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Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

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Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#31

Post by michaelmrose »

jtbayly wrote: post #17
metalliqaz wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

google dgaf There are only a handful of extensions that are deal breakers (the lack of which would send users to other browsers). uBlock Origin, for example. All the others can fuck right off.

lol. If you think uBlock Origin going away will make people switch browsers, I think you've got another think coming. We will soon see... 1. When (not "if") Google kills UBO 2. How Chrome's market share doesn't drop

Google have already given notice that they are killing uBlock Origin. Manifest v3 will eliminate the ability to have your own adblocker. In its place will be the ability for an extensions to provide an interface to a built in functionality that is deliberately gimped.

Adblock addons will be drastically limited in functionality, must bundle the block list with the addon, can't update the list outside of updating the addon, are limited to a fraction of the size of existing block lists.

This will end the arms race in favor of ads vs blockers by ensuring that ad blockers can't win while pretending its not ending adblocking.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#32

Post by detaro »

Majromax wrote: post #27
deadwing0 wrote: post #19

Is it possible that Google writes code to automate the moderation (for lack of better word) of the extensions in the Chrome Store because they are trying to avoid paying hundreds of people to do it manually? I know it's easy to say "Google doesn't care about you," and generally it as a company may not care, but they also are not in the business of putting us out of business. It feels like to me that they have just be…

> Is it possible that Google writes code to automate the moderation (for lack of better word) of the extensions in the Chrome Store because they are trying to avoid paying hundreds of people to do it manually? Undoubtedly, for the Chrome Store as well as all of their other properties. Ultimately, Google's business model is about earning fractions of a cent per view/download and making it up in volume. Their profit ma…

I'm still a bit surprised they're not offering a paid support tier. That'd still suck for non-commercial extensions, but at least help with the "extension filtering is killing our business!" cases.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#33

Post by gdulli »

omnifischer wrote: post #5

It is disgusting that no one from media asks Sundar Pichai touch questions like: 1. Non human (AI) usage for termination google accounts. 2. No repeal process At least some employee from Google here in hn must do things and understand mentality of other people. It increasingly looks like - well... we employees live in bubble but if you are unlucky then you are screwed. Do not ask us? What kind of programmers wrote su…

I just created a Google Voice account for the first time. A few hours later I asked 3 different friends to send me a text message to see if it worked. I didn't get any of them or any warning that it takes time for the number to activate.

I tried again the next day, same results. That was 4-5 days ago, and still nothing. I'm abandoning Google Voice because I assume Google has abandoned it. It's not like there's anyone I can ask.

This is just an inconvenience to me. I can't imagine what it's like to have a service I actually rely on and then lose it.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#34

Post by kyleee »

calpaterson wrote: post #29

I have a side-project that is partially a browser extension. I use a single codebase for both Firefox and Chrome. Even with my trivial side-project and a grand total of two releases so far, Google ar itrarily rejected one release for being "spammy" when there was literally a 5 line diff between it and the previous release. Thankfully just finding the depreciated dashboard and uploading an icon (the "new dashboard" do…

Your best course of action is to drop chrome support, and make your extension as good as possible and make a point of marketing that it's firefox only. Most won't do it due to worrying about market share, but alas IMO it's the best option available

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#35

Post by city41 »

deadwing0 wrote: post #19

Is it possible that Google writes code to automate the moderation (for lack of better word) of the extensions in the Chrome Store because they are trying to avoid paying hundreds of people to do it manually? I know it's easy to say "Google doesn't care about you," and generally it as a company may not care, but they also are not in the business of putting us out of business. It feels like to me that they have just be…

I can’t see how a healthy browser extension ecosystem would help Google. Without Google getting any real value out of it, it makes total sense they do a poor job managing it.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#36

Post by vezycash »

nyreed wrote: post #24

Do you remember when browser extensions could be installed from a developer's own website and didn't require any kind of dysfunctional 'gatekeeping'? I know there are benefits to having someone vet browser extensions, but it seems a shame that they remove the self-distribution option completely when their moderation is so ineffectual.

There's this quote about how the dictator are benevolent in the beginning in their appeals to people's safety needs.

Slowly but surely, the people handover their rights and are shocked by the power the dictator "suddenly has."

When the chrome team was tightening their grips on chrome, people here hailed the move because some windows programs like anti-viruses, download managers and adware sideloaded extensions.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#37

Post by black_puppydog »

tdeck wrote: post #3

> Google (Robot): We'll take your extension down Me: Hey, this must be a mistake > Google (Robot): No mistake, review these policies, your extension violates one of them Me: It does not violate any of them, this is a mistake! > Google (Finally human): Oh, sorry, a mistake. Obviously someone just needs to create a robot that automatically replies to the takedown notices and disputes them, thus closing the loop!

I had the same reaction. But then the individual programmer/founder won't risk their robot messing this up, while for google it's a numbers game.

Also, someone would have to program that bot and can you even imagine how dead inside you'd feel if that was your life?

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#38

Post by Awelton »

Maybe someday everyone will realize that google isn't a company that provides services to users, it's a data theft company. They don't really care about bugs or frustrations because they aren't in the business of providing things to you. You are not their customer.

The vast majority of people have forgotten that they aren't an email, webapp, cloud storage, or online translation provider. They are an advertising company. They use their products to steal your information. They aren't meant to help the user, because the user is not their customer. I'm sure you will get a real human employee if you are interested in buying ads from them.

Contrary to popular belief there are many companies that provide software besides google. Use them if you want a provider that might care about your problems. "It's not exactly the same as google ____" is not a valid excuse for not giving it an honest try.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#39

Post by lol636363 »

leonardteo wrote: post #16

I feel you... We had similar issues with the Google Play store for the ArtStation App ( https://magazine.artstation.com/2018/12/happened-artstation-... ), it simply got taken down and appealing continually got rejected. It was only after the issue got picked up as the top story on Hacker News and other sites that exposed the dysfunctional nature of their moderation that finally Google subtly changed their policy so t…

As a web developer, i am tired of JavaScript and whole web ecosystem and want try desktop or mobile apps. But then I read stuff like this and just cannot imagine building a business where AI or one single outsourced moderator can upend my business.

I hate regulations but I am of opnion that if you are a platform that other people use to make living then you should be regulated. Don't be platform of you cannot provide processes to handle appeals or able to pay massive damages in case of false positives.

For now, I will stick with webdev.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#40

Post by m-p-3 »

gdulli wrote: post #33
omnifischer wrote: post #5

It is disgusting that no one from media asks Sundar Pichai touch questions like: 1. Non human (AI) usage for termination google accounts. 2. No repeal process At least some employee from Google here in hn must do things and understand mentality of other people. It increasingly looks like - well... we employees live in bubble but if you are unlucky then you are screwed. Do not ask us? What kind of programmers wrote su…

I just created a Google Voice account for the first time. A few hours later I asked 3 different friends to send me a text message to see if it worked. I didn't get any of them or any warning that it takes time for the number to activate. I tried again the next day, same results. That was 4-5 days ago, and still nothing. I'm abandoning Google Voice because I assume Google has abandoned it. It's not like there's anyone…

Google is a proverbial a jack of all trades, master of none.

If you need to depend of them for a specific service, don't. Go with an actual business that cares and have the focus on what's important, and more importantly a customer service that listens.

I went with a dedicated VoIP provider, and the service has been excellent

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