I used to be a huge Firefox nerd before chrome become mainstream. I loved how it fought for better, cleaner, more bug-free web standards. I believed in the open web — a place where everyone could build, compete, and innovate fairly. Safari impressed me with its speed, efficiency, and privacy focus and macOS integration.
But today? I’m stuck. Stuck in Chrome.
Why? Because Chrome has become the new Internet Explorer. The browser that sets its own rules, forces everyone else to follow, and drags the entire web down its own rabbit hole.
Google isn’t just building a browser — it’s building a walled garden disguised as an open platform. They churn out new Chrome-only APIs and features that others either can’t or won’t implement.
Remember how Internet Explorer had ActiveX, VBScript, and all kinds of proprietary junk?
Chrome is doing the same thing now, just modernized and shinier.
Examples?
- Isolated Web Apps (IWA) — Google-only tech for packaging web apps with special privileges.
- Web Bundles / Signed Exchanges — controversial APIs that raised security, privacy, and decentralization concerns.
- Portals API — dead-on-arrival outside Chromium.
- Background Sync, Topics API, and other service-worker-adjacent tech that's deeply tied to Chrome’s ecosystem.
- And don't forget Google pushing FLoC, which the entire rest of the industry rejected.
- File system access, — direct access to the file system to read and write stuff
This is Chrome’s way of saying: “Screw consensus. We’ll ship it anyway.”
We don’t want to be Chrome-only developers. But we’re often left with no choice.
- Chrome has the best devtools.
- It has the APIs developers & clients want.
- It has the rendering quirks everyone tolerates.
- Everyone else uses it.
So we build for Chrome. We debug in Chrome. We used to tell our clients to use Chrome. Not because it’s right, but because it’s the path of least resistance. it comes preinstalled on android and chromebooks. but hey - so dose Edge for windows and safari for iOS and Mac...
And just like that, Chrome wins — again.
Every OS should have their select browser upon installation.
Firefox is fighting the good fight. Their commitment to standards and privacy is admirable, but they're constantly outpaced and underfunded. and is very critical to some new standard positions.
Safari nails performance and system integration, especially on Mac. But its developer tools are lacking, and it's always behind on bleeding-edge APIs. Apple also keeps their development roadmap frustratingly secret. and refuse to implement new JS api's that further help to fingerprint and collect more information about users.
Meanwhile, Chrome moves fast and breaks the web — and everyone is forced to follow.
This isn't healthy competition. It's hegemony.
Let’s not forget that Google’s entire business model revolves around tracking users and selling ads. Every time Chrome introduces a “privacy” feature, it’s part of a bigger ad-tech strategy — not real user protection.
Firefox, Brave, and Safari actually block trackers and fingerprinting. But most users don’t even know that — because everyone’s locked into Chrome.
- Browsers with too large market share should be restricted from pushing proprietary APIs.
- Their focus should be on bug fixes, performance, and interoperability — not inventing their own stuff - not even outside of the chromium enginge. but the shell, devtool etc should not recive new things.
- just focus on bug fixes, performences and memory stuff god dammit!
- Feature proposals should go through real multivendor standardization — not "Chrome ships first, others maybe later".
- Developers need to stop normalizing Chrome-only dev workflows.
- More people need to speak up about this imbalance, especially those of us who actually care about the future of the web.
I’m not alone in thinking Chrome has too much power. Even regulators are starting to take notice.
In the US, Google is currently facing antitrust lawsuits that could force them to sell off Chrome entirely due to monopoly concerns:
Let that sink in: a web browser — something that should be a neutral tool — might need to be broken up like a telecom or oil company.
If that’s not a wake-up call, I don’t know what is.
I’m just one developer. I’m not a CEO. I’m not an influencer. I don’t post on X or Reddit. I’ve ditched most social media.
But I care about the web.
And I hate watching it become a Chrome-shaped monoculture, where Google dictates the rules, controls the pace, and reaps all the rewards.
This isn’t just a rant. It’s a warning.
We’ve been here before with Internet Explorer.
We didn’t like it then — so why are we letting it happen again?
I have a hate / love relationship with google chrome.
Feel free to share, fork, or scream into the void with me.