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Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

zdnet.com

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Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#101

Post by ehsankia »

omh wrote: post #23
voiper1 wrote: post #2

>Many didn't know that Chrome engineers could run experiments on their tightly-controlled Chrome installations, let alone that Google engineers could just ship changes to everyone's browsers without any prior approval. Uhm, isn't that the entire auto-update feature, that google ships changes without you even being aware?

This change didn't come from a binary update. We were affected and our version hadn't changed (in fact we weren't quite on the latest version - we were still testing it). We have updates disabled and are very much aware of how to manage this. Google changed a feature flag that was automatically picked up by existing copies of Chrome and changed their behaviour.

If Chrome is critical to your company, shouldn't you be testing on Beta before it goes stable? In this case, the feature was enabled on Beta for 5 months, yet not a single impacted company caught it. Even with 1% enabled, no one caught and reported it.

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#102

Post by ikiris »

omh wrote: post #23
voiper1 wrote: post #2

>Many didn't know that Chrome engineers could run experiments on their tightly-controlled Chrome installations, let alone that Google engineers could just ship changes to everyone's browsers without any prior approval. Uhm, isn't that the entire auto-update feature, that google ships changes without you even being aware?

This change didn't come from a binary update. We were affected and our version hadn't changed (in fact we weren't quite on the latest version - we were still testing it). We have updates disabled and are very much aware of how to manage this. Google changed a feature flag that was automatically picked up by existing copies of Chrome and changed their behaviour.

This is explicit. Binary changes and flag flips are very strongly split. This is almost always a good thing, as it means you don't need to roll back binaries to revert problems.

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#103

Post by omh »

ikiris wrote: post #102
omh wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This change didn't come from a binary update. We were affected and our version hadn't changed (in fact we weren't quite on the latest version - we were still testing it). We have updates disabled and are very much aware of how to manage this. Google changed a feature flag that was automatically picked up by existing copies of Chrome and changed their behaviour.

This is explicit. Binary changes and flag flips are very strongly split. This is almost always a good thing, as it means you don't need to roll back binaries to revert problems.

I can see the benefits when thinking about consumers.

I think the difference here is to do with who's responsible for keeping things "working".

In a business environment there is a whole IT department who go to a lot of trouble to guarantee that their colleagues can continue working. But when Google take that control there's a clash, and it hinders the IT team's capabilities.

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#104

Post by ikiris »

omh wrote: post #103
ikiris wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is explicit. Binary changes and flag flips are very strongly split. This is almost always a good thing, as it means you don't need to roll back binaries to revert problems.

I can see the benefits when thinking about consumers. I think the difference here is to do with who's responsible for keeping things "working". In a business environment there is a whole IT department who go to a lot of trouble to guarantee that their colleagues can continue working. But when Google take that control there's a clash, and it hinders the IT team's capabilities.

Yeah, the issue here is this should be manageable via GPO or similar equivalent.

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#105

Post by BuckRogers »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #9
BuckRogers wrote: post #7

I’ve seen Chrome in so many corporate environments and never understood why. Native browsers work fine and are crafted to work reliably in the environment they’re used in. My guess is some admins simply like Chrome and thus decided everyone should. I like Firefox but I keep it at home, at work I use Microsoft Edge.

Perhaps easier to manage Chrome than managing a different browser for each operating system?

Not really, that would be an excuse if someone said that to you. Most enterprises use Windows Server and manage this through Group Policy, which supports all browsers for all operating systems. If you're not using Windows Server it can be more difficult.

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#106

Post by BuckRogers »

prepend wrote: post #50
BuckRogers wrote: post #7

I’ve seen Chrome in so many corporate environments and never understood why. Native browsers work fine and are crafted to work reliably in the environment they’re used in. My guess is some admins simply like Chrome and thus decided everyone should. I like Firefox but I keep it at home, at work I use Microsoft Edge.

My work uses Microsoft Edge and it’s just not very good. Not as many sites work on Edge as Chrome. I hope this changes when Edge goes to Chromiun but from a UX perspective, too much stuff doesn’t work on Edge.

I haven't seen this, but assuming it's true, people used to want Microsoft to follow standards, so they created the most standards-compliant browser on the market and then reject it. The answer is to reject de facto standards like IE6 and Chrome.

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#107

Post by blub »

Slartie wrote: post #30

I chuckled at this: > "Do you see the impact you created for thousands of us without any warning or explanation? We are not your test subjects," said an angry sysadmin. "We are running professional services for multi million dollar programs. Do you understand how many hours of resources were wasted by your 'experiment'?" Did you, dear sysadmin, pay anything for Google Chrome? No? Are you in any contractual relation t…

This self-defeating attitude and Schadenfreude is puzzling, if not downright disgusting.

Google cheated their way into the #1 browser position by bundling Chrome with other installers (similar to the spyware of old), advertising for it on its other properties and misleading users into thinking that their current browser was worse.

Now that they're #1 they're hard at work implementing anti-features such as disabling an API which was used for ad filtering, trying to keep users always logged in, tracking visited URLs, etc.

Chrome is Google's trojan horse, they're not investing millions into it out of the goodness of their hearts. They're doing it because it gives them something priceless: control over the window people have to the internet.

Once the above is clear, it becomes easy to understand why Chrome auto-updates and is nearly impossible to stop from doing so. With these experiments Google has a backdoor installed into most computers in the world.

And you're saying people should not be upset about the backdoor, because they didn't pay for the trojan horse.

It's not the people that should pay. It's Google for spying on them and for running "tests" on their computers for free.

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#108

Post by blub »

omh wrote: post #22

I've been dealing with this bug for the last couple of days and it's been hugely frustrating. This was not a new version of Chrome or a software update. None of our software was updated at all (and we spent a long time checking!). But apparently Google have an ability to change a setting and globally affect the behaviour of all Chrome browsers by enabling experimental features. We carefully manage our software update…

That's putting it lightly. All your computers have a Google backdoor.

It's not about businesses versus personal users, people are for Google an afterthought, they are mere information generators.

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#109

Post by blub »

jve wrote: post #35
Slartie wrote: post #30

I chuckled at this: > "Do you see the impact you created for thousands of us without any warning or explanation? We are not your test subjects," said an angry sysadmin. "We are running professional services for multi million dollar programs. Do you understand how many hours of resources were wasted by your 'experiment'?" Did you, dear sysadmin, pay anything for Google Chrome? No? Are you in any contractual relation t…

Yeah. > We are running professional services for multi million dollar programs. Do you understand how many hours of resources were wasted by your 'experiment'? -- Angry sysadmin Well, do they pay Google for testing in their environment? Chrome is a free-to-use product. Their rollout strategy is good. Not that they experiment in prod - the flag was in beta for 5 months. And then they turned that on in prod for %1 user…

Where are all the great browser alternatives we can get paid support for? Dead.

Your claims would make sense if Google hadn't destroyed the market for paid browsers and are now trying to kill what's left of the free market too (Safari & Firefox).

Who can compete with a product which receives tens of millions of dollars of investment per year and yet is given away for $0? US competition law is a joke, all regulators are asleep at the wheel.

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