It turns out Google Chrome (via Chromium) includes a default extension which makes extra services available to code running on the `*.google.com` domains - tweeted about today [by Luca Casonato](https://twitter.com/lcasdev/status/1810696257137959018), …
Google web services take advantage of an API that only Google knows about.
Completely unsurprising. Google should have been given the anti-trust treatment long ago. There’s not a saving us because the ones to save us are completely complicit. And people who write independent browsers will be smacked back down by having places like YouTube throttle them.
Simply noone ever looked and it’s not documented. And the api is locked to work only on google domains so it wasn’t usable to anyone to accidentally notice what’s going on.
The code doesn’t do anything on non-Google domains.
Luca says this - I’m inclined to agree:
This is interesting because it is a clear violation of the idea that browser vendors should not give preference to their websites over anyone elses.
Follow up question: How many other parts of the chromium codebase limited to work on (maybe other) specific domains?
Google web services take advantage of an API that only Google knows about.
Completely unsurprising. Google should have been given the anti-trust treatment long ago. There’s not a saving us because the ones to save us are completely complicit. And people who write independent browsers will be smacked back down by having places like YouTube throttle them.
In the comments its not just chrome that is affected.
Its apparently all Chromium browsers.
Isn’t chromium open source? How are the APIs a secret?
Simply noone ever looked and it’s not documented. And the api is locked to work only on google domains so it wasn’t usable to anyone to accidentally notice what’s going on.
Follow up question: How many other parts of the chromium codebase limited to work on (maybe other) specific domains?
including Vanadium?
This comes from
hangout_services/thunk.jsI searched for
hangoutin the vanadium repo, no result, so it’s not patched there either: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/VanadiumKind of. Vivaldi let’s you turn it off though. Privacy, disable meet extension.
Fuck Chromium. Don’t let Google single handedly control how the Internet works. Don’t support Chromium browsers.
This is why we need to all back firefox…
I dont care if the CEO sucks, or if they have some opt-out anti-features…
Chrome monopoly is a far greater threat
Lina Khan on the horizon looming ominously.