Sure, but most people will still use Google Chrome, and good luck getting Microsoft and Opera to switch to the fork. Google will still have full control over Chrome, and the layperson won't understand why a browser that looks the same as Chrome but doesn't work with Google's sites is better.
They have control of Chrome, so they could always implement some kind of API into Chrome to check.
C-C-C-C-Conflict of interest!
Everybody thought this was OK because Chromium is open-source.
And that may help if a group of developers decide to fork it in their own direction.
Sure, but most people will still use Google Chrome, and good luck getting Microsoft and Opera to switch to the fork. Google will still have full control over Chrome, and the layperson won't understand why a browser that looks the same as Chrome but doesn't work with Google's sites is better.
That's the issue.