How and why they impose a browser on us

The Mozilla Foundation made it known a study on how and why a browser is imposed on us. It specifically refers to the 5 big technology companies (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Meta and Amazon) and a article The previous one had already begun to reveal its most important aspects.

Taking into account that the current trend in the software market is that there are more and more services in the cloud, the web browser and its navigation engine are becoming more and more important. Hence, the big technology companies put all their effort into guiding our choice of these.

Before continuing with the topic of the article, it seems appropriate to explain the concept of the browser engine, an expression that appears several times in the Mozilla study.

The navigation engine is the software that It is responsible not only for transforming the code of the web page in a user-friendly way, but also allows the user to interact with the site. It is also in charge of applying the security policies established in the browser settings.

Years ago, every major browser had its own browser engine. However, today only three important ones remain:

• WebKit: Developed by Apple for its Safari browser and mandatory for all browsers that want to be in its app store.
• gecko: Developed by the Mozilla Foundation for the Firefox browser and used by other spin-off projects.
• blink: Developed by Google for Chrome and also used by Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi.

How and why they impose a browser on us

I am writing this article using the Linux version of the Microsoft Edge browser. While I'm at it, a built-in spell checker lets me know if I misspell a word or make some other typing mistake. I also see the pdf of the report that I am reviewing in the viewer integrated in the same browser. That is to say that there are already two programs that I do not have to open: LibreOffice Writer and its spell checker and its pdf viewer. If the built-in translator supported pdf and was of DeepL quality you could probably kill another service.

You may be wondering why a Linux user uses Microsoft Edge. In my case, because it is the one that best integrates with the cloud version of Microsoft Office and Microsoft OneNote. I use those programs on mobile and need to be able to access their files from desktop.

The point is that not only the operating system we use influences our decision (or lack of it) about which browser to use. The browser also influences which services we use. They are all associated with a search engine, and whoever controls the search engine results chooses which ones are displayed first. To complete the circle, the services we choose may restrict our browser or operating system choices.

In the Mozilla study, a 34-year-old Taiwanese tells why he started using Google Chrome:

Moderator: “Okay. Remember how you found out about Chrome?
Participant: “When I first got Gmail and then when I started using Google Drive. When I opened my Gmail account, I would periodically ask myself, you know, if… I was just asking if I would like to get Chrome? Is better."

Mozilla also mentions that the browser is a good place to get information about users and their habits.

Many people forget that most of Google and Meta's revenue comes from advertising while Amazon's is based on product sales. And while Apple and Microsoft are traditional tech companies that base their profits on the sale of hardware, software and services, they are also trying to get their share of the pie.

Your browsers are very effective at blocking third-party cookies and ads, but, as Mozilla rightly points out, we don't know what data they're sending to themselves.

By leaving users' data exposed for cross-site tracking and targeted advertising in their browsers and ensuring the success of those browsers on their own platforms, these companies gain access to consumer data that is valuable to their other lines of business.

In the next article more about the Mozilla study