Hacker News Recap November 17th, 2025 | Google is killing the open web, part 2
Nov 18, 2025
Discover the debate around Google's influence on the open web and the potential loss of interoperability. An Israeli-founded app on Samsung devices stirs privacy concerns among users. Developers allege Core Devices has been stealing proprietary work, igniting fierce discussions on ethics. Witness Azure's survival of a record-breaking DDoS attack and learn about Replicate's collaboration with Cloudflare to enhance machine learning deployment. Explore exciting projects like FreeMDU for appliance diagnostics and a new simple search engine built from scratch.
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Centralization Threat To The Open Web
- Google's changes risk centralizing control over web standards and developer tools.
- This may reduce interoperability and stifle innovation across the open web.
Preinstalled Apps Erode User Choice
- Preloading apps on devices raises ethical and privacy concerns for consumers.
- Users lose transparency and choice when vendors ship opaque, preinstalled software.
Developer Claims Core Devices Stole Work
- A developer reports Core Devices repeatedly took their proprietary code and ideas without attribution.
- The community sees this as symptomatic of broader IP and fairness problems in tech.