.
It started at Stanford University and got its early funding from various tech people. Where did you hear otherwise?
They and Facebook were also funded by In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture fund.
Why I’m done with Chrome
241–250 of 876 posts
Re: Why I’m done with Chrome
#242Just imported my bookmarks and writing this message from firefox. I was hesitant to move for a long time because I liked chrome dev tools a lot but it looks like firefox has caught up.
Re: Why I’m done with Chrome
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Listening in" is inaccurate. "Ok Google" was opt-in only, and did not record users without consent. Chromium downloaded but didn't run the binary blob. Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9724409 including Google's perspective: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9735795
Why download it in the first place?
A mistaken include in a build file, most likely.
I've removed all sorts of dumb stuff slowing down the build that was included by accident or unnecessarily on my project at work. Never attribute to malice ...
Re: Why I’m done with Chrome
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The main thrust though, is that this doesn't actually solve anything for end users that the Google Chrome team says it does. Yes it does, it solves the exact problem described right in the article. Before this change, there would be a seperate log-in process for Chrome versus every other google service (which normally all share your current login status). Now, your login status is shared between every google servic…
> there would be a seperate log-in process for Chrome versus every other google service Chrome is not a Google service. It is a web browser. It should act like one.
Is that just your opinion, or do you genuinely believe most Chrome users see it that way?
Re: Why I’m done with Chrome
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish I could use it but it has serious performance problems on macOS. I tried and it was just terrible. (thought not all Mac users have problems, quite a number do, and Mozilla has an open issue asking for debugging logs from Macs to find the reasons).
Yep. And Google Voice runs horribly on iOS.. 20 second lag time to check messages, no joke. Earlier versions would freeze at the beginning of each character you type. Makes me wonder if companies aren't just slowing down their competitors..
The timestamps on call and message lists don’t update properly either. Switching playback source (earpiece to speaker) often doesn’t work. Screen shuts off even when voicemail is still playing.
All this unfixed for years now.
Re: Why I’m done with Chrome
#246I want to switch to Firefox, but the developer tools simply do not work at all. Every time I try to use the console on the site that I'm working on, the tab freezes and everything just stops working. (This immediately happens, not after a period of working and then bugging out) If any representative from Mozilla wants to reach out, I would be glad to help you fix your software because we need better competition in th…
I’ve never seen this happen on any website, ever, and I’ve used the dev console on some pretty insane websites. Come up with minimal steps to reproduce and file a bug like a normal person, like the other comment suggests. People like me use Firefox for their paying job daily and somehow we still don’t find it beneath ourselves to file bugs.
If I flipped a light switch and the room caught on fire, I hope that your response won't be:
"I've never seen this happen before and I've been in some pretty insane buildings"
I've never seen anything like it happen on any other website either, but yet here I am. The failure is so stark that I would have no idea where to begin debugging, and would likely need guidance from someone with more knowledge of the system so I wouldn't waste days of my time. I've reported the issue in the past and gotten nowhere so here I am trying in a different avenue.
Re: Why I’m done with Chrome
#247Firefox is a truly fantastic browser now. I've been using it again for about 2 years and haven't regretted it at all. There have been a couple of weird feature hiccups but generally Mozilla seems to get things right.
I wish Firefox was as sleek, fast and no-nonsense as Safari on the Mac, which is my everyday browser. I vastly prefer the idea of an open browser that is not tightly coupled to a particular industry giant. And I wish Firefox actually had a viable Safari competitor on iOS, so that I can sync my state around.
Unfortunately, while Firefox has made significant leaps the last couple of years, it's still not a viable alternative to Safari for me. It doesn't feel particularly native (neither the "chrome" nor form controls etc.), and the UX is still clunky compared to native Mac-first apps.
One particular way in which Safari absolutely beats Firefox is the address bar. Most of the autocompletions that Safari provide are exactly what I want. As an example, if I type "mapq" into Safari, it suggests mapquest.com (a site I've never visited before, so this is not based on anything from my history). For Firefox, it suggests a Googles search for "mapquest", which is just stupid. Aside from suggesting web sites, Safari is superb at showing good results (Wikipedia is often a top hit), and it is awesome at providing autocompletions from my bookmarks and history.
Firefox also seems a bit lost when it comes to innovating, and keeps coming up with weak concepts that don't get any tractions; Personas comes to mind. Container tabs are a similarly interesting idea with a weird implementation that requires you to micromanage your tabs, which I certainly don't want to, and provides a "techie" solution to something that should just be invisible and default (i.e. all web sites should be "contained").
Re: Why I’m done with Chrome
#248Google started going down the path I would describe as an "evil" path years ago. I'm glad people are starting to notice. I used to be a huge Google advocate, up until about 2008. So many things have changed since then.
Adsense was the first breach in trust for me, when they banned my account for no reason and ruined any chance of every monetizing my content...since they are basically a monopoly in that area. Getting off their blacklist, is literally impossible.
Then came Chrome and Android, which grew to collect so much information on people that it was genuinely baffling.
Then my agency work and work with previous Google employees telling me about Google sales tactics to SMBs in Adwords. Intentionally not focusing on ROI because they knew the companies had such high burn out rates. They would, and continue, to milk them for whatever they are worth. They know the company is statistically going to go out of business in a year, so just take them for whatever they are worth! Luckily agencies act as a middle man, if not for that, the abuse would be so much more widespread. But if you deal directly with Google ad sales (and this is something I never knew existed tbh) they will intentionally screw you if you are under a certain spend.
Now they have growing and creeping monopolies in advertising, and their only real competitors are Amazon and Facebook... which to me are both on or near the level of sleaze that Google has crept to.
Now things are accelerating, with Chrome's increasing intrusion, Android's increasing intrusion, deals with Chinese governments to stifle freedom of expression and speech. Google AMP being a closed system that's only goal is to push Google into controlling more of the web.
Add to that, let me preface that I am not a Trump voter and never will be and probably lean more towards the politics of Google leadership, but the video that leaked out (it sucks it leaked to nutty Brietbart and not a real new organization, maybe it would have been taken a lot more seriously) of the Google town hall also baffled me. I think Facebook might even take their moral obligation of objectivity more seriously than Google...and that's a serious problem. Algorithms can determine electoral outcomes, and Google is one of the top tech lobbyists in Washington. Doesn't that bother anyone?
This is no longer a company I can advocate anyone using. Unfortunately because of their monopoly status in advertising I have to deal with them.
Re: Why I’m done with Chrome
#249Firefox here I come. Google’s update, to automatically take an action on my computer that I specifically don’t want, is an egregious misuse of technology. This is what Microsoft might have done in the early 2000’s for which they were rightfully vilified. What happened to “do no evil”?
Money is the root of all evil. That's why they got rid of the mantra, as it meant 'Do no money'... And they need to please share holders. I got rid of chrome when I noticed it hoggged my memory and CPU, and decided to try Firefox. Firefox is much more processor friendly for me at least.
>Money is the root of all evil.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
Re: Why I’m done with Chrome
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems that the days of "Best viewed in browser X" have come back sadly.
When you give a browser a 70% market share it will always start abusing its position. Same as last time.
It's more of an OS issue here. Google doesn't view Android as a separate line of business. It's merely a moat for the search business. There's no way for an OS to be a moat for another business without abusing the OS.