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Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

zdnet.com

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Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#31

Post by dudus »

voiper1 wrote: post #27
omh wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This change didn't come from a binary update. We were affected and our version hadn't changed (in fact we weren't quite on the latest version - we were still testing it). We have updates disabled and are very much aware of how to manage this. Google changed a feature flag that was automatically picked up by existing copies of Chrome and changed their behaviour.

Whoa, that wasn't clear in the article. Thanks for enlightening me!

That was crystal clear on the article. Be honest you just read the title.

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#33

Post by tyingq »

Slartie wrote: post #30

I chuckled at this: > "Do you see the impact you created for thousands of us without any warning or explanation? We are not your test subjects," said an angry sysadmin. "We are running professional services for multi million dollar programs. Do you understand how many hours of resources were wasted by your 'experiment'?" Did you, dear sysadmin, pay anything for Google Chrome? No? Are you in any contractual relation t…

Does Google run these experiments on the $50/year per device Chrome Enterprise?

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#34

Post by cimnine »

If something is critical infrastructure for you, better make sure you have a backup.

I've seen this in a Swiss government agency that has Firefox installed exactly for this purpose. Their main browser is the built-in one, but if it can't or must not be used (e.g. because of a zero-day threat), they can quickly roll out a change to make Firefox the default browser until the problem/threat is over.

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#35

Post by jve »

Slartie wrote: post #30

I chuckled at this: > "Do you see the impact you created for thousands of us without any warning or explanation? We are not your test subjects," said an angry sysadmin. "We are running professional services for multi million dollar programs. Do you understand how many hours of resources were wasted by your 'experiment'?" Did you, dear sysadmin, pay anything for Google Chrome? No? Are you in any contractual relation t…

Yeah.

> We are running professional services for multi million dollar programs. Do you understand how many hours of resources were wasted by your 'experiment'? -- Angry sysadmin

Well, do they pay Google for testing in their environment?

Chrome is a free-to-use product. Their rollout strategy is good. Not that they experiment in prod - the flag was in beta for 5 months. And then they turned that on in prod for %1 users, still no reports.

Well what better could they do?

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#37

Post by voiper1 »

dudus wrote: post #31
voiper1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa, that wasn't clear in the article. Thanks for enlightening me!

That was crystal clear on the article. Be honest you just read the title.

Right, I put a quote from the end of the article but I just read the title. /s

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#38

Post by omh »

Slartie wrote: post #30

I chuckled at this: > "Do you see the impact you created for thousands of us without any warning or explanation? We are not your test subjects," said an angry sysadmin. "We are running professional services for multi million dollar programs. Do you understand how many hours of resources were wasted by your 'experiment'?" Did you, dear sysadmin, pay anything for Google Chrome? No? Are you in any contractual relation t…

Google have made many attempts to sell Google services, and Chrome in particular[1], as professional software that businesses can rely on.

I've been at conferences where senior Google staff went to great lengths to present the benefits of switching to Chrome.

> The experiments are not exactly a secret program and have existed for a while

I've been responsible for managing Chrome in a professional environment for several years and looked in detail at many Chrome management settings. I was not aware of the experiments. They don't seem to be mentioned in the Chrome Enterprise documentation or policies.

> Both can be disabled

How can we disable them? This is on my to-do list for today, so would genuinely appreciate your help!

[1] https://cloud.google.com/chrome-enterprise/

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#39

Post by CJefferson »

What's the alternative?

Google thought this feature was polished, finished, and ready for release. What used to happen was it would be pushed out in an update, and then everyone on a server would have seen the crash. This "experiment" is just slow releasing.

Re: Google Chrome experiment crashes browser tabs, impacts companies worldwide

#40

Post by Slartie »

omh wrote: post #38
Slartie wrote: post #30

I chuckled at this: > "Do you see the impact you created for thousands of us without any warning or explanation? We are not your test subjects," said an angry sysadmin. "We are running professional services for multi million dollar programs. Do you understand how many hours of resources were wasted by your 'experiment'?" Did you, dear sysadmin, pay anything for Google Chrome? No? Are you in any contractual relation t…

Google have made many attempts to sell Google services, and Chrome in particular[1], as professional software that businesses can rely on. I've been at conferences where senior Google staff went to great lengths to present the benefits of switching to Chrome. > The experiments are not exactly a secret program and have existed for a while I've been responsible for managing Chrome in a professional environment for seve…

Whoa, I just set out to find the way to disable them. I thought it was possible, but I seem to have confused that with Firefox. Firefox calls it "studies", and you can easily opt out of them in the browser's options.

Chrome (and chromium) calls the feature "field trials" and there doesn't really seem to be a way to opt out. I'm seriously baffled by the audacity of Google here.

Seems as if the only way to actually get rid of them is to modify the Chromium codebase and compile it yourself.

It might be worth to investigate whether there is some kind of host name that could be nullified on the network, of the server that the trials are loaded from.

Sorry for that misinformation, I clearly have to update my original rant.

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