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

blog.pushbullet.com

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

#281

Post by andrewmutz »

onefuncman wrote: post #248
andrewmutz wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Extension developers monetizing their extensions by selling the data that they get from users is a big problem. It's the reason that I don't freely install useful extensions that I find today. I have no way to distinguish those who sell my data from those who dont. I love that Google is starting to solve this problem, and from my perspective an extension that is sending and receiving SMS messages should not be reques…

They aren't solving this problem, they're killing off extensions. And I say this having received many unsolicited attempts to "purchase" Chrome extensions.

I disagree. I think this practice could be seen as anti-developer, but it is pro-consumer.

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

#282

Post by megablast »

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…

You should have stopped using chrome years ago. What will it take for you to wake up?

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

#284

Post by toohotatopic »

ztjio wrote: post #277
toohotatopic wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, which ones are the good registrars?

Google is great for this because they will never actually let anyone talk to a human in order to apply social engineering techniques ;)

But do you lose your domain if google bans your account?

The requirement is being able to switch email providers, especially google, when they lock your account. You don't secure your flow of email with a domain if that domain is managed by google, too.

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

#285

Post by fwn »

mintplant wrote: post #276
fwn wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If locking down on the extension ecosystem were only temporary they could just defer the nearing downgrade of their main line browser until their replacement is fully functional. But that's not what they do. Instead we do have a clear announcement on a feature removal and a vague hint that they might add it again in the future. It's absolutely not sure that disabling non-store extensions is only a temporary defect. I…

> If locking down on the extension ecosystem were only temporary they could just defer the nearing downgrade of their main line browser until their replacement is fully functional. The update is going ahead because the new Firefox for Android is such a dramatic improvement along all other axes, and because, from a development perspective, the incarnation it's replacing is saddled with legacy and technical debt. It ne…

> The update is going ahead because Firefox Preview is such a dramatic improvement along all other axes.

...and even the extension axis, from a power-aware Mozilla position. That's what makes it suspicious in the first place.

A few years ago they had a bug that added seconds to every page load that they didn't fix for half a year, but once an update coincidentally consolidates power at Mozilla it needs to be pushed for all its supposed benefits and despite all its known drawbacks asap.

We wouldn't buy that if it were Google or Microsoft and we shouldn't buy it in Mozillas case either. ... If they even announced that they plan to reopen the extension system, which they (to my knowledge) did not.

Personally I don't notice any grave difference between Firefox and preview. Apparently scrolling should be different, but my mid-range phone scrolls just fine in both apps.

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

#286

Post by Icathian »

minikites wrote: post #89
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 been using Fastmail for more than a decade and I don't know why someone would trust something as important as email to a company like Google.

I have fastmail bookmarked waiting for me to find some time to switch over my gsuite admin and some cname redirects off of Google's platform. It's definitely past time for me to get a little less dependent on them.

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

#287

Post by megablast »

fgonzag wrote: post #274
danpalmer wrote: post #53

As much as we can criticise Google's handling of this situation, the fact that the developer was able to reduce permissions from accessing data on _all websites_ down to _their website_, as well as tighten up a few other permissions, shows that Google is correct that the extension is asking for more than it needs. I hope the developer finds another load of permissions they can tighten up, resubmits, and is approved.…

That's what you got out of it? Google doing a good job? They sent an email with no guidance whatsoever. These guys went above and beyond what most developers would've done, which would have been to contact support until they get a clear answer. This only alienates the extension ecosystem. And this was the primary reason I switched to Firefox. Google is the new Microsoft. If I remember correctly, they started Chrome e…

This is an unsafe extension that had access to every website but did not need it. Yes, that is what I got too.

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

#288

Post by gumby »

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 need functionality, of the type PushBullet has provided for years, to do my work.

If you can use the Apple stack this functionality has been built in for years and is pretty robust.

Just FYI as you say the functionality is needed — I know this won’t help if you can’t switch to Apple

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

#289

Post by wpietri »

toohotatopic wrote: post #210
cpascal wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One worry about tying your identity to your own domain, is the security of your identity (aka your domain) hinges on the security of your registrar. If a bad actor can socially engineer their way into controlling your domain, your entire identity is compromised. Here's a blog post about this nightmare happening to someone: https://medium.com/@N/how-i-lost-my-50-000-twitter-username-...

So, which ones are the good registrars?

I've been happy with Joker and AWS Route 53. I've used Joker for years and years; at the time they seemed sane both technically and as a business, and that's how it still feels. Route 53 is more recent, but it's been solid and reliable for me. And it's been very nice to control it declaratively with Terraform.

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

#290

Post by pmontra »

yorwba wrote: post #20
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switch to Firefox. It has gotten much better.

And there's also a Pushbullet add-on for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pushbullet/ Not sure whether the functionality is the same.

Thanks for the link. So it's a subset of kdeconnect/gsconnect for Linux/Android [1] [2] [3]. I'm using it to share files and tabs from my phones / tablets to my pc and viceversa. It does many other things including sms from the pc. It works with any browser or with no browser at all. There is no need for an extension.

I'm sure Apple has had that too for a long time and I saw something like that from Microsoft a few days ago.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kde.kdecon...

[2] https://community.kde.org/KDEConnect

[3] https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/

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