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Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

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Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#151

Post by lmilcin »

jiofih wrote: post #105
echelon wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More fuel for the Google antitrust / breakup fire. Google should not be allowed to develop Chrome or have any say in web standards. Every play they make favors themselves - unsemantic HTML5, AMP, crippled and removed extensions, progressive removal of the URL bar, https everywhere (no more self-hosted blogs unless you understand cert signing and automated renewal - why did the web stop being easy?), cookie standards…

Don’t know why you are being downvoted, this is absolutely true. Handing web standards over to an advertising company has been of the most damaging things ever done to the internet.

I second that. The whole problem is that Google is supplying a trojan horse that they use to prevent people from developing solutions from protecting their privacy and in fact they use it to gather even more data about people -- something that ensures unfair advantage over competition.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#153

Post by londons_explore »

I don't understand why Google doesn't hire a third party to do moderation on their platforms.

Google could write and publish the rules, and then get a third party to decide if each app/comment/video meets the rules or not.

There could even be the option to appeal to a real court if you disagree with the third party.

Google still gets effective veto since they could change the rules anytime, but it would still be a big step up over what we currently have.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#154

Post by CynicusRex »

foepys wrote: post #99
CynicusRex wrote: post #81

To those looking for alternatives, use uMatrix: https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix . It has the option “Block all hyperlink auditing attempts” enabled by default.

Raymond Hill has stopped developing uMatrix and also stopped accepting PRs because it's currently too much work for him [1]. So be aware that bugs will probably not be fixed. That being said, I'm a very happy uMatrix user on Firefox. 1: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uMatrix-issues/issues/291#is...

Dang, so it's only a matter of time when websites get the upper hand again? This is seriously disappointing to hear, even though I understand Raymond.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#155

Post by selfhoster11 »

urthor wrote: post #133
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #21

An extract from the Rules of the Internet, 2021 edition: - don't use Chrome - don't use Google Search

Does it matter when they're keylogging my Android phone anyway?

There are lots of other keyboards to choose from. Unless you want Swype like functionality, in which case only the GBoard is anything like acceptable performance.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#156

Post by fauigerzigerk »

Satam wrote: post #136
ErrrNoMate wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a search engine, it's just something built on top of Bing. We need something independent to cut through this, it can't have these ties.

Independence on its own, would not be a competitive advantage. In reality, for the most part, people do not care enough about minor privacy violations. The outrage you see online rarely bleeds into the average user's day-to-day decisions. I wonder how the next disruptive innovation is going to look in the search engine market?

>I wonder how the next disruptive innovation is going to look in the search engine market?

I think the search engine market will always be very closely linked to content distribution platforms. If the decentralised web continues to degenerate into an oligopoly of walled gardens then there will be no search engine market in the current sense. We will just use the search function provided by each platform.

I believe the question we have to ask is what the next disruptive content distribution platform is going to look like and whether that disruption can be anything more than yet another oligopolist stealing some share from the encumbents before getting bought by one of them (or not).

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#157

Post by varispeed »

deallocator wrote: post #130
echelon wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More fuel for the Google antitrust / breakup fire. Google should not be allowed to develop Chrome or have any say in web standards. Every play they make favors themselves - unsemantic HTML5, AMP, crippled and removed extensions, progressive removal of the URL bar, https everywhere (no more self-hosted blogs unless you understand cert signing and automated renewal - why did the web stop being easy?), cookie standards…

I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I feel HTTPS everywhere does not belong in that list. Secure by default doesn't sound evil to me, and Let's Encrypt made it easy enough to get free HTTPS certificates (and for non technical people, almost all hosting services I've seen offer it out of the box)

Let's Encrypt has de facto monopoly. I think we could have added HTTPS if we had dozens of projects like Let's Encrypt otherwise this is just handing over too much control to one organisation.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#158

Post by skinkestek »

passerby1 wrote: post #111
skinkestek wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As has been said by someone before: There's a billion dollar niche waiting for the right company: - make a search engine that works - show text ads clearly distinguishable from results - play nice, and maybe even use use a cool slogan like "we're not evil" or something (it used to be someone else's but it seems they don't use it anymore ;-)

Do I understand correct that duckduckgo is there already?

That's what I use as default.

But IMO it is a far cry from 2007 Google and only holds a candle because Google has nerfed itself.

And sadly, much of it isn't because they don't have resources for AI or even larger index but because of the same QA issues that Google has struggled with:

- including results that doesn't contain my search terms / too much fuzzing

- ignoring double quotes

Both probably in order to please the mythical ordinary/average user I guess.

Guess what: techies got me to change to startup Google and I guess we will get people to change to another search engine as soon as one is ready.

In the meantime I use DDG. The difference is mostly negligible now and when it isn't it is 20 times faster (I don't think this is hyperbole) to mash in a !g at the end of my DDG search than the other way around.

FTR: same goes for browsers. For me Firefox has always been best, but they have nerfed themselves and keep ignoring us techies to such a degree that I will - if necessary - pay monthly to get a safe, supported version of the same with my old extensions working, but not to Mozilla Foundation, only to the Corporation (the ones who create the browser) or someone else.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#159

Post by madeofpalk »

I really struggle to believe that "Google" thinks this itty bitty extension that a rounding error % of their users use would have an impact on their buisness model, which was grounds to kick it off the store.

This "just" sounds like the typical story we hear so often of an overzealous "app" reviewer waking up on the wrong side of the bed and just decided to delete someone's product and/or business (which is a huge problem itself!)

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#160

Post by madeofpalk »

varispeed wrote: post #157
deallocator wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I feel HTTPS everywhere does not belong in that list. Secure by default doesn't sound evil to me, and Let's Encrypt made it easy enough to get free HTTPS certificates (and for non technical people, almost all hosting services I've seen offer it out of the box)

Let's Encrypt has de facto monopoly. I think we could have added HTTPS if we had dozens of projects like Let's Encrypt otherwise this is just handing over too much control to one organisation.

> Let's Encrypt has de facto monopoly.

Is that even remotely true?

There are alternatives to Lets Encrypt - AWS has an equivalent project where they issue free SSL certs for AWS resources.

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