Google suspended adwords for my shareware software site and removed it from the index because I didn't post a EULA. I posted it, but now they're claiming I need 'more original content' -- the whole site is original. Not sure how or why innocent developers are being caught up in the dragnet obviously intended for spammers / scammers, but it seems those folks continue to operate freely while the innocent are being locked down.
How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users
111–120 of 252 posts
Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can reassure you, as a Google Apps for Business customer, that they treat their paying customers with every bit the same contempt as they treat their free end users.
I have had to call a couple times on different email related issues with Google Apps and have to say my experience has been nothing less than impressed. They were responsive, extremely helpful, and continued to follow-up to make sure the issue was resolved and we were not experiencing any more problems. I've also had issues with Adsense and have access to their support, and have had the same experience there. Helpful…
When was that? If they've improved I would be delighted.
Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users
#113My app "LoL Helper" was also copyright infringing League of Legends. Not sure if I can laugh out loud anymore.
Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
uBlock cannot give me a pristine timeline; Twitter's algorithms still mess with the content ordering. It's not just about ads, it's about how a tool's design is poisoned by the need for maximal ad revenue. As far as DuckDuckGo goes, I would really love to use them regularly. DDG is even the default search engine on my notebook, but I find myself going to Google in the second step about 90% of the time because DDG's r…
I love DDG in theory. In practice, I append !g to about half of my searches because the results aren't good enough. Say what you will about the privacy concerns, but Google knowing I frequently search for programming stuff makes finding other programming stuff a much easier process.
I have this !g routine too, but lately I'm having a much harder time finding good, technical programming answers than before, even on Google.
I would love being able to easily blacklist some websites such as stackoverflow and the likes which often have unanswered questions or incomplete answers, and often fills the first 2 Google's result pages.
Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users
#115It seems recently like anything inbound to Google goes into /dev/null! A number of us have been trying to get a response regarding Google Apps accounts with Play Music, and we're paying customers. There's no response to the forum https://productforums.google.com/forum/m/?utm_medium=email&u... nor when I put it on Twitter and when a load of us tried direct feedback via the app, that still hasn't got any response. Clea…
anecdotally, you can get good support if you're a customer, but there's a big difference between a customer and a user. I've heard (not confirmed personally, just overheard at conferences), that if you spend enough on adwords to register on their radar as a customer, things are easy to get sorted even if they're nowhere adwords related. the big difference is that for the most part, google users/developers/... are not…
Apparently app / extension developer is not a customer.
Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users
#116Not providing any meaningful support is Google's business model - you can see them talk about it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU0Z_HAzO3I > Google estimates that they would need to hire over 20,000 customer service people to deal with 1 query every three years from each customer. So it has decided - as far as possible - to employ zero people and rely on algorithms. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2013/02/googles-custo…
There is a difference between supporting every customer (aka, the mass of people behind your average YouTube comment) and supporting developers that promote your ecosystem. By failing to support this one person this one time, they've damaged a lot more people's experience, and the average developer is much more likely to be an influencer. This guy is influencing influencers because he couldn't get a 2 minute support query handled.
And this is why Google's ecosystems suck. They don't put in the work. Podcasts say "going live this week" then never go live. They've completely fucked up their books store by making authors not be able to control discounts, which, combined with Amazon's price match, means that authors have to choose between randomly having their revenue fully cut or skipping the Google book marketplace altogether. Spoiler alert: they skip the Google marketplace.
Heaven help me if my gmail address gets marked as a spammer account. I'll basically be completely fucked, but I don't trust anyone else as much with security.
Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users
#117Not providing any meaningful support is Google's business model - you can see them talk about it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU0Z_HAzO3I > Google estimates that they would need to hire over 20,000 customer service people to deal with 1 query every three years from each customer. So it has decided - as far as possible - to employ zero people and rely on algorithms. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2013/02/googles-custo…
Which is a really good argument for never developing for the Google eco-system. Because you can't afford to invest in a platform where if something goes wrong you're just f*cked.
Precisely why I develop for the web.
Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users
#118What you are doing not only violated Facebook's trademark (good luck calling it fair use), but it's also against Facebook's ToS. They have actively gone after extension authors who alter the Facebook experience and even deactivated their accounts. Rightly or wrongly, when you sign up to a service you are bound by the conditions they set out. In this case, making an extension to block advertising is probably not going…
Bound to / enforced by whom? FB ToS do not exist in a vacuum, which is why they always include "if a section is invalid others remain" or some such. Not sure about which jurisdiction the user / you are in, but in most areas signing up for a service does not obligate one to watch the ads (e.g., on TV one can turn away, turn off sound, blank screen, etc.). I very much doubt that FB wants to fight, in courts, the person…
They don't need to get legality involved. Their terms of service also give them the right to kick you off the service - as they please. If you don't follow them - you don't get to use the nice things. It's pretty simple - whether we agree or not :)
Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users
#119> My requests got closed with a “Thanks for your feedback.” canned response. This is a prime example of why I don't use my Gmail anymore and why I pay for email. I've read plenty of horror stories of how people lost their Gmail accounts for all kinds of reasons. Most of the losses were completely unrelated to Gmail but related to perceived 'abuse' of Google's other services like Youtube (if your YT account gets shut…
I've recently started to move a lot of the services I use away from Google provided services. Who'd you go with instead of Gmail for email?
I went with Fastmail. Great service with an excellent customer service. I feel confident that if something were to happen to my account, I wouldn't lose it forever.
Re: How Google obliterated my 4 year old Chrome extension featuring 24k+ users
#120Not providing any meaningful support is Google's business model - you can see them talk about it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU0Z_HAzO3I > Google estimates that they would need to hire over 20,000 customer service people to deal with 1 query every three years from each customer. So it has decided - as far as possible - to employ zero people and rely on algorithms. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2013/02/googles-custo…
That's interesting, because I've spoken to two Google support reps on the phone in the last two years (related to chrome os and their music service.) They must be so bad at customer support they can't even employ zero people properly.