back to article Vivaldi boss: It'd be cool if Google went back to the 'not evil' schtick

The founder of the web browser Opera has accused Google of "anti-competitive" practices. "A monopoly both in search and advertising, Google, unfortunately shows that they are not able to resist the misuse of power," wrote Jon von Tetzchner, now CEO of Vivaldi, in a blog post on Monday. He also intimated there may have been a …

  1. chivo243 Silver badge
    Terminator

    There is no way back

    Any company/business that becomes so large, that no one is held responsible for anything, there is no way back. Google has enough re$ources now that playing the legal game is just part of doing evil, er, I mean business. I wonder how many shenanigans google is pulling at this minute and no one even suspects?

    1. Valeyard

      Re: There is no way back

      they did a good job of harnessing the microsoft behemoth though after their european troubles took them down a notch or two, (then after microsoft's later products brought them down the rest of the way)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    anti-competitive practices.

    A confusing term to say the least.

    Why on earth would a company want to be competitive when the sole purpose of a company is to make as much money as possible?

    If Opera wanted to get one over google then it should set up it's own search engine and get it to override Google results when a user uses Google.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: anti-competitive practices.

      > Why on earth would a company want to be competitive when the sole purpose of a company is to make as much money as possible?

      By the same token the sole purpose of a physical person is to pass on its genes. Why would things like moral sense, ethics, rule of law, etc. (in short, social constructs) be needed if all we need to do is find a creature of the opposite gender and copulate?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: anti-competitive practices.

        Just to be clear. I'm not condoning the actions of Google or anyone else. I'm a realist so you can take your fluffy bunny outlook and at some point join the real world.

        1. strum

          Re: anti-competitive practices.

          >join the real world.

          Luckily, the real world contains some adults.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: anti-competitive practices.

        "find a creature of the opposite gender and copulate?"

        So you agree then as you condone f*cking someone.

        It's lovely to see how people react to comments when they disagree with the basics of human nature and how you view the world, in the real world there are people that won't have your moral high ground and to dismiss the notion leaves you wide open to abuse but then again I'm a realist.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Re: anti-competitive practices.

      I think you need to look up that term and lets use your quote.

      "If Opera wanted to get one over google then it should set up it's own search engine and get it to override Google results when a user uses Google."

      Well ignoring trademark infringement and deceptive practices by Opera, lets take an example of how Google could be anti competitive.

      Google, delists all references to Opera Browser.

      Google own the vast market share of search.

      How does Opera hope to compete?

    3. Michael Nidd

      Re: anti-competitive practices.

      You have spotted exactly the point. It's not natural to want to be competitive, it's natural to want to crush your opponents into dust if they are vulnerable, which is why "anti-competitive practices" are banned with government enforcement for the sake of retaining a robust free market. Just like it's natural for a boxer to want a horseshoe in his glove, so we make rules about glove composition and agree the sport benefits from these rules. The general consensus is that consumers would suffer if regulators did not detect and punish anti-competitive practices.

      1. sabroni Silver badge

        Re: , it's natural to want to crush your opponents into dust

        No. It isn't. It's natural to want to survive. Humans do that a lot better in groups than they do on their own.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: anti-competitive practices.

      Nobody passes a law to force people to do things everybody wants to do anyway.

      The fact that companies naturally want to engage in dirty tricks is why dirty tricks get outlawed, from insider trading to anti competitive practices.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: anti-competitive practices.

      The "anti-competitive practices" is not a reference to the company's competition, but to the market's. Google does things that make the ENTIRE MARKET less competitive. Great for them, because they make more money, not so great for everyone else.

      You're right that a company would prefer to have no competition, because then they can charge whatever the market will bear and not worry about getting undercut by someone else willing to make less profit than them. Capitalism requires functioning competitive markets to thrive. If you allow monopolies to go unchecked, the market fails and capitalism is only functioning for the monopoly, not its market or its customers.

  3. Britt

    This being Vivendi, who Ubisoft calls a bully...

    1. pklausner
      Facepalm

      It's VIVALDI, the 2nd incarnation of OPERA which also is not exactly a giant...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google

    Behave like scum, because they can. The cosey relationships they have wth TLAs of course have nothing to do with their power, obviously. AC because big brother really is watching everything that has gone through Google. Black helicopters.

  5. AegisPrime
    Facepalm

    Did you all forget your coffee today?

    Jon's with *Vivaldi* (makers of a damn fine browser) not Opera and certainly not Vivendi.

    *sigh*

    1. Adam 52 Silver badge

      Re: Did you all forget your coffee today?

      I suppose that depends on what you consider to be a browser.

    2. Mr Dogshit

      Re: Did you all forget your coffee today?

      "*Vivaldi* (makers of a damn fine browser)"

      You mean a reskinned version of Chrome?

      RIP Opera

      1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

        Re: Did you all forget your coffee today?

        "You mean a reskinned version of Chrome?"

        At least Vivaldi doesn't periodically wipe for my browser setting for my "protection".

  6. ForthIsNotDead

    Well...

    ...I'd settle for Google NOT buying companies such as Boston Dynamics, which were a DARPA outfit, created to literally make intelligent autonomous hunter-killer robots, capable of running faster than a man, with the ability to get up when it falls over, and hosting a range of lethal weaponry, specifically designed to hunt down humans and kill them.

    I'd settle for that, personally.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Well...

      Maybe they were bought to allow them to shut them down.

      They could be useful for demining an area safely.

      My coat is the one with the body armour.

    2. ratfox
      Happy

      Re: Well...

      I think they're trying to sell the robots. Couldn't figure out where to put the ads, maybe.

      On topic, I'm thinking Google suspend enough accounts for wrong reasons, and there are enough people criticizing them, for it to be a coincidence. That it took almost three months to reinstate the account is just an example of Google's great customer service.

    3. FireWorks
      Trollface

      Re: Well...

      Don't worry. Google put Boston Dynamics up for sale as soon as they lost the DARPA contracts. No sense building killer robots without a buyer.

    4. jelockwood
      Terminator

      Re: Well...

      Google buy Boston Dynamics - maker of autonomous hunter-killer robots

      Google buy DeepMind - one of the leading AI developers

      Google buy $800million of property in Sunnyvale

      Cyberdyne Systems is supposedly located in Sunnyvale

      AI + autonomous hunter killer = Cyberdyne Systems

      eek!

  7. Bucky 2

    That ship sailed years ago

    The "don't be evil" thing has been false so long, it isn't even a laughing stock anymore. Surely Vivaldi knows this, too?

  8. nickx89

    If this continues...

    Everyone should have seen it long coming before praising and supporting Google all this time. The slow monopoly by Google has led it to be the largest ad network provider and the biased ad blocker in today's time. If this continues then we'd be left 'forced' ads by the Google rather than choice.

    1. ecarlseen

      Re: If this continues...

      It's worse than that - I'm pretty sure half of my downvotes on this site have been for daring to criticize the Android platform as being a loss-leader given away in exchange for slurping people's personal data. It's promoted as being open and modifyable, but is so in a manner that only a tiny and shrinking percentage of people can actually take advantage of. So on one hand people whine about Google being evil, and on the other hand refuse to stop using them and even act like rabid fanbois if anyone dares call them what they are. Strange.

      1. imanidiot Silver badge

        Re: If this continues...

        I would, if there were ACTUALLY better alternatives out there. Apple isn't that much better. WinPho support is non-existent or gets dropped whenever they feel like it, plus development for it is pretty much dead. RIM/BlackBerry went bust. That leaves a host of Android based custom OSes that are either not trustworthy or not reliably supported.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just stop using Google.

    I use Duck Duck Go as my primary search engine, falling back to Google if I can't get decent results (seldom happens). There are plenty of email options besides Gmail. Seriously - this is all 100% self-inflicted by consumers. If a vendor misbehaves, switch. It's not rocket science, people.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      But that would require me to think, and do, I don't have time for all that kerfuffle.

  10. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge

    Google: We'd go back ...

    ... to the good side, but the market for secret lairs in extinct volcanoes is a bit weak right now.

  11. Tubz Silver badge

    Googles true mantra is "Do as much evil as possible, until we are found out and then deny everything, as we have more cash for lawyers !"

  12. jaebsf

    Doesn't he have anything better to do?

    Like fix his browsers many issues?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Doesn't he have anything better to do?

      At least he's got one. And successfully launched another previously.

      Where's your's?

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  13. MaldwynP

    When they changed their motto to 'pay no tax', that must have been a warning shot.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Along with "pay no dividend".

    Alphabet/Google is simply a soft play area for its own management to do whatever the spoilt, childish tw@ts do whatever they want. No respect for users, no respect for governments, no respect for shareholders.

    1. sitta_europea Silver badge

      [quote]

      ... no respect for shareholders.

      [/quote]

      $927.81 this morning.

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