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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

#231

Post by pas »

metaphorm wrote: post #208
pas wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could do both.

no, they couldn't. the budget to pay for a large amount of support on a very open app ecosystem is prohibitive, even for a company like google. the compromise position that they could do, but apparently haven't done, is to sell paid support packages for app developers that need/want more engaged support from google.

No, I mean they could do a minimal support thing.

Hire one people to respond to devs of these pretty popular extensions (so let's say above 10 000 installs). Make the number of emails the guy/gal has in the queue public, so devs can know how long they have to wait on average.

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

#232

Post by metaphorm »

pas wrote: post #231
metaphorm wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, they couldn't. the budget to pay for a large amount of support on a very open app ecosystem is prohibitive, even for a company like google. the compromise position that they could do, but apparently haven't done, is to sell paid support packages for app developers that need/want more engaged support from google.

No, I mean they could do a minimal support thing. Hire one people to respond to devs of these pretty popular extensions (so let's say above 10 000 installs). Make the number of emails the guy/gal has in the queue public, so devs can know how long they have to wait on average.

and then you get everyone arguing over what counts as "popular enough to get support attention". its an implementation detail and this is hypothetical, so it doesn't matter much.

in any case its pretty clear how the Android app ecosystem actually works: no support for developers. The advantage you get from that is a more open app ecosystem with lower barriers to entry and lower fees from Google compared to their competitor Apple.

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

#233

Post by jessaustin »

zenopopovici wrote: post #211
chris_wot wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great project - is this in a repo we can fork?

It's not opensource. I would have to rewrite it to open source it. And write some docs. I don't know if I have the time for it. I can't release it in the form it is now. I'm really ashamed of the code I wrote a few years back :).

Don't worry about it! The code probably isn't nearly as bad as you think, and anyway it can be improved through PRs... Did you consider open-sourcing it from the beginning? If so, why did you decide not to do that?

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

#234

Post by kuschku »

bduerst wrote: post #223
kuschku wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spamming isn’t bad, spamming can be fixed with a spamfilter. Selling your age, gender, location, preferences, etc to anyone who books an ad? That’s bad.

They're not selling your personal information to anyone. You can read more about how online ads work here: https://privacy.google.com/how-ads-work.html

Except to a foreign government that is actively hostile towards my rights.

That’s more than enough.

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

#235

Post by bduerst »

kuschku wrote: post #234
bduerst wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not selling your personal information to anyone. You can read more about how online ads work here: https://privacy.google.com/how-ads-work.html

Except to a foreign government that is actively hostile towards my rights. That’s more than enough.

Because this foreign government is booking ads?

I don't follow your line of reasoning here.

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

#236

Post by wernercd »

thetinguy wrote: post #218
protomyth wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one button mouse Although I have some serious issues with Apple (e.g. iPhone 6 plus), Apple hasn't released a one button mouse in a long time. They all have two buttons, just check the preferences. Frankly, Apple TV is actually a pretty good product since my technophobe Mom can use it for its intended purpose. I still don't like the whole remote policy, but that's a developer thing and frankly Apple really isn't th…

Don't argue. This poster is of the mind that his opinion is the only right one.

What makes you think that? From five short paragraphs, I'm an immovable mountain - unable to change my opinion because I'm right?

Didn't realize that text carried that much weight...

Didn't realize that a comment about a Google Extension was so earth shattering that it's not worth arguing over...

I'd hate to see you in a conversation about anything of real substance.

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

#237

Post by pas »

metaphorm wrote: post #232
pas wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I mean they could do a minimal support thing. Hire one people to respond to devs of these pretty popular extensions (so let's say above 10 000 installs). Make the number of emails the guy/gal has in the queue public, so devs can know how long they have to wait on average.

and then you get everyone arguing over what counts as "popular enough to get support attention". its an implementation detail and this is hypothetical, so it doesn't matter much. in any case its pretty clear how the Android app ecosystem actually works: no support for developers. The advantage you get from that is a more open app ecosystem with lower barriers to entry and lower fees from Google compared to their comp…

Why wouldn't that be better? Here we have a completely shadowy system. Canned responses, no accountability, no transparency, no rules, no communication. You probably have to sue them to pique their attention.

Yeah, the Apple 100USD fee is just as laughable, and their review process just as mystical, no questions about that.

And with Android you at least have the AOSP, and with Chrome there's Chromium, and you can always just distribute Chrome extensions yourself.

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

#238

Post by Merovius »

piyush_soni wrote: post #86
tobltobs wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it is not using "Facebook" or in your case "Yahoo" in your extension name, but changing the content for a user of a Facebook or Yahoo page is what is triggering the remove of the extension. If it is against the TOS (or Platform Policy) I don't see how else they are supposed to react if the get a complain.

It's not the removal of add-on that pissed me off, but the lack of proper response on what would be the acceptable resolution. Not using the name would change the meaning as both of these are not general purpose ad blockers. Had they replied saying " for " is ok, I wouldn't have removed it. At least they could have replied with a flat 'No' to make things clear.

I quote:

> We cannot prevent from being "Flagged" and unable to reveal the reason of flagging.

What do you expect from them? They openly said they can not divulge more information about this. There is no "response on what would be the acceptable resolution" that is more proper, unless you assume they are straight out lying.

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

#240

Post by chris_wot »

DannyBee wrote: post #178
chris_wot wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did the officer have the legal right to pull you over? Why, because you broke the law as it is codified . Google haven't codified anything, and actively allow apps to do what they selectively disallow on only certain apps. I'm surprised you can't see the difference!

I can't see the difference either because it makes no sense. First, they only need probable cause to pull you over, you don't actually have to have broken the law. So the analogy is pretty broken, because the police already can do the thing you don't want google doing :). It's also civil vs criminal, so ... Second, the law is codified, why do you think it was taken down? Google received a trademark complaint. A compl…

So Apple are wilfully breaking trademark law? Give me a break...
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