Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension • Hacker News Board

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#31

Post by strken » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:53 PM UTC

syshum wrote: post #25

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switch to Firefox. It has gotten much better.

While Firefox is better than Chrome... Mozilla is becoming more and more Google Like as time progresses, where a few years ago I would have believed it would be unthinkable for Mozilla do so something like this to an extension, today I am not so sure I would trust them either

I agree to some extent, e.g. the pocket integration and Mozilla burning cash on things that aren't related to Firefox, but Chrome's decision to limit/break key adblocking APIs across their whole ecosystem is much worse. I'd be willing to ignore almost any number of removed extensions to continue using a browser that's not owned by a glorified adtech company.

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#32

Post by skinnymuch » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:53 PM UTC

syshum wrote: post #25

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switch to Firefox. It has gotten much better.

While Firefox is better than Chrome... Mozilla is becoming more and more Google Like as time progresses, where a few years ago I would have believed it would be unthinkable for Mozilla do so something like this to an extension, today I am not so sure I would trust them either

Can you give a few examples of how Mozilla/Firefox have changed?

We all know about FF Quantum. Yeah it sucks what happened. Maybe there was an alternative, but any one saying Firefox should’ve just stuck to not being compatible with Chromium extensions is kidding themselves on how badly that would’ve continued hurting Firefox’s market share. The XUL powered extension I’m sure were powerful so the outcry in certain places was huge. Vocal minority.

The Pocket integration got lots of outcry which seemed pretty silly to me. It’s one product they own. Mozilla doesn’t have a ton of products. Yes that is Google like. Much like any synergy or integrating is Google like. Which is really just being a modern internet corporation. If this is one of the reasons. Why would Mozilla of 5 years ago not have done that vs the Mozilla of today and whenever they did do it. 1-2 years ago I think?

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#33

Post by pkilgore » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:53 PM UTC

beastman82 wrote: post #19

boomboomsubban wrote: post #17

Does chrome already offer features like PushBullet? Firefox somewhat does with Pocket, so I assume chrome has something similar. If they do offer something of the sort, or start to shortly, this seems like a perfect antitrust case.

Zero chance this will happen without a much bigger party involved

Under the Clayton Act, the Sherman Act, or both? Is this a legal realism commentary on the comparative cost-benefit of civil antitrust litigation in modern America?

Or are you just pretending you know things to feel good on the internet.

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#34

Post by MattGaiser » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:54 PM UTC

syshum wrote: post #25

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switch to Firefox. It has gotten much better.

While Firefox is better than Chrome... Mozilla is becoming more and more Google Like as time progresses, where a few years ago I would have believed it would be unthinkable for Mozilla do so something like this to an extension, today I am not so sure I would trust them either

Have they done it or is it just an uneasy feeling?

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#35

Post by danShumway » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:54 PM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #16

This is sad but they're just responding to market hysteria on permissions.

> but they're just responding to market hysteria on permissions.

And responding poorly.

What the market wants is for companies to lay out understandable policies that protect their privacy. People I know want more clarity about what's happening in the extension store and on their devices, not less.

As a consumer, it doesn't make me feel any better for Google to say in vague terms, "we booted off an app that doesn't respect your privacy." Okay, what was it doing? Are there other apps I should be concerned about? How bad did the app need to get before you booted it off? Are there exceptions to these standards? Are they being applied to internal apps as well?

My feeling is that Google's inability to communicate with developers and users is its own problem; it's not the market's fault. Tech companies in general have had difficulty with customer support for a while, even before the media started picking up on privacy issues. Nothing has really changed, Google just happens to be notably bad at this.

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#36

Post by wlesieutre » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:54 PM UTC

Baeocystin wrote: post #11

Another long-term PushBullet customer here. Anyone at Google who is listening- this kind of behavior kills my desire to continue using your products dead. I need functionality, of the type PushBullet has provided for years, to do my work. The recent nerfing of ublock origin has already had me feeling iffy on things. Behavior like this is simply unacceptable. If you want people to use your services, you need to have s…

Chrome is a trivially easy product to switch off of compared to other Google properties like Gmail and YouTube. Have you tried Firefox recently?

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#37

Post by graham_paul » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:55 PM UTC

Baeocystin wrote: post #11

Another long-term PushBullet customer here. Anyone at Google who is listening- this kind of behavior kills my desire to continue using your products dead. I need functionality, of the type PushBullet has provided for years, to do my work. The recent nerfing of ublock origin has already had me feeling iffy on things. Behavior like this is simply unacceptable. If you want people to use your services, you need to have s…

elaborate on the ublock nerfing?

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#38

Post by jerf » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:56 PM UTC

grwthckrmstr wrote: post #24

Yikes! I've used PushBullet for since several years and I can't imagine not using it. I can understand why Google is doing this though. They have a "Send to device" feature in Chrome. Killing the top 3rd party app is the perfect way to grow adoption of their new & in-built feature. "Do no evil"

You know, at the very least it would be nice to get something a bit more direct, like, "We are no longer permitting extensions that do X on our marketplace", or heck, even just a "We're permanently rejecting this for unspecified reasons."

But if that's what you're doing, don't claim that the extension is being rejected for "overbroad permissions". I understand that Google may not literally come out and say "We've decided to eat your extension's functionality and you can just burn." But don't lie about why it's being rejected... however much you may wrap the result up in marketingspeak, don't actively lie about the reason for rejection, so that someone can burn the candle at both end for two weeks futilely trying to appease the lying error message.

As for the fact it may not look that great no matter how much marketing-speak it gets wrapped up in for Google to just eat some functionality and kill all competition... yeah, well, suck it up Google. Don't lie about it. I mean, you can always spin it as security security blah blah security if nothing else, which ought to be enough of a fig leaf.

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#39

Post by skinnymuch » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:56 PM UTC

strken wrote: post #31

syshum wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While Firefox is better than Chrome... Mozilla is becoming more and more Google Like as time progresses, where a few years ago I would have believed it would be unthinkable for Mozilla do so something like this to an extension, today I am not so sure I would trust them either

I agree to some extent, e.g. the pocket integration and Mozilla burning cash on things that aren't related to Firefox, but Chrome's decision to limit/break key adblocking APIs across their whole ecosystem is much worse. I'd be willing to ignore almost any number of removed extensions to continue using a browser that's not owned by a glorified adtech company.

What do they burn cash on? They’ve mostly stopped Phone stuff right? Is there other stuff?

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#40

Post by the_af » Wed, May 13, 2020, 6:56 PM UTC

Baeocystin wrote: post #11

Another long-term PushBullet customer here. Anyone at Google who is listening- this kind of behavior kills my desire to continue using your products dead. I need functionality, of the type PushBullet has provided for years, to do my work. The recent nerfing of ublock origin has already had me feeling iffy on things. Behavior like this is simply unacceptable. If you want people to use your services, you need to have s…

> The recent nerfing of ublock origin has already had me feeling iffy on things.

What did they do to ublock origin? The single best Chrome extension ever. If it stops working and I must suffer YouTube ads again, it's bye bye Chrome.