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Why Is Google Blocking Inbox on Firefox?

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Re: Why Is Google Blocking Inbox on Firefox?

#141

Post by sosborn »

msandford wrote: post #130
Touche wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they seem to use the whitelisting strategy for all of their properties. If something isn't QAed it doesn't get enabled. I suppose at that scale the support cost isn't worth the "let them use it in a degraded way" mantra most of the web community follows.

SUPPORT COST?! HA HA HA HA HA! You can't get support out of Google at any price, unless you're an advertiser. But in that case, it's only help for your ads and nothing else. You can't talk about "support cost" when it's zero.

"Support cost" doesn't apply only to customer support.

Re: Why Is Google Blocking Inbox on Firefox?

#142

Post by talkingstove »

msandford wrote: post #130
Touche wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they seem to use the whitelisting strategy for all of their properties. If something isn't QAed it doesn't get enabled. I suppose at that scale the support cost isn't worth the "let them use it in a degraded way" mantra most of the web community follows.

SUPPORT COST?! HA HA HA HA HA! You can't get support out of Google at any price, unless you're an advertiser. But in that case, it's only help for your ads and nothing else. You can't talk about "support cost" when it's zero.

Support cost doesn't mean customer support.

Re: Why Is Google Blocking Inbox on Firefox?

#143

Post by ZanyProgrammer »

jenius wrote: post #139
TeMPOraL wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that most of those comments stem from Google-hating, which is currently a big fashion here. Were it Apple doing it, they'd be lauded for their attention to user experience. Was Inbox a product of a random startup, it'd be praised for good business approach and proper prioritizing of developer time. But it's Google, so it must be some evil plan.

Just out of curiosity, what do people typically slam google for? I feel like I have a lot of trust in their services -- a hell of a lot more than facebook, and somewhere around on par with apple. Sure, they collect a bunch of your data, but it's for the purpose of them being able to serve more relevant ads to you if I'm not mistaken, since that's where most of their money is made, and their ads are fairly clean and n…

"Sure, they collect a bunch of your data, but it's for the purpose of them being able to serve more relevant ads to you if I'm not mistaken, since that's where most of their money is made." You gloss over this as if its not a big deal.

Re: Why Is Google Blocking Inbox on Firefox?

#144

Post by normloman »

res0nat0r wrote: post #140
ppereira wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a great technical argument, however, the reason this has attracted so much attention is because this product is about email. Email plays such an important role in our modern lives that any announcement hinting that Google is moving towards vendor lock-in for email access is going to attract scrutiny -- regardless of whether it is by innovative features, enhanced performance, or browser lockout.

Adding innovative features is now considered vendor lock-in? Interesting.

Yes it is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace%2C_extend_and_extingui...

Re: Why Is Google Blocking Inbox on Firefox?

#145

Post by msandford »

Yhippa wrote: post #138
msandford wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure that there's a lot of that going on, yes. But Google has the legacy of their "don't be evil" company motto to content with. Which is to say that people expect (foolishly) for them to at least try not to appear evil. The difference between Google prioritizing Chrome vs anyone else is that Google owns Chrome whereas Apple doesn't, and some random startup certainly doesn't. It smells of Microsoft's "we'll only…

Apple is doing the same thing for icloud.com on mobile browsers. Only works on mobile Safari AFAIK.

Yes, but Apple never talked about how interoperability was important for them. Apple has always been a walled garden, like it or leave it.

Google, on the other hand, has done a lot for open standards and interoperability.

Is it unreasonable for people to flip out on Inbox while it's still very much in beta? Sure. If it's a real beta. Gmail was in beta for what, 5 years?

Does Google have any obligation -- moral or otherwise -- to make Inbox work cross-browser? None whatsoever.

But them not doing so would constitute a break from past policy which is something that people are worried about.

Re: Why Is Google Blocking Inbox on Firefox?

#147

Post by techrat »

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #143
jenius wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, what do people typically slam google for? I feel like I have a lot of trust in their services -- a hell of a lot more than facebook, and somewhere around on par with apple. Sure, they collect a bunch of your data, but it's for the purpose of them being able to serve more relevant ads to you if I'm not mistaken, since that's where most of their money is made, and their ads are fairly clean and n…

"Sure, they collect a bunch of your data, but it's for the purpose of them being able to serve more relevant ads to you if I'm not mistaken, since that's where most of their money is made." You gloss over this as if its not a big deal.

Please cite examples in which Google has demonstrated that they could not be trusted with information that they use to deliver targeted ads to you.

Did they ever pull a Facebook-esque social experiment by trying to limit what you saw in order to manipulate your feelings over the course of a day?

Do they sell personal information about you for other companies to use however they please?

Think about this a little bit before you respond with a generic, mouth frothing "BUT GOOGLES SELLS YER INFO" when they actually don't. They sell access to you when you are exposed to ads. Not access to your info.

Re: Why Is Google Blocking Inbox on Firefox?

#148

Post by TeMPOraL »

jenius wrote: post #139
TeMPOraL wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that most of those comments stem from Google-hating, which is currently a big fashion here. Were it Apple doing it, they'd be lauded for their attention to user experience. Was Inbox a product of a random startup, it'd be praised for good business approach and proper prioritizing of developer time. But it's Google, so it must be some evil plan.

Just out of curiosity, what do people typically slam google for? I feel like I have a lot of trust in their services -- a hell of a lot more than facebook, and somewhere around on par with apple. Sure, they collect a bunch of your data, but it's for the purpose of them being able to serve more relevant ads to you if I'm not mistaken, since that's where most of their money is made, and their ads are fairly clean and n…

Yup, I'd like to know it too. Everything I saw or read confirms that they're one of the most benevolent big companies ever, and yet for some vauge reasons they are called evil.

Re: Why Is Google Blocking Inbox on Firefox?

#149

Post by techrat »

msandford wrote: post #128
TeMPOraL wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that most of those comments stem from Google-hating, which is currently a big fashion here. Were it Apple doing it, they'd be lauded for their attention to user experience. Was Inbox a product of a random startup, it'd be praised for good business approach and proper prioritizing of developer time. But it's Google, so it must be some evil plan.

I'm sure that there's a lot of that going on, yes. But Google has the legacy of their "don't be evil" company motto to content with. Which is to say that people expect (foolishly) for them to at least try not to appear evil. The difference between Google prioritizing Chrome vs anyone else is that Google owns Chrome whereas Apple doesn't, and some random startup certainly doesn't. It smells of Microsoft's "we'll only…

You might have an argument if Chrome wasn't open source.

Being that is not the case...

Re: Why Is Google Blocking Inbox on Firefox?

#150

Post by ManFromUranus »

freehunter wrote: post #88
diggan wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks a lot for that information! Will include it in the post when I get a chance. The performance is kind of bad in Firefox but I'm not sure it justifies blocking the entire browser because of that. For a comparison, Google Photos is slow as hell in Firefox, but you could still use it if you want to.

Google blocked Windows Phone from accessing Google Maps in the browser (both the desktop and mobile versions) with the claims that IE was unsupported, even though Google Maps UK worked just fine. Google does have a history of blocking browsers they don't support, no matter how functional it may seem.

This probably has more to do with undermining WP (which is competing with android in the low end phone market) than anything to do with browser support. They would block iOS too if they could, but they can't so that's why safari is 'supported'.
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