Tip: you can use the WhatsApp web site for text messaging (I don’t think it works for audio/video?) and if you want to use it in a standalone window you can “install” it as a web app (in most browsers). It’ll use way less RAM running in your existing browser than running a separate electron instance.

Generally agree, but your idea that native games are safer than websites is backwards. Browsers are basically hardened sandboxes for running untrusted code. Even though steam does a good job of detecting and taking down malware it’s still downloading executables that run with full access to your system (unless you run steam in a sandbox of some kind). Playing games in a browser is no less safe than loading any other website.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a Borderlands spinoff shooter/RPG that’s co-op and happens to be free to claim on Epic games store this week. I haven’t played it yet but really enjoyed the Tiny Tina DLC for Borderlands 2.

Google doesn’t make money directly from harvesting your data, they make money from harvesting your data then showing you ads based on that data. So if you’re running an ad blocker then they aren’t making money from you (unless you pay them for stuff like subscriptions and apps). As ad blocking becomes more common they are definitely going to get more draconian to try to claw back that money (growth is infinite, profits must go up /s).

Also BTW Google probably makes more like $50 per user per year on average (looking at revenue and internet population) so they would never offer a $2/year ad block unless forced to by regulation.