Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension • Hacker News Board

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#231

Post by philsnow » Wed, May 13, 2020, 8:40 PM UTC

grwthckrmstr wrote: post #24

Yikes! I've used PushBullet for since several years and I can't imagine not using it. I can understand why Google is doing this though. They have a "Send to device" feature in Chrome. Killing the top 3rd party app is the perfect way to grow adoption of their new & in-built feature. "Do no evil"

Neither here nor there but it was "Don't be evil", never "Do no evil". The latter evokes the Hippocratic Oath and sounds virtuous, but the former is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reference to the (at the time) megacorps they wanted Google to not be like.

(Mind, they're arguably not complying with the "Don't be evil" version either, especially lately.)

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#232

Post by dylz » Wed, May 13, 2020, 8:41 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #229

dylz wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth I've always been able to click straight through a self-signed cert on Chrome - in fact I just did it right now to log in to something internal. I am a nearly 50-50 split Firefox/Chrome user. Are you sure you aren't sending HSTS headers that demand the site be TLS in some way? Also, have you considered the slightly-saner way of doing it, which is making an internal self-signed CA, trusting that int…

If it was HSTS it wouldn't load in Firefox, would it?

If it was HSTS it would not load in both, with no button to bypass.

If it was not HSTS you can click through a non-obvious button in both.

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#233

Post by freehunter » Wed, May 13, 2020, 8:41 PM UTC

ashtonkem wrote: post #204

freehunter wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Security through obscurity is no security at all. Edit - this is a basic principle of security: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity

Anti-cheat through obscurity on the other hand is absolutely a thing. As a metaphor, there’s a damn good reason you can’t just pay an Olympic anti-doping facility to test your urine; it would be trivial to develop protocols that evade the tests if you could do that.

If anti-cheat through obscurity worked, there would be no cheaters. The fact that cheaters exist means it does not work.

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#234

Post by littlestymaar » Wed, May 13, 2020, 8:41 PM UTC

colejohnson66 wrote: post #144

kadoban wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd stress the "get your own domain" part. This is a _requirement_, or you're going to be going through the same pain again in a few years. Also, make sure you take backups of your old emails every once in a while. Google Checkout should be able to provide those.

What’s the risk of losing your domain from a forgotten renewal?

If your domain name provider is serious, almost none: there's a transition period (a few weeks) between the expiration date of your domain and when somebody else can buy it again. So if you forget to renew it, your emails stop working and you'll renew it really quickly ;).

Source: it happened to me last month (the provider being OVH).

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#235

Post by freehunter » Wed, May 13, 2020, 8:42 PM UTC

dylz wrote: post #232

freehunter wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was HSTS it wouldn't load in Firefox, would it?

If it was HSTS it would not load in both, with no button to bypass. If it was not HSTS you can click through a non-obvious button in both.

Well Chrome has no button and Firefox has a button, so...

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#236

Post by SahAssar » Wed, May 13, 2020, 8:42 PM UTC

colejohnson66 wrote: post #162

SahAssar wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not firefox?

In the past, it used to be (at least for me) because of Gecko. Websites didn’t render the same as in WebKit.

Not sure when that was but I have no rendering issues with firefox. As a webdev I can say that FF's rendering these days is pretty much spot on.

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#237

Post by gnicholas » Wed, May 13, 2020, 8:42 PM UTC

Consider yourself lucky that your extension wasn’t pulled after 1 day. I received a 7-day notice on a Sunday and complied same-day. My extension was pulled the next day, and I received an email stating that 7 days had elapsed.

I managed to get reinstated because I know people on Chrome’s accessibility team who promote my extension, but even with that assistance it was still months before I could push a new version without going into purgatory.

FWIW, I’ve had even more issues on Firefox. It’s like they’re in a competition with the App Store for “most opaque review process”.

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#238

Post by cwhiz » Wed, May 13, 2020, 8:42 PM UTC

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #157

patwalls wrote: post #18

Chrome extension developer here. Google ripped my Chrome extension off the app store about a month ago. I got a similar cryptic message, and then I scrambled to fix it, like you're doing now. Somehow my extension reappeared the next day. Email me pat [at] trypigeon [dot] co and I can send you some of the things I did that maybe have helped. Tweeting my support as well: https://twitter.com/thepatwalls/status/126063896…

I have written about this recently on the Android side. https://medium.com/@lazherrera/that-one-time-google-made-it-... If you use any of the words related to the COVID-19 pandemic, they will pull your app, suspend you and ding your account.

Google has effectively created a private monopoly on any Android applications related to Covid-19. And the last time this sort of information was posted to HN the comments section was a race to see who could do the best apology for Google.

This policy by Google is hurting people and businesses.

Meanwhile, Apple has a similar policy but all they do is just take extra care when reviewing your app. I suggest you port your app to iOS and submit it to the App Store. Apple will accept it and approve it.

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#239

Post by Bedon292 » Wed, May 13, 2020, 8:44 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #134

wlesieutre wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome is a trivially easy product to switch off of compared to other Google properties like Gmail and YouTube. Have you tried Firefox recently?

I've found the exact opposite to be true in my very specific experience. Five years ago I used every Google product under the sun, today the only Google product I use at all (even search) is Chrome because it's the only one I haven't been able to replace. I try Firefox with a fresh install on nearly every major release and I keep it installed as a secondary browser, but I can never manage to use it as my daily browse…

Assuming you are on a Windows domain, since they are able to control your Chrome. Chrome uses all the built in Windows settings. Have you check for proxy settings in internet options? Firefox I believe still uses standalone settings, and will need to be configured manually.

Other thing they could be doing is adding certificates to the Windows certificate store, that Firefox does not trust. Though I expect you would see an error about invalid certs in that case.

Re: Let's guess what Google requires in 14 days or they kill our extension

#240

Post by cft » Wed, May 13, 2020, 8:44 PM UTC

Baeocystin wrote: post #11

Another long-term PushBullet customer here. Anyone at Google who is listening- this kind of behavior kills my desire to continue using your products dead. I need functionality, of the type PushBullet has provided for years, to do my work. The recent nerfing of ublock origin has already had me feeling iffy on things. Behavior like this is simply unacceptable. If you want people to use your services, you need to have s…

I switched to Firefox because of Google banning Bypass Paywalls extension that is available as a Firefox add-on. When I was building my bootstraped company, Google really taunted us with emails like this, when our AdSense monthly earnings reached $10,000 and we're my only source of income. We had 20 million user profile pages, and they were saying that something is wrong with some of them, without saying what, forcing us to "review" them all. We built sophisticated ML content filters, to receive more unspecified warnings and get the account shut down. I managed to reinstate the account, but it left a very evil taste. I am in the process of degoogling, using Bing as the default in Firefox.