Product Updates Based on Your Feedback • Hacker News Board

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#331

Post by AsyncAwait » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 10:42 AM UTC

dannyw wrote: 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 hope this is a wake up call that privacy implications need to be seriously considered during product design

Maybe am too cynical, but I think it would be a wake up call to hide such features better in the future. This is Google we're talking about here.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#332

Post by AsyncAwait » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 10:43 AM UTC

tome wrote: post #328

seibelj wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did as well. DuckDuckGo, ublock origin, privacy badger. I haven’t used Firefox seriously in 5 years or so and I’m very pleased with the experience. To be honest, it’s best to use an independent company for your internet browser. Google’s incentives and business model no longer matches web browsing for someone who cares about privacy.

> I haven’t used Firefox seriously in 5 years Do you mean "I haven't used *Chrome" ..."? Otherwise I don't understand what you're trying to say.

They used Chrome previously and now they switched to Firefox and are happy with it, despite not having used it seriously in 5 years.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#333

Post by chupasaurus » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 10:46 AM UTC

cyborgx7 wrote: post #256

ssutch3 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did it ever?

I'm the last person to defend google, but in the beginning a reasonable argument could be made that what they wanted was better performance of javascript and website rendering in general. Microsoft, Mozilla and Apple were the only engine developers in town. Two were the default on their OSs and Mozilla was the choice of those who made a choice. So there was no real incentive to compete on performance. Chrome was intr…

> Microsoft, Mozilla and Apple were the only engine developers in town.

And KHTML team in a cave.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#334

Post by AsyncAwait » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 10:46 AM UTC

nachtigall wrote: post #233

rckclmbr wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually use Chrome for everything Google, and Firefox for everything else. It's a constant reminder that I need to stop using Google services. I don't open it much anymore, just to check my gmail which still has a few emails going to it, and to find my android whenever I lose it.

Does gmail really not work in another browser like Firefox? Seriously? How is this possible?

It works, but it uses non-standard extensions that are only present in Chrome, so it runs slow in Firefox, especially since their latest update.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#335

Post by KumarAseem » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 10:53 AM UTC

RossM wrote: post #295

TekMol wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t want to be logged in in my browser at all Same here. Why does Chrome log you in in the first place? I mean I know it from the companies perspective of course. They want to consolidate as much data about you as possible. And tie you into their ecosystem. But what is the user facing benefit? Syncing your bookmarks across devices?

> But what is the user facing benefit? Syncing bookmarks, recently opened tabs, passwords, autofill(?). These are genuine benefits when you're working with laptops, desktops, phones and tablets. Whether they're worth the cost of data mining is another matter of course.

Out of the total population of the chrome users, how many really use more than 1 computer? These benefits may apply only for few users, probably in single percentage figures, which does not justify pushing it down the throats of everyone.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#336

Post by StanAngeloff » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 10:54 AM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #275

Won’t change my mind and will stick to Firefox after having switched because of this. First I don’t want to be logged in in my browser at all. Second, and probably more important, software is about trust. Even for an open source project, no one has the time to review millions of lines of code. So unfortunately one has to rely on what one believes is the behavior of the authors of the software. And what google did is…

This same change to Google Chrome forced me to go to Firefox, too. After about a week of pain, I'm now much more comfortable about my choice.

I do have a Firefox account which syncs up my passwords, history, etc. so in a sense I'm still logged into the browser.

I do trust Mozilla more than I do Google with my personal data, though.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#337

Post by AsyncAwait » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 10:57 AM UTC

SquareWheel wrote: post #291

ken wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I think that's exactly what danShumway meant by "users have to do this every single release", i.e., give feedback about a big upcoming change that should never have been made in the first place. One week it's the domain hiding, another week it's cookie clearing. Who knows what Google is planning to change next time? It's not sustainable for us to go reactive every month. There's an awfully big disconnect if the…

>Who knows what Google is planning to change next time? It's not exactly a secret. Go download Canary and see what's in the pipeline.

You missed paren't point. It's not about if you can see the changes immediately in the next release, it's that you have to be constantly vigilant as to what they're going to do next, like looking over your shoulder.

You can do that, but it's time consuming and exhausting. You're better off switching browsers.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#338

Post by AsyncAwait » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 10:58 AM UTC

danShumway wrote: post #205

School-Cotton wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See my edit. They have confirmed it is not going live in 70.

Nice! I'll be honest, I did not expect them to reverse course on that. That makes me a bit happier about this whole thing.

But it looks like it's going live post M70, is's not dead.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#339

Post by afandian » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 11:02 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #2

Like Eric Law[1], I felt like while there were some rough spots in the UX for the Chrome login and sync features, the issue was very overblown (I'd feel very differently if sync had been enabled automatically). I don't have much more to say than Law does --- except maybe that when your arch-competitor is speaking out on your behalf , maybe the narrative has gone a little haywire. I figured Google would do something c…

I remember AOL and Compuserve back in the early 90s on Mac OS 7. They were online services, and they had something to do with the Internet, but it was a walled garden.

Google is free to do integrate their online environment into their client, but it's dishonest to continue to call it a web browser much longer.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#340

Post by srazzaque » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 11:02 AM UTC

spondyl wrote: post #326

RossM wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But what is the user facing benefit? Syncing bookmarks, recently opened tabs, passwords, autofill(?). These are genuine benefits when you're working with laptops, desktops, phones and tablets. Whether they're worth the cost of data mining is another matter of course.

That "Save this login" stuff in Chrome drives me up the wall. I understand you can disable it under Settings (and I do) but I see it on other people's computer too and I feel a bit of me die inside when they click "Save login" just to make it go away.

Completely agree. It's ironic that users who click "remember my password" are 10x more likely to forget their password.

The next step in this equation is even more frustrating - people who's default workflow to signing in is to click 'I forgot my password', and proceed through those steps to instil a new password. And then the cycle continues.