouldn't they expand it?

    • SV_BubbleTime3 hours ago
      Remember AMP?

      Baby steps and they’ll try again.

      • iririririran hour ago
        they don't have to! they remembered they control all browsers. much easier for the same goals they had with amp
  • thinker345 hours ago
    >> I’m personally inclined to cite Hanlon’s razor here rather than engage in conspiracy theories.

    That is a likely case. Chrome is their closed source software unlike the Chromium browser.

    • LastTrain5 hours ago
      Hanlon’s Razor applies to human behavior, not corporations.
      • tehlike5 hours ago
        Engineers are humans.
        • edoceo5 hours ago
          Corporations are not, they're made of humans but they behave worse than an individual.
          • rectang3 hours ago
            Fully agree. Humans are social animals who behave differently in different contexts, and the corporate context statistically ensures that the humans inside of it behave in all sorts of lamentable ways.
          • anticensor3 hours ago
            Corporations are just groups of people working under a common name towards a common goal, even when that goal is flimsy or bad.
            • TeMPOraL9 minutes ago
              > Corporations are just groups of people working under a common name towards a common goal

              Exactly in the same way as humans are just groups of cells working under a common genetic identity towards a common goal.

            • b11226 minutes ago
              Yes, but the worst human in an org, has the potential to drag the whole org down. Further, people are not aligned, so groups may disagree with an act, but each lack a majority to effect change. And group infighting may mean no cooperation.

              We see this in politics. Orgs are political too.

              (no "political" doesn't mean US Left/Righr here. It means simply "political" which can have nothing to do with government or party politics)

          • isncjwjxjwnd4 hours ago
            And who do you think makes these behavioural decisions? There is no “corporation”, there are, however, those currently on that company’s payroll.

            It’s their fault. The people. The humans. The ones working there. The ones knowingly employing their knowledge in service of the company.

            It’s always the humans.

        • cute_boi4 hours ago
          Politicians are also humans, everyone working for De Beers are also human... Please stop justifying egregious behavior from company who is destroying the fabric of internet with too many useless ads....And it isn't first time they are doing it, these "engineers" were the one who removed mv2 without better ad blocks in mv3.
          • tehlike4 hours ago
            1. ads are not useless. 2. without ads, there would be significantly less free content for people to read. 3. politicians are human too, but not the best of us except a few. Yes.

            It's hip to say ads make things worse, but reality is often much more nuanced.

            My original point being, many times an external person may think something is intentional when it may very well be a bug or may be there for a good reason.

            I have observed a few of those both as an external person or an internal person.

            • jasomill2 hours ago
              I don't think anyone is denying the value of advertising to Google or its advertisers.

              But with fewer ads influencing their spending, readers might have more disposible income left over to fund content.

          • charcircuit4 hours ago
            >useless ads

            If the ads were useless, advertisers would not pay for them to exist.

            >without better ad blocks in mv3

            MV3 adblockers were built before MV2 was deprecated.

            • cute_boi4 hours ago
              Just for your info classic ublock style doesn't work on mv3. Google have severely limited adblocking in chrome now. They deprecated very late due to pressure from people, not out of goodwill.

              Useless to users, not to advertisers. And, many people like me have never purchased any products after seeing ads at least on internet.

  • Abdullah_Sattar3 hours ago
    [flagged]
  • suqingfu2 hours ago
    [flagged]
  • tjpnz4 hours ago
    Google needs to be broken up.