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How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users

by.graffino.com

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Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users

#11

Post by baldfat »

majewsky wrote: post #3
petercooper wrote: post #2

I'm starting to think that if Google had a service where you could pay $10/$20/whatever, and actually get someone reasonably well informed to read what you're saying and direct your issue to the right person, they'd have another significant revenue stream on their hands ;-)

There is a larger pattern here. Is there any large B2C web service that's not monetized by selling the users' data (for advertisement targeting etc.)? For example, I would absolutely love to pay a monthly fee to Twitter (say, 3-5€) in exchange for an ad-free, unmodified, chronological timeline. And I would also consider paying something (say, 10€ a month) to Google in exchange for an ad-free search site that does not…

You can pay less then 10€ a month to get ad free YouTube and Music. Best money I spend every month.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users

#13

Post by majewsky »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #8
majewsky wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a larger pattern here. Is there any large B2C web service that's not monetized by selling the users' data (for advertisement targeting etc.)? For example, I would absolutely love to pay a monthly fee to Twitter (say, 3-5€) in exchange for an ad-free, unmodified, chronological timeline. And I would also consider paying something (say, 10€ a month) to Google in exchange for an ad-free search site that does not…

Thus far, I accomplish that via: Duck, Duck, Go; NoScript; Privacy Badger; and uBlock Origin. Its silly to need to do all that, but it works well for me.

uBlock cannot give me a pristine timeline; Twitter's algorithms still mess with the content ordering. It's not just about ads, it's about how a tool's design is poisoned by the need for maximal ad revenue.

As far as DuckDuckGo goes, I would really love to use them regularly. DDG is even the default search engine on my notebook, but I find myself going to Google in the second step about 90% of the time because DDG's results are too bad.

Also, DDG is still running on ads, so it's more of the same, albeit implemented more privacy-consciously.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users

#14

Post by majewsky »

baldfat wrote: post #11
majewsky wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a larger pattern here. Is there any large B2C web service that's not monetized by selling the users' data (for advertisement targeting etc.)? For example, I would absolutely love to pay a monthly fee to Twitter (say, 3-5€) in exchange for an ad-free, unmodified, chronological timeline. And I would also consider paying something (say, 10€ a month) to Google in exchange for an ad-free search site that does not…

You can pay less then 10€ a month to get ad free YouTube and Music. Best money I spend every month.

Great. Now they should offer the same for the search engine.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users

#15

Post by nmstoker »

It seems recently like anything inbound to Google goes into /dev/null!

A number of us have been trying to get a response regarding Google Apps accounts with Play Music, and we're paying customers. There's no response to the forum https://productforums.google.com/forum/m/?utm_medium=email&u... nor when I put it on Twitter and when a load of us tried direct feedback via the app, that still hasn't got any response.

Clearly their model needs to rely on limited user support and that's okay, provided there's a good service with some human presence. But it's getting to be a problem...

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users

#16

Post by chiefalchemist »

What's that? Google? Poor support? Poor service? Say it isn't so.

To be clear, #Sarcasm :)

Google's genius, isn't so much what they do. It's also that they've lowered the bar when it comes to expectations. They understand that designing and building products is relatively easy. The unknowns are in time knowable.

On the other hand , reality-based humans drive Google crazy. They are, evidently, to be avoided at all costs.

In that context, it's "interesting" how it's working out for Google+, eh. Surprised?

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users

#17

Post by hota_mazi »

> I received an email from Google telling me that my extension violated Facebook’s trademark

What did you expect?

Any service, not just Google, will shut down apps and extensions for similar reasons. This has nothing to do with

> I just don’t think it is worth it to put any amount of effort to build something on a platform that turned out to be so unreliable.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users

#18

Post by Buetol »

That's what you get when you centralize things.

A better thing could be a community-owned store for the chrome extensions (and a community-owner browser). Something like the Mozilla Add-ons site but for Chromium-only extensions.

Or being able to add you own stores in Chromium, would be even nice for companies who want to distribute private extensions.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users

#20

Post by chiefalchemist »

majewsky wrote: post #3
petercooper wrote: post #2

I'm starting to think that if Google had a service where you could pay $10/$20/whatever, and actually get someone reasonably well informed to read what you're saying and direct your issue to the right person, they'd have another significant revenue stream on their hands ;-)

There is a larger pattern here. Is there any large B2C web service that's not monetized by selling the users' data (for advertisement targeting etc.)? For example, I would absolutely love to pay a monthly fee to Twitter (say, 3-5€) in exchange for an ad-free, unmodified, chronological timeline. And I would also consider paying something (say, 10€ a month) to Google in exchange for an ad-free search site that does not…

Support costs money. Big money. Just as FB, IG, TW, etc. For the most part, they all suck.
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