译文如下，原文最后。
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-28/google-s-chrome-becomes-web-gatekeeper-and-rivals-complain
谷歌的Chrome浏览器成为网页守门人，对手很抱怨
当Samuel Maddock开发一款能让朋友同时看在线视频的浏览器，他使用的是成本最低的最方便的Chromium，这是谷歌的Chrome浏览器的免费开源版本。
Maddock的发明成功了，但是由于是基于Chromium，他不得不通过另一款谷歌的产品Widevine来授权用户，并避免视频隐私的泄露。
他并没有做违法的事情。实际上，使用谷歌的安全流工具能够保证他的项目光明正大的进行。但是互联网巨头并不允许，也不告诉你原因。Maddock放弃了开发一款浏览器。
Maddock说：遇到像谷歌这样的看门人来决定你的项目能否进行，如果你没有的授权，你就完蛋了。
这不过是一个小小的开发者的小小项目。不过从他的故事可以看出谷歌对于浏览器市场的霸权，得益于核心的技术工具，谷歌牢牢控制着网页的技术，（who gets to create new ways of accessing it）
Alphabet公司促使印度和欧洲当局控制其行为。欧盟已经处罚谷歌在搜索、广告、移动操作系统领域的垄断行为。Chrome是谷歌关于广告投放、搜索引擎推广、用户行为追踪的重要阵地。
关于欧洲针对谷歌的反垄断案例细节 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-20/google-fined-1-7-billion-by-eu-over-advertising-contracts
谷歌的亲生产品很少成功的，唯独Chrome。据StatCounter数据显示，2008年发布至今，Chrome已经拥有63%市场占有率，70%的是电脑平台。Mozilla的火狐浏览器远远不及，苹果的Safari是iphone的默认浏览器。微软的IE和Edge浏览器就是个笑话。
谷歌在符合了开放式网页标准的同时，为用户提供了一款快速、高自由度的免费浏览器，于是取得了成功。如今它是领头羊，控制着标准制定的话语权。谷歌考虑的是通过它的浏览器项目以及开源的Chromium来推挤其他的竞争对手，使整个行业像有利于他的方向倾斜。
当前大部分浏览器都是基于Chromium内核。科技界运营多年的独立浏览器Opera在2013年转向了Chromium。就连微软也在这年做出来调整。滚雪球效应开始，越来越少的网页开发者为特定的浏览器做开发，导致这些浏览器为了避免掉队纷纷转向Chromium。
因此Chrome的对手必须依靠谷歌的员工，他们的工作就是更新Chromium的代码。Chromium是开源的，任何人可以提修改建议，但是同意改变（contribution）的是谷歌员工，重大的异议都是由一小撮高级员工解决的。
Chrome技术很先进，网页开发者也不用在竞争对手浏览器上做测试。谷歌的Youtube、Docs、Gmail在竞争对手的浏览器运行也不是很稳定，也让这些用户转向谷歌。曾经仅仅是一叶扁舟，如今Chrome正在变成一片海洋。
“Chrome说一就是一，任何人必须遵循。”前Mozilla首席技术官Andreas Gal说。
谷歌在Gal在职的七年中并没有把Mozilla当做目标（overt）。他后来把这个形容为凌迟处死，因为谷歌更新了这些服务后就不支持Mozilla了。
“有很多的oopsies，谷歌ships something，oops，在firefox无法运行”Gal说。“他们说我们将修复，两个月后，用户每次访问这些网站，他们会觉得火狐浏览器有问题了。”
谷歌试图缓和这个问题。还有一个项目专注于让不同的浏览器能够更为统一，避免让网页开发者为难。谷歌也倡导更多的公共标准，以使其他浏览器遵循。
“我们很认真的，我们有责任成为网页的好管家”Darin Fisher说，Chrome团队的技术副总。谷歌依赖于为更多的人服务，所以谷歌并不对于恶性竞争感兴趣。
2009年Chrome不值一提
很多年前微软的IE统治着浏览器市场
尽管它并不想破坏，谷歌已经从财政上开始统治市场，Gal说。他将创业项目SilkLabs卖给了苹果公司后就加入了苹果。
过去有三四个主要的参与者来瓜分市场份额，微软、Mozilla、苹果，也没有谁有非常明显的优势。他说，如今，尤其是桌面平台，谷歌明显是独霸一方了。
统治就意味着谷歌可以制定互联网的标准。广告和用户数据收集都是默认选项。
月初，谷歌宣布了一项酝酿已久的决定，关于网上追踪信息的cookies。其他的浏览器默认是阻止第三方cookies，但是谷歌把选择权留给了用户。由于其统治地位，这项决定也可能成为标准。一个依赖cookies的网络广告公司Criteo SA的市场份额一下提升10%，成为这一年增长最快的。
“Chrome已经变成了间谍软件。”Mozilla联合创始人兼Brave软件公司CEO Brendan Eich说。
Brave正在提供一款可以屏蔽广告和网页跟踪的浏览器，并且在开发一套系统，用户在访问特定的网站时，会获得一定数量的报酬。这可能会终结互联网广告业务。唯一的隐患是Brave浏览器基于Chromium。
Eich说这是他愿意做的生意。开发这么一款浏览器太难了。但是但是在谷歌的汪洋大海中航行并不顺利。
在2017年8月，网飞突然在Brave浏览器上无法打开。Brave的CTO BrianBondy发现原来是谷歌更新了网飞使用的Widvine，Maddock也尝试从谷歌获取其使用权。Brave并未告知这些变化，所以用户就无法访问网飞。花了两周时间才解决。
“市场份额很小的浏览器和谷歌没什话语权，谷歌一直在拖延”Bondy在Github发帖子说。
尽管当人们选择下载一款Chrome的竞品浏览器，谷歌总有办法让他们回来。一款叫Vivaldi的浏览器由于privacy-conscious crowd很流行，当运行谷歌服务时也遇到了困难，他们的CEO Jon von Tetzchner如是说。一些用户使用Vivaldi访问谷歌产品时，被告知不适配，或者建议他们使用Chrome。
Von Tetzchner说，这是在针对我们（targeting），他甚至和谷歌的联合创始人Sergey Brin讲过这个问题，但是并没有一个很明确的承诺可以停着此项问题。
浏览器大战让谷歌能够获得可以使用其他服务的友好环境（Winning the browser war has done a lot more for Google than just allow it to create a friendly space for its other web services.）当Chrome用户在登录谷歌账户时，谷歌可以跟踪网上行为，记录网站浏览记录。所有的数据会用于提升谷歌的广告产品。
“浏览器就是一个可以窥见你的东西”Eben Moglen是哥伦比亚法学院研究浏览器和竞争中的地位多年的反倾销法律教授。Chrome对于广告屏蔽服务已经非常不友好。
Chrome执行官Fisher说网页需要提供广告，才能保证用户不需支付出版者和网站就获得其访问权。
“Chrome与广告部门是独立的，但是当然我们是互相配合的，我们的共识是提供一个免费的开放的网络，要让网页更加强大的是需要为用户提供多样化的消费品。”
浏览器多样性是另一个问题。如果世界上最大的软件公司微软需要Chromium，很难想象谷歌会很快失去支配地位。
微软的体验与设备副总裁Joe Belfiore说，“我们遵循着积极与合作的精神，这不会让我失望”。难道他会担心积极性不持久吗？
“我们将会跨越障碍，让我们拭目以待”Belfiore说。
原文
Google’s Chrome Becomes Web ‘Gatekeeper’ and Rivals Complain
- By Gerrit De Vynck, www.bloomberg.com
- 查看原始文档
- 五月 28日, 2019
Once underdog, browser now labeled ‘spyware,’ ‘monopolist’
Company accused of stalling approvals for rival browsers
Photographer: Michael Short/Bloomberg
When Samuel Maddock built a browser that lets friends watch an online video at the same time, he used what seemed like the cheapest and simplest option: Chromium, a free, open-source version of Google’s Chrome web browser.
Maddock’s creation worked well, but because it was based on Chromium, he needed another Google product called Widevine to authenticate users and prevent video piracy. He sent Google a request, outlining the project, and waited. And waited. Four months and 10 emails later he got a one-line answer: sorry, you can’t use the software for that.
He wasn’t doing anything illegal. In fact, using Google’s secure-streaming tool would have ensured his project was above-board. But the internet giant withheld access, without saying why. Maddock gave up on making a browser soon after.
“You have these gatekeepers like Google that decide which projects can work and if you’re not granted that permission you’re screwed,’’ Maddock said.
This is one small developer working on a small project. But his story demonstrates how Google’s dominance of the browser market -- and the underlying technology tools -- gives the company far-reaching control over how the web works, and who gets to create new ways of accessing it.
It’s another example of how the Alphabet Inc. unit’s power has grown to the point where regulators from India to the European Union are looking for ways to keep it in check. The EU has already fined Google for breaking antitrust laws in the markets for online search, display advertising and mobile operating systems. Chrome is an important cog in Google’s digital ad system, distributing its search engine and providing a direct view for the company into what users do on the web.
Read more about the EU’s antitrust cases against Google.
Few home-grown Google products have been as successful as Chrome. Launched in 2008, it has more than 63% of the market and about 70% on desktop computers, according to StatCounter data. Mozilla’s Firefox is far behind, while Apple’s Safari is the default browser for iPhones. Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer and Edge browsers are punchlines.
Chrome Swamps Rivals
Google's browser dominates how people access the web
Source: StatCounter
Note: Data as of April 2019
Google won by offering consumers a fast, customizable browser for free, while embracing open web standards. Now that Chrome is the clear leader, it controls how the standards are set. That’s sparking concern Google is using the browser and its Chromium open-source underpinnings to elbow out online competitors and tilt entire industries in its favor.
Most major browsers are now built on the Chromium software code base that Google maintains. Opera, an indie browser that’s been used by techies for years, swapped its code base for Chromium in 2013. Even Microsoft is making the switch this year. That creates a snowball effect, where fewer web developers build for niche browsers, leading those browsers to switch over to Chromium to avoid getting left behind.
This leaves Chrome’s competitors relying on Google employees who do most of the work to keep Chromium software code up to date. Chromium is open source, so anyone can suggest changes to it, but the majority of programmers who approve contributions are Google employees, and any major disagreements get settled by a small circle of senior Google employees.
Chrome is so ascendant these days that web developers often don’t bother to test their sites on competing browsers. Google services including YouTube, Docs and Gmail sometimes don’t work as well on rival browsers, sending frustrated users to Chrome. Instead of just another ship slicing through the sea of the web, Chrome is becoming the ocean.
“Whatever Chrome does is what the standard is, everyone else has to follow,” said Andreas Gal, the former chief technology officer of Mozilla.
Google didn’t target Mozilla in overt ways during Gal’s seven years at the company. Instead, he described it as death by a thousand cuts: Google would update Docs, or Gmail, and suddenly those services wouldn’t work on Mozilla.
“There were dozens and dozens of ‘oopsies,’ where Google ships something and, ‘oops,’ it doesn’t work in Firefox,’’ Gal said. “They say oh we’re going to fix it right away, in two months, and in the meantime every time the user goes to these sites, they think, ‘oh, Firefox is broken.’’’
Google has tried to mitigate this problem. It has a separate project focused on making different browsers behave in more uniform ways so website developers have less tweaking to do. And the company has advocated for more public standards that can be followed by all browsers.
“We take it seriously, the responsibility of being good stewards of the web,’’ said Darin Fisher, a vice president of engineering on the Chrome team. Google’s business relies on the web working for as many people as possible, so the company doesn’t have an interest in squashing competition, he said.
Chrome Was Just a Ripple in 2009
Microsoft's Internet Explorer dominated the browser market a decade ago
Source: Statcounter
Note: Data as of April 2009
Even if it isn’t trying to sabotage competing browsers, Google has a financial motivation to dominate the market, Gal said. He now works at Apple Inc. after selling his startup Silk Labs to the iPhone maker in 2018.
“In the past there were these three, four major players with somewhat equivalent share between Microsoft and Google and Mozilla and Apple and nobody had this very clear advantage,’’ he said. “Today, especially in the desktop space, Google is definitely a monopolist.’’
That dominance means Google sets the standard for what the internet is supposed to be. And in that vision, advertising and user data collection are the defaults.
Earlier this month, Google announced a long-awaited decision on how Chrome handles online tracking software known as cookies. Other browsers have blocked third-party cookies by default, but Google chose to let users decide -- and due to its dominance that will likely be the standard going forward. Shares of Criteo SA, a digital ad company that relies on cookies, jumped almost 10% on the news, the biggest gain in over a year.
“Chrome has become spyware,’’ said Brendan Eich, co-founder of Mozilla and the current CEO of Brave Software Inc.
Brave offers a browser that blocks ads and web tracking software, and it is developing a system that pays users small amounts when they visit certain sites. This could upend the internet advertising business. The only catch is that the Brave browser is built on Chromium.
Eich said it’s a trade-off he’s willing to make. Building a browser from scratch is a gargantuan task. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Brave on Google’s ocean.
In August 2017, Netflix suddenly stopped working on Brave’s browser. After a flurry of emails, Brave Chief Technology Officer Brian Bondy discovered that a Google update had changed the way Netflix used Widevine -- the same tool Maddock was trying to get permission from Google to use. Brave hadn’t been told about the changes, so its browser broke when users visited Netflix online. It took over two weeks to fix the problem.
“Small-share browsers are at the mercy of Google, and Google is stalling us for no communicated-to-us reason,’’ Bondy wrote in a post on the developer collaboration site Github at the time.
Even when people choose to download a competitor to Chrome, Google has ways to encourage them to come back. Vivaldi, a popular browser for the privacy-conscious crowd, has had trouble when it comes to running Google services like Docs and Gmail, said CEO Jon von Tetzchner. Some users logging into Google products on Vivaldi get prompts saying their browser isn’t optimized for them, or suggesting they download Chrome instead.
“It was very clearly targeting us,’’ von Tetzchner said. He even spoke to Google co-founder Sergey Brin about the issue, but hasn’t gotten a strong commitment the behavior would stop, he said.
Winning the browser war has done a lot more for Google than just allow it to create a friendly space for its other web services. When Chrome users are logged-in to a Google account, the company can follow them around the web, cataloging what sites they visit. All the data help Google’s ad products improve.
“The browser is the thing which sees the most of you,’’ said Eben Moglen, an antitrust law professor at Columbia Law School who has studied browsers and their role in competition for decades. Chrome has become outright hostile to services that seek to cut down on advertising, like ad blockers, Moglen added.
Fisher, the Chrome executive, said the web needs advertising to keep it affordable for people who might not be able to pay publishers and other website owners for access.
“Chrome is independent from the ads group, but of course we collaborate with them, we both have a shared goal of a free and open web,’’ Fisher said. “Part of making the web really great is that there’s a diversity of content for users to consume.’’
Diversity of browsers is another matter. If Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, needs Chromium, it’s hard to imagine Google losing its grip any time soon.
“We have gone into it in the spirit of positivity and belief in collaboration and they have not disappointed us,’’ said Joe Belfiore, Microsoft vice president of Experiences and Devices, said. Does he worry that positivity might not last?
“We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it,’’ Belfiore said. “Let’s see how this plays out."
— With assistance by Dina Bass
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