I don't think Chrome's behavior of enabling 3rd party cookies by default, burying Do Not Track under "Advanced", and having no Reader Mode functionality make it "better for the consumer."
It's easy to guess that someone searching for "how long is the golden gate bridge" is more likely to be idly curious than in the market for hotels. This is a small loss. But when it comes to choices that affect their core business model, ads rule.
Of course this isn't surprising or even particularly damning. Apple still charges for iPhones, even though free ones are surely better for the consumer. Still, the settings and defaults for Chrome vs (say) Safari speak to the priorities of their authors.
I think you're right about the biggest threat to Google.
It's easy to guess that someone searching for "how long is the golden gate bridge" is more likely to be idly curious than in the market for hotels. This is a small loss. But when it comes to choices that affect their core business model, ads rule.
Of course this isn't surprising or even particularly damning. Apple still charges for iPhones, even though free ones are surely better for the consumer. Still, the settings and defaults for Chrome vs (say) Safari speak to the priorities of their authors.
I think you're right about the biggest threat to Google.