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Chrome killed my extension and won’t tell me why

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Re: Chrome killed my extension and won’t tell me why

#11

Post by notRobot »

> Complaining on the internet should not be a support channel. Developers should not have to rely on the internet attention lottery.

None of the huge tech companies (Google/Apple/MS/Amazon/etc) have an easy (or in many cases any) way to contact human service representatives. This is intentional.

People have been complaining about this for more than a decade. Every week there are multiple writeups on the front page of HN about apps and extensions being killed off.

These corporations will never fix this. They have no incentive to do so. They don't care about individual users or small developers, and don't want to get involved in their "petty" issues.

Why? Because these have no impact on how much money they make.

The only way to fix this is through government regulation, but good luck with that.

Re: Chrome killed my extension and won’t tell me why

#12

Post by gwd »

What people seem to be missing is that this isn't a complaint -- it's a call to form effectively a union:

Therefore, we are starting a group today for Chrome Extension developers to work together in check with CWS. It's not a technical support channel, nor a platform to get attention when CWS is unresponsive. It's a place for Chrome Extension developers to rally together and discuss improving the foundation we stand on (it also won't be hosted nor managed by Google).

United, we can have a stronger, common voice to:

Pressure Google Chrome to allow for 3rd party extension stores. This would break down the walled garden of extensions, give extension developers a leveler playing field, and lower the risk of getting wiped out on CWS's whim.

2. Pressure CWS to be more fair and communicative with extension publishers.

Canned emails about rejections with only general policy information are “lose-lose” for publishers and CWS alike. Both parties waste time because of all the guesswork involved currently — especially when CWS makes a mistake.

Re: Chrome killed my extension and won’t tell me why

#13

Post by shash7 »

mellosouls wrote: post #7

Some previous discussions from a quick search to give some context to the frustration (sorry for the length, it's intended to be illustrative, I cut it at 10): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23219427 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23229073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20186915 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21232438 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23285466 https://news.ycombinator.com/i…

Google doesn't care.

Re: Chrome killed my extension and won’t tell me why

#14

Post by Octoth0rpe »

From the article:

> It's very possible for a 3rd party extension store to do a better job than Google at blocking malicious extensions.

I don't know that that is the case. Google clearly does a _terrible_ job on this, but they are at least theoretically financially motivated to do the job correctly. It's hard for me to imagine a 3rd party extension store being financially viable with correctly aligned financial motivations.

Re: Chrome killed my extension and won’t tell me why

#15

Post by jennyyang »

This is the behavior of a monopolist, and Google needs to be broken up. Google and the various sub-entities get away with no customer support or completely inadequate support and they are a vital part of the Internet.

If there were competition, then there's no way with Google not being able to answer urgent customer support tickets. Because they are a monopoly, they can get away with saving money on customer support. All their subentities like Chrome, Gmail, etc are funded by their search and ads monopoly.

The only way this gets better is by breaking up Google, and forcing them to actually compete. If Chrome had to earn money the same way all the other companies did without having the hundreds of billions that Google makes, it would be a totally different product. They would need to earn their money the same way Firefox does, and would need to earn a portion of their money from things like extensions, and then they would need to compete with better customer support. But because they are a monopoly, they don't have to. It's basically a form of raising prices with no recourse, except what they do is deny services to competitors by having no support.

The only solution is to break Google apart, and force the parts to earn money the way all their competitors have to.

Re: Chrome killed my extension and won’t tell me why

#16

Post by elmo2you »

notRobot wrote: post #11

> Complaining on the internet should not be a support channel. Developers should not have to rely on the internet attention lottery. None of the huge tech companies (Google/Apple/MS/Amazon/etc) have an easy (or in many cases any ) way to contact human service representatives. This is intentional. People have been complaining about this for more than a decade. Every week there are multiple writeups on the front page o…

I fully agree with that. But I think there is another angle to this that is often ignored/overlooked.

With their (intentional) behavior you described, these companies often violate even basic legal principles and sometimes even specific laws (depending on country/jurisdiction). Moreover, these same companies (again, intentionally) also use their financial/legal weight to pretty much stifle/kill any individual attempts to bring them to task for those violations. In fact, that itself is illegal (antitrust) behavior in many places.

This isn't just about governments failing to regulate these companies, but probably even more so about their failure to even enforce existing rules and protect citizens against such abuses.

It's a pretty good demonstration of how bad the state of class (in)justice really is, including all the corrupt governments that keep it a reality.

Re: Chrome killed my extension and won’t tell me why

#17

Post by yaktubi »

crazygringo wrote: post #10
Svip wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But regulations, inspections, codes and permits are all government-run systems. As a result, at least in principle in a democracy, citizens (including companies) can request to learn why those systems rejected them. Otherwise they can take them to court. Neither Apple nor Google are governments. When laws and constitutions were crafted, those framers did not comprehend a future where private companies had effective c…

But that's my point. If app stores are an important enough part of our economy -- not just monetarily, but particularly with regard to privacy and cybersecurity -- then there may reach a point where we need laws around their policies. It doesn't matter that Apple and Google aren't governments. Either app store approval could be done by a new government agency (after all, aren't doctors and lawyers regulated?), or (fa…

This seems like more a solution to open, transparent platforms. It’s a shame that we are going backwards: you used to be able to download software from the internet, direct from publishers with no limitations. Now everything’s all stupid requiring developers to beg the “powers that be” for access to distribute their work.

Re: Chrome killed my extension and won’t tell me why

#19

Post by LatteLazy »

jennyyang wrote: post #15

This is the behavior of a monopolist, and Google needs to be broken up. Google and the various sub-entities get away with no customer support or completely inadequate support and they are a vital part of the Internet. If there were competition, then there's no way with Google not being able to answer urgent customer support tickets. Because they are a monopoly, they can get away with saving money on customer support.…

So, I thought chrome was a loss making project, and the only reason it exists is because Google fund it for the data it generated and as part of their wider "use our stuff in exchange for your data" business model.

So if you break up Google, chrome would have to cut its budget or stop existing. And either way, chrome extension Devs wouldn't be better supported than they are now would they?

This is always my question with "Break up X": then what?

Re: Chrome killed my extension and won’t tell me why

#20

Post by dlgeek »

notRobot wrote: post #11

> Complaining on the internet should not be a support channel. Developers should not have to rely on the internet attention lottery. None of the huge tech companies (Google/Apple/MS/Amazon/etc) have an easy (or in many cases any ) way to contact human service representatives. This is intentional. People have been complaining about this for more than a decade. Every week there are multiple writeups on the front page o…

> None of the huge tech companies (Google/Apple/MS/Amazon/etc) have an easy (or in many cases any) way to contact human service representatives. This is intentional.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/contact-us/ - I have never failed to talk to a human that way.

(For AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/contact-us/)

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