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Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

purpleleafsoftware.com

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Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#201

Post by phillc73 »

Tsubasachan wrote: post #193
golergka wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a mobile app developer, what choice do you have?

On Android you can easily sideload apps. So there is a choice. I understand that 90% of people get their apps exclusively from the Play Store but that is not because Google is evil. Its because people prefer one store were they can find everything: the supermarket model.

And not just the consumers, but it would seem the producers too.

By choice, I do not have a Play Store account and wherever possible install apps only from F-Droid. However, there are (rare) times where I want to install a free (as in beer) closed source app. However, the publisher only chooses to make the app available via the Play Store. I would really, really like a direct apk download. I appreciate this approach is not for every end user and some people are scared of the "warning" messages Android displays when installing apps directly. Nonetheless, it would be really nice to have the choice and I don't see it as so much extra effort on the publisher's side.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#202

Post by dorgo »

tjpnz wrote: post #188
sercand wrote: post #20

When you receive that email from Google you can only fill a generic form given at the bottom of the email. You can't contact a human being to understand why it is rejected/removed. Problem is not written clearly and it doesn't include a screenshot as apple does. Google is terrible at support on Play Store (and some more of its services).

At the very least they're being honest about not giving a shit about their users.

users = app developers?

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#203

Post by achow »

Tsubasachan wrote: post #193
golergka wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a mobile app developer, what choice do you have?

On Android you can easily sideload apps. So there is a choice. I understand that 90% of people get their apps exclusively from the Play Store but that is not because Google is evil. Its because people prefer one store were they can find everything: the supermarket model.

Managing app update becomes a problem outside Play store.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#204

Post by AllegedAlec »

mrschwabe wrote: post #37

Why anyone would develop apps for Apple/Google duopoly is beyond me. Right, I get that you may need the money - but if your livelihood depends on money earned from making this world a worser place perhaps it is time to gut check and determine what really is your purpose and best use of time; maybe (easy) money is not all it's cut out to be in that context.

Your comment boils down to 'why would anyone develop apps'. There is no way at the moment to make an app in a way that doesn't benefit Apple of the Alphabet spaghetti.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#205

Post by stefkors »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #196
r_singh wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use hn.algolia.com as a more reliable source to look for info & opinion on a lot of things a lot more than I use google. I feel like there ought to be a google competitor now that google is so crappy.

With all their efforts to block copyrighted stuff their engine has really gone downhill I swear, and this was years ago. I hardly ever find anything I'm looking for, that or we've hit a stage on the internet where people don't ask any questions on Stack Overflow and just google and monkey patch it all together.

A lot of the stack overflow questions are moved to domain specific slack/discord/spectrumapp communities. Effectively making them harder to search, more gated and incrowdy than regular websites

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#206

Post by dspillett »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #57
Terretta wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know Apple initially wanted to make web “apps” a thing, you can still save html apps direct to home screen and run them offline to this day.

That was an excuse to have something on ship day because their iOS native API wasn't ready for public release.

I thought it was more to reduce their effort:

* providing infrastructure for the store etc.

* worrying about sand-boxing arbitrary native code (instead just needing to concentrate on work separating the one app, the browser, from everything else)

* maintaining a public API instead of one they can change at a whim without backlash because only they use it

I don't think they quite saw the scale of the revenue stream potential of the App Store at the time, IMO people give Apple too much credit for that.

There was a big push from developers for native apps because:

* the web APIs were not particularly ready at the time (arguably some things still aren't now)

* a combination of lower CPU power than we have become used to in more recent years, and JS & layout engines not optimising as well as they do now, meant that there was a more significant difference in performance between web-app & native, particularly for games

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#207

Post by dhimes »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #195
thatoneuser wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had similar experience. Several years ago app with 6+ digit installs in the first six months. Got some generic excuse and our app was down. We could contest but then they threatened to take even more away. I don't like these platforms...

What's sad is the apps that do need to be removed (ie asking for way more permissions) never do, and the ones just trying to get into the ecosystem get punished for automated incompetence. The cutesy act of Google is really getting old. I rather just do progressive web apps as they become more common and not worry about their crappy app store.

automated incompetence

I'm going to start using this term.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#208

Post by andreareina »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #197
czechdeveloper wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's feudalism, because you don't have a choice.

You have a choice, the choices are just worse. I tried using DDG for a long time, but it's just _terrible_ for technical queries.

I use DDG as my main engine and I find that to be true. Unfortunately even Google's become pretty bad, I never know when it's going to ignore one word of my two-word query.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#210

Post by giancarlostoro »

stefkors wrote: post #205
giancarlostoro wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With all their efforts to block copyrighted stuff their engine has really gone downhill I swear, and this was years ago. I hardly ever find anything I'm looking for, that or we've hit a stage on the internet where people don't ask any questions on Stack Overflow and just google and monkey patch it all together.

A lot of the stack overflow questions are moved to domain specific slack/discord/spectrumapp communities. Effectively making them harder to search, more gated and incrowdy than regular websites

Another invaluable reason for IRC log bots. Maybe we need Discord logbots too? I am no fan of Slack for open source projects / free communities though.
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