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How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension with 24k+ users (2016)

by.graffino.com

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Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension with 24k+ users (2016)

#51

Post by dep_b »

zenopopovici wrote: post #35
dep_b wrote: post #21

We had an issue with getting a new Android app we wrote that accessing the call logs for a legit business case (something that would benefit the user alone, not in any case sent to us) reviewed and it took months to resolve it. The best thing was emailing and waiting for another week or so, hoping the case would be picked up by a human being that would take the effort to really look into the issue. Now Apple doesn't…

Apple actually handled my situation a lot better and didn’t block me. I am the original author.

That's what I tried to say, Apple can be problematic at times but you're always dealing with humans instead of something that seems like an unstoppable machine.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension with 24k+ users (2016)

#52

Post by Ap0c »

Ran a online retail business for 12 years. One day, Adwords account suspended. Some generic 'voilation' email. No way to resolve, no person to speak to, no comment on the issue.

Tried to resolve for months.

Fired 15 staff, gave up. Basically the internet = Google when you run online retail.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension with 24k+ users (2016)

#53

Post by DoingIsLearning »

FeepingCreature wrote: post #49
usrusr wrote: post #6

Reminds me of how Mozilla once permanently obliterated every single extension at once except for a really tiny accept-list...

Reminds me of how I turned off autoupdate on my mobile browser...

Seriously this Firefox update was a massive bait-and-switch for me.

I was on holiday and out of the loop on how big of change this Phoenix upgrade would be, got a notification on Android to update firefox and went through without realizing the massive UX and functionality downgrade this Firefox version is.

Apart from the non-starter of missing add-ons, the whole UX overhaul is insane, so many things that use to be frequent single tap are now two, three, tabs plus swipe up/down business.

With the risk of not sounding constructive, I don't know who in their right mind proposed this but it's crazy to me that it went through hundreds of beta-testers without nobody complaining, or that nobody accepted feedback against this if it existed.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension with 24k+ users (2016)

#55

Post by Artemix »

Daniel_sk wrote: post #27
mywacaday wrote: post #24

As a user paying extra for google storage the constant flow of stories of people having issues with google and nobody to contact scare me. What happens if I loose access to my account and loose gmail/photos/drive. What do people use to backup Google?

Leave Google, use separate services. I solved it by purchasing my own domain address, moving from Gmail to Fastmail, replaced Android with iOS, replaced Chrome with Firefox, moved my passwords to 1Password, moved from Google Photos to iCloud (it automatically downloads all your pictures to your desktop as backup. There is no such thing for Google Photos).

Almost did the same, except I went towards Syncthing for document sync, KeePassXC for passwords, and Sailfish / degoogled android for mobile phone (because the apple ecosystem is imho much worse, especially in terms of software durability. Got two perfectly working ipads just sitting around because apple said fuck the devs and users. At least, with SOS and android, I can still develop for them).

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension with 24k+ users (2016)

#56

Post by mschuster91 »

malikNF wrote: post #23

I wonder how long before we start hearing stories like "How chrome obliterated my 4 year old website" On a serious note though, why do we keep getting trapped in this cycle so many times? Company walled garden(WG) comes up with a WG, developers build for that WG. WG forgets about the people who made the WG a fun place for everyone to be in. WG screws over the old developers who's hard work it build itself on. And the…

> I wonder how long before we start hearing stories like "How chrome obliterated my 4 year old website"

March 2021 is that date, when Google will entirely drop all content that is not made for mobile phones: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-mobile-index-news...

Seriously, fuck that shit. Google is the gatekeeper to the Internet for many people, they should not be allowed to essentially throw away two and a half decades of Internet history to all but vanish.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension with 24k+ users (2016)

#57

Post by froh »

meva wrote: post #54

The author infringed on Facebook name and possibly the logo too. Facebook sent a notice to Google. Google complied with the law and removed the extension. Yet the author blames Google for all this.

Thank you for this background detail! So actually instead of google, it was FB who with trademark protection legislation took down the app.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension with 24k+ users (2016)

#58

Post by Narretz »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #25
malikNF wrote: post #23

I wonder how long before we start hearing stories like "How chrome obliterated my 4 year old website" On a serious note though, why do we keep getting trapped in this cycle so many times? Company walled garden(WG) comes up with a WG, developers build for that WG. WG forgets about the people who made the WG a fun place for everyone to be in. WG screws over the old developers who's hard work it build itself on. And the…

I dunno, I for one hope developers build sites according to standards (instead of Chrome-only features), and Chrome has a big test suite to test said features. I mean 20 year old websites still work just fine in Chrome. It's only those that do nonstandard things - like IE's tech, Flash, Java applets - that they no longer work. Famously, the old Space Jam website seems to work just fine: https://www.spacejam.com/

I think the parent post is alluding to scenarios where Google uses their market position to stop loading websites based on other factors. i.e. a website that does or doesn't implement a certain API. It's a very dystopian view, though.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension with 24k+ users (2016)

#59

Post by Fnoord »

goldenkey wrote: post #17

It's really disappointing for me to hear this, considering that I have been releasing chrome extensions for the past year. [1,2,3] One thing I've noticed is that Chrome's extension search is absolute garbage, and even typing the exact name of my extensions, for example "Wikipedia Section Links" [3], doesn't yield my extension, not even on the first page, and the second page is rather hidden and not obvious. Pretty te…

You would think a Google project like Google Chrome would benefit from Google Search.

Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension with 24k+ users (2016)

#60

Post by imdsm »

Ap0c wrote: post #52

Ran a online retail business for 12 years. One day, Adwords account suspended. Some generic 'voilation' email. No way to resolve, no person to speak to, no comment on the issue. Tried to resolve for months. Fired 15 staff, gave up. Basically the internet = Google when you run online retail.

Was there no way to create a new adwords account?
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