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Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

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Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#51
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adam Smith: "It is not from the benevolence (kindness) of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." Regardless of motivation (which is ultimately unknowable), is the tangible response from Google adequate?

Google didn't used to be in the business of collecting every byte of metadata as sneakily as possible to earn every possible cent of ad revenue; times have changed. Furthermore, this is not one mistake. This is the loudest and most obvious mistake in a trail of increasingly adversarial moves. Maybe Google's bottom line will go up, but it won't be with me, or with anyone I know if I can help it.

[deleted]

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand, the piece looks like it promises to address all the problems highlighted in the past few days in Chrome 70. Why are you saying it is a PR piece?

The problems were easily foreseeable, and they did it anyway. Anyone who accepts this as "listening the users", and addressing the issues will likely get burned again in the future. Google is a advertising company. Their customers are not their users, and therefore I think things are unlikely to change.

> Their customers are not their users

Cannot be overstated. The incentive structure is clear and the subsequent evolution is happening.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#53
post #12

I have already switched to Firefox and loving it (Facebook container, tracking protection enabled), but these changes are welcome and responsive. I hope this is a wake up call that privacy implications need to be seriously considered during product design (even if the intent was better UX), and hidden changes without any UI/notice is going to make issues blow up far more than if there was clear in-app communication.

I recommend the Google container as well https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-contai...

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Now: does Mozilla read these? I tried to switch to Firefox, but was stymied by a bug where Firefox consumes 100%+ CPU on MacBook Pro Retinas. Firefox is basically unusable with this bug; Facebook takes forever to load, and even Reddit r/firefox shows "A webpage is slowing down your browser" bar at the top. Active relevant bugs are here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1404042 https://bugzilla.moz…

Neither of those bugs have to do with 100% CPU on rMBP. Their about using an inefficient presentation path which increases GPU power usage. You can mitigate this today by setting gfx.compositor.glcontext.opaque to true. Further, Firefox Beta has additional texture upload performance improvements that will reduce cpu usage. If you're actually experiencing 100% cpu usage, post a profile using https://perf-html.io/ and…

Steps to reproduce:

1) Pick a rMBP. Any one.

2) Set display options - "more space" under System Preferences.

3) Run Firefox. Load any website. No extensions; safe mode doesn't matter.

4) 100%+ CPU, fans kick up and run high, system gets hot and slows to a crawl.

Chrome and Safari run totally fine under the same conditions.

It's documented pretty thoroughly in the first Bugzilla link I posted; the second one is an offshoot where they're trying to solve this specific issue. If you do happen to work at Mozilla, would really appreciate your help escalating.

EDIT: I now have a perf file showing significant issues when clicking on a YouTube video. It gives an error when trying to upload it to the site, but if you contact me through email (in my HN profile), I can send it over.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#56

This is not attempting to fit user needs, this is an attempt to put out a PR fire and salvage quarterly earnings. I'm still leaving, maybe even more-so because of the false heartfelt "ok let's do it your way". I will not be patronized, we're not on the same team anymore.

I don't understand, the piece looks like it promises to address all the problems highlighted in the past few days in Chrome 70. Why are you saying it is a PR piece?

Because there's literally nothing they could've said that would make them change their mind. This is the most reasonable response Google could've given. They've addressed every issue as promptly as possible, yet people just dismiss is as PR. It's a lose-lose battle, no matter what they do, people like this will always spin it in a negative way with zero justification.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#57

This is not attempting to fit user needs, this is an attempt to put out a PR fire and salvage quarterly earnings. I'm still leaving, maybe even more-so because of the false heartfelt "ok let's do it your way". I will not be patronized, we're not on the same team anymore.

"Salvaging quarterly earnings"? What kind of an impact on Alphabet earnings do you suppose any Chrome controversy has?

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a bit ironic you use Facebook but won’t use Chrome.

Facebook is super relevant for our business. Not only do we advertise on there, but I also sit on Messenger and answer computer and phone repair questions from friends, and get tagged in "Help! My computer stopped working" types of posts. It drives good business to our repair shops. Facebook has also replaced forums for our industry (cell phone/computer repair), so it's how we find out about the latest trends and inn…

That's interesting. I would have assumed that Reddit was a much better resource for at least the technical docs. Many subreddits include a crazy amount of very specific information about just about anything you can think of.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#60
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One nasty change was that clearing all cookies no longer cleared Google cookies with these changes. That is a big, privacy-impacting change.

I think that change was merited because of the "signed into chrome vs google" issue they were trying to solve. Say I clear my cookies on a signed-in, syncing account. With G Cookies also deleted, I may wonder "Why is my picture in the top right but no Google services are using it??". To us, it's clear that chrome sign-in is different from google sign-in, but to others, it may not be.

Hang on.

The logical thing to do, if your real aim is to have browser sign in state reflect cookie state, is to sign out the browser when someone clears their cookies.

That would make total sense to users.

I think this is clear evidence that Google made this change to keep more users signed into Google so they can collect more of your data without telling you.

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