Have you ever been trapped in a bad relationship?
Im stuck in one right now with Google Chrome.
The browsers good looks can no longer hide the ugliness that lurks inside.
Chrome devours my laptops memory, sucks away its battery, and harvests my data.
All the while, the software expands Googles almighty empire.
Chrome,you treat me terribly.
Why cant I quit you?
One reason for my undeserved loyalty is that rival browsers catch my eye.
But thats started to change.
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The law expands the options for almost half a billion people.
It also gives companies around the world new routes into the market.
As the rules take effect, Europe is becoming a hotbed of hungry challengers to the established brands.
By building niches and harnessing emerging tech, theyre developing alternatives to Chrome and Apples Safari.
Norways Opera, for instance, is tapping the power ofAI.
Cyprus Aloha is instead focusing on privacy features.
Germanys Ecosia, meanwhile, is concentrating on sustainability.
All of them are poised to exploit the rare blend of legal and digital opportunities.
Across the continent, the markets established giants face rising threats.A new internet tool war is brewing in Europe.
Tim Berners-Lee sparked the first skirmish when he released the worlds first internet tool in 1990.
Within a few years, a wave of alternatives had emerged.
The first real showstopper was Mosaic, which introduced a pioneering graphical point-and-click interface.
That marked the start of the web as we know it.
Mosaic soon evolved into Netscape Navigator, which became the leading internet tool in 1995.
But that year also welcomed a powerful new rival: Microsofts Internet Explorer (IE).
The first internet tool war had begun.
By 2001, IE had a 96% market share.
But Navigator didnt die without leaving a successor.
Netscape entrusted the web client code to a young non-profit called the Mozilla Foundation.
In 2004, Mozilla integrated the old code into the Firefox web client.
Brandishing new features, customisability, andprivacyprotections, Firefox took the fight to IE.
As the duo battled, a third combatant entered the second surfing app war: Chrome.
The package quickly gained traction.
By 2017, Chromes market share had expanded to over 60%.
Firefox and IE, meanwhile, had slumped well below 5% each.
Mozillas formerCTO,Andreas Gal, declared that Chrome had won the second internet tool war.
His verdict endures today.
Chromes only true rival is still Safari.
Thanks largely to preferential treatment on iPhones and iPads, the surfing app maintainsaround 18%of the market.
In a distant third place with 5% is Edge, Microsofts replacement for IE.
Firefoxs share, meanwhile, has dived below 3%.
Thats only fractionally ahead of the leading web client born inEurope: Opera.
As a new one simmers, the company is drawing support from powerful allies.
The 58-year-olds efforts to implement CSS provided an enduring lesson about the internet tool market.
They wanted to dominate, which is natural from a corporate point of view.
But as consumers, activists, and developers, we need to insist on a better world.
And thats where Opera fit in.
It was a smaller, faster and more standards-compliant net online gate.
In 2007, Wium Lie ledan Opera complaintin the EU over IEs dominance.
Under pressure from lawmakers, Microsoft pledged to give European consumers better access to rival browsers in Windows.
For Wium Lie, that still wasnt enough to restore competition.
But stricter rules are emerging.
Browsers are one of the laws big targets.
The rules also loosen Apple and Googles stranglehold on mobile operating systems.
The DMA has dismantled that strategy.
Users then select their preferred default web app.
Alongside the choice screens, tech giants must now offer new frameworks and APIs for third-party surfing app engines.
Apple has also announced a new interoperability request form for developers.
These changes have created new openings for browsers born in Europe.
Europes browsers on the rise
The DMA had an instant impact.
The impact spread from Europes northern peak to the EUs deep south.
Germanysclimate-conscious Ecosiabrowser and Norways highly customisable Vivaldi also reported substantial growth.
Independent experts substantiate the claims.
A particularly big door has opened to internet tool engines.
It also inhibited Firefox, which runs on Gecko.
Under the DMA, however, Apple has to permit non-WebKit engines on iOS in the EU.
Thats created new opportunities to differentiate rival browsers.
With Chromium, we can actually make changes, Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner tells TNW.
With WebKit, we could not.
The improvement, however, comes withmajor caveats.
Outside the EU, the new rules dont apply.
Furthermore, the engine rules dont cover iPads, which Apple argues run on another operating system.
On these platforms, browsers still have to run on WebKit.
Ironically, the ruling could actually strengthen one of the gatekeepers.
Google spentover a yearbuilding a non-WebKit version of Chrome for iOS.
As holes emerge in Apples ecosystem, the net web client can fill the gaps.
On the upside, users will have more choice.
Smaller browsers have also argued that Apples choice screens dont comply with the DMA.
Even fewer Android users had seen one, the Firefox maker said.
Apples first implementation was really, really, really terrible, von Tetzchner says.
The screens have since improved, he adds, but the selection process remains clunky.
Theyre trying to make this ineffective.
Alternative browsers also want EU rules applied globally.
In the meantime, theyre strengthening their differential features.
Instead, the challengers have to offer differential features.
A wave of these has been unleashed by the generative AI boom.
Opera was among the early adopters.
The surfing app quickly launched the Aria chatbot, which sits within the browsers sidebar.
By tapping OpenAIs GPT model, Aria adds a Q&A approach to web browsing.
Opera also recently becamethe first majorbrowserwith built-in support for local AI models.
But the biggest AI impact emerged in a US challenger.
Unfortunately, it also deprivescontent creators of vital income.
But the innovation offered a unique selling point.
Privacy features offer another way to differentiate from Chromes data vacuum.
Its in these niches that the upstarts are best placed to flourish.
In Lius view, that specialised approach is the only clear path to growth.
With Chrome and Safari deeply ingrained in our online lives, she expects a limited impact from the DMA.
It opens the door to competition, but its not going to be a floodgate, she says.
You are still competing against these incredibly well-known, well-funded, and well-resourced companies.
That competition has created an uneven battleground.
Todays surfing app war is not a conflict between superpowers.
Its more akin to rebel groups fighting skirmishes against a ruling king.
But history suggests even the largest digital empires can crumble.
There were people saying no one could compete with Mosaic, von Tetzchner recalls.
Then they said no one could compete with Netscape… As for the big player in my life, Chrome is still hanging on to my heart.
Its good looks havent faded and we have so much history together.
Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he e(show all)Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse).
