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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)

#61

Post by Fnoord »

froh wrote: post #57
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.

It was Google who complied. They didn't have to (there was no jurisprudence); they chose to.

Is Mozilla going to comply with a C&D for removal of Facebook Container for Firefox [1]? I think not.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24849452

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

#62

Post by Red_Leaves_Flyy »

imdsm wrote: post #60
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?

Pretty sure that's against tos..

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

#63

Post by derekmh »

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.

Not according to my analysis [1]. Also if you take a look at sites that specialize in e-commerce founder interviews, you’ll see that they use all sorts of acquisition channels/strategies (partnerships with mini influencers, FB/Instagram Ads, SEO, affiliate programs and so on) and they work really well.

I would understand if you said “the internet = Google for MY retail store”, but saying it applies for all online retail is simply incorrect.

[1] https://zerotousers.com [2] https://www.starterstory.com/

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

#64

Post by aclelland »

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?

I download regular backups of my Google data from https://takeout.google.com/ it works pretty well. It won't help you keep your email address if Google decide to nuke your account but at least you've still got your emails, photos, etc.

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

#65

Post by siraben »

In the final update post[0] the author says

There isn’t any option left to circumvent the Chrome Store. Starting with Chrome 53, extensions cannot be side-loaded anymore.

Is it possible that Firefox will undergo such a restriction in the future?

[0] https://graffino.com/web-development/after-my-post-went-vira...

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

#66

Post by cfontes »

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).

The problem is that Google Photos is so good, there is nothing out there for free with the same offering. ICloud is extremely limited compared to it without paying ( remember not every one lives in the US and $5 can be a lot of money )

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

#67

Post by malikNF »

Narretz wrote: post #58
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>>It's a very dystopian view, though.

When you see this cycle of developers flocking to a walled garden and then the same developers who helped uplift the platform get burned repeat enough times you start to lose a bit of hope in the way things are working. But I do have to agree with you, my original post does sound dystopian.

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

#68

Post by malikNF »

playpause wrote: post #46
thedanbob wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money. A new walled garden is a new opportunity for developers to make money, with little competition (at first). Then when it gets big and there’s tons of competition, the company can stop caring about the developers and still make a pile of money. It’s going to keep happening because walled gardens appeal to human nature. Everyone (users, developers) wants the immediate benefits, but only the company reaps long-ter…

Failing that, maybe change some laws and regulations.

>>change some laws and regulations.

but then we are in another loop where people who don't understand technology will bring in laws that both fix an issue but creates a whole set of new issues, that might even hinder progress. So I am not a fan of politicians getting involved with things they don't have a good idea about.

Personally I choose to believe in the whole decentralized internet idea that's starting to taking off. 10 years ago bitcoin, smart contracts, decentralized payment systems, decentralized video platforms etc were not that popular or didn't exist and now there's so much progress made in that direction. So I believe there's some good that will come out of the blockchain space. Problem is, only time will tell ha.

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

#69

Post by swiley »

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.

I've watched people start moving (already successful) businesses to be more dependent on google and it freaked me out because of stuff like this.

You get a lot of stuff in the short term but you have to remember your long term survival means absolutely nothing at all to the organizations that run these massive platforms and eventually they'll do something that can wipe you out.

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

#70

Post by input_sh »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #53
FeepingCreature wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fr…

I've been using it from day 1 since it was known as Firefox Preview (way before it landed in nightly) and I have very little to complain about.

uBO, Privacy Badger, and DecentralEyes are all the extensions I need. Stuff renders quicker, I can swipe between tabs, reader mode is there. Sure, it might take one additional tap to open a new tab, but I'm fine with that.

I'm now using nightly, so I experience an occasional bug here and there, but I don't care.

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