Tool

Microsoft’s search layer—often a conduit into Copilot, Edge defaults, and Windows integration rather than neutral retrieval.

Chromium fork pushing privacy and optional rewards—fewer trackers by default, but still a product with its own wallet, ads narrative, and ecosystem bets.

Flagship consumer LLM: free tier competes for attention; Plus, Team, and API convert habit into recurring revenue.

Dominant Chromium default—fast and compatible, tightly coupled to Google accounts, sync, and the ads ecosystem that funds the web’s biggest funnel.

Anthropic’s assistant: funded by subscriptions, not ads—but weekly usage caps and default training on chats count against it.

Privacy-marketed search with lighter tracking; still a business that must fund results and experiments over time.

Open-source Matrix client; messages federate across servers you control, end-to-end encryption is on by default, and no single company can revoke access to your conversations.

Collaborative design in the browser; files, libraries, and plugins embed teams so deeply that leaving feels like a migration project.

Open-source browser with privacy-forward defaults and no ad-tech parent; Mozilla’s funding model is fragile but the user-facing product still skews toward surplus over extraction.

Google’s LLM family bundled with Workspace and Android: utility rises with account depth; free use feeds the broader ad and data stack.

Open-source publishing platform run by a nonprofit foundation; self-hostable for free, Ghost Pro managed hosting funds the foundation without taking a cut of creator revenue.

Free email with powerful search, paid behind Workspace; ads and AI features tie identity to Google’s broader stack.

The default map for most of the world: superb data and routing, increasingly packed with promoted pins, ads, and Gemini features built around Google's priorities.

Once best-in-class retrieval; now cluttered with SERP features, ads, and SEO sludge—users get the residual junk.

Paid, ad-free search funded by subscribers instead of advertisers—you are the customer, so the results are tuned for you.

A capable Chromium browser wrapped in Microsoft's funnel: Bing and Copilot defaults, a sponsored news feed, shopping prompts, and nagging to stay.

Flexible docs and databases users love; leaving means migrating templates, permissions, and team workflows—sticky by design.

Local-first note-taking app; files stay on your device in plain Markdown, sync and publish are optional paid add-ons, and the core product is free for personal use with no VC pressure.

Local LLM runner that lets you download and run open-weight models on your own hardware; no API calls, no usage billing, no data leaving your machine—VC-backed but FOSS by design.

Consumer inbox on the Microsoft graph: Microsoft 365 upsells, Focused Inbox, and account convergence toward paid bundles.

End-to-end encrypted email from a Swiss nonprofit-aligned foundation; free tier with no ads or scanning, paid plans fund the service without monetising user data.

Still user-respecting by default, but growing reliance on the nonprofit’s roadmap and network effects builds soft lock-in.

Real-time public transit app from Montreal: core trip planning stays free, funded by an optional subscription and agency partnerships instead of ads or data sales.