doesn't matter to them if they diversify their investments enough... there's always at least one segment of the market that sees growth in the collapse. the system works just fine for them.

doesn't matter if everyone else suffers for it.

They don't need the subscription. They make money collecting data and serving ads. They aren't going to charge for that like microsoft does. They aren't that shortsighted.

This current change is to elbow out computers that use cookies for tracking. They are going to be using the browser and they control most browsers. You need to use Safari or Firefox to get away from them. Still safari follows chrome because they have the same heritage of web engine and Google pays apple billions each year. Firefox is also heavily supported by Google, so there's implicit implications involved for Firefox being too different from chrome.

Damn, you beat me to it

They control most browsers because they control the chromium engine most use. The control safari because they forked it's WebKit engine and can pull apple by the tail to follow them. The fund Firefox so they can influence them by withdrawing funding - they don't need contract terms just an implication.

They positioned themselves as the alternative to internet explorer, but they have become internet explorer. Websites aren't following web standards their following Google's standards.

The frustration thing is the best way to avoid this is to not use Chrome based browsers, especially because not all website work correctly in Firefox.