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Google's playing the closed-open game again, this time with HTML5

extremetech.com

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Re: Google's playing the closed-open game again, this time with HTML5

#41

Post by Toady »

mvzink wrote: post #9

Useless article. This has nothing to do with "openness", just marketing: what is Google's incentive to building the site in the first place if they can't make people download Chrome to view it? That said, they could at least add a "Try it anyway" button for other browsers.

You only think it's "useless" because it bashes Google, obviously a company you like. You ask what Google's incentive is to build the site if they can't make people download Chrome to use it, which is a bizarre question that seems to admit that Google is not about open standards at all. If Google was all about open standards, it wouldn't matter which browser you used.

The reality is that Google is not some benevolent open source company as they're often portrayed but are a gigantic advertising company with a financial incentive in getting you onto their products, which gives them data to index for advertisers. Chrome, for example, automatically interfaces with the Google search engine by default. They don't care about openness--that's a feel-good buzzword they use to make techies like them.

Google defenders have gotten worse than Apple defenders when it comes to justifying absolutely every shitty move Google makes.

Re: Google's playing the closed-open game again, this time with HTML5

#42

Post by Toady »

angryasian wrote: post #13
mrpollo wrote: post #10

It is clear to me that this is a Google Chrome Experiment, from their labs, and that they did not had any intention of it working on any other browser but i got curious... i was doing some research on it and they appear to be using sync xhr calls which causes FF to hiccup even after all this time. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=383304 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=313646 they are marked a…

this article is written with the obvious intention of bashing google, the writer didn't even do his research because honeycomb 3.2 source is available.

Oh, okay, so that makes it okay for the site to be Chrome-only despite Google's constant proselytizing over "openness."

Re: Google's playing the closed-open game again, this time with HTML5

#43

Post by Toady »

Funnnny wrote: post #6
jawns wrote: post #2

I tried to trick it with User Agent Switcher, but no go. It's not just examining the user agent -- it's looking for window.chrome, too. Having watched the video and the word-spelling at the end, there's nothing about this sort of content that strikes me as stuff that can't be done in other browsers. And isn't that supposed to be the point of experiments like this? Google should be showing us stuff that can't be done…

Google showed that this is Chrome showcase, a Chrome experiment, isn't that clear ?

Yes, we know. That's the point. They shouldn't have because there was no reason to.

Re: Google's playing the closed-open game again, this time with HTML5

#44

Post by Toady »

jannes wrote: post #22
jrockway wrote: post #14

All I get out of this is that Google calls their web browser "Chrome", while Apple calls theirs "HTML5".

I don't get why this is downvoted. You are right. At least Google explicitly marked this as a "Chrome experiment" instead of labeling it as a "HTML5 showcase".

Maybe because Google constantly markets itself on its use of open standards.

Re: Google's playing the closed-open game again, this time with HTML5

#45

Post by Toady »

jrockway wrote: post #14

All I get out of this is that Google calls their web browser "Chrome", while Apple calls theirs "HTML5".

If that's all you get out of it, then you're intentionally ignoring the years of talk about "openness" from Google and its criticism of competitors who don't adopt open standards.

Re: Google's playing the closed-open game again, this time with HTML5

#46

Post by groby_b »

ZoFreX wrote: post #17

Disappointing article, given all the other ways in which Chrome is harming the web. Example: There's a bug on a site I made in Chrome. It is categorically incorrect behaviour on the part of Chrome, it breaks the specs in order to be faster. How do I fix the bug? By calling a proprietary interface in Javascript that only exists in Chrome. Yup, that's right - to make my standards-compliant web page work, I have to do b…

Do you have a link on crbug.com?

Re: Google's playing the closed-open game again, this time with HTML5

#47

Post by zobzu »

mrpollo wrote: post #31
angryasian wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this article is written with the obvious intention of bashing google, the writer didn't even do his research because honeycomb 3.2 source is available.

"this article is written with the obvious intention of bashing google" i agree, it is way faster to develop for just 1 browser, plus we should be celebrating people are trying to break ground doing this awesome videos, i can only begin to imagine all the impressive work that what went into this video, good one google +1

I hope this was sarcastic, unfortunately I fear you're actually serious.

Scary.

Re: Google's playing the closed-open game again, this time with HTML5

#48

Post by zobzu »

jarin wrote: post #5
andybak wrote: post #3

It's quite possible that there's a valid technical reason for this. Codec usage? Something bleeding edge to do with HTML5 Audio? A slightly crappy but plausible reason is that they didn't want the extra hassle of cross-browser testing and pool of browsers capable of running this was pretty small.

Or the simplest explanation is that they wanted people to install Chrome to be able to see it.

The explanation is of course that they want people to run Chrome no matter the cost.

They can force people to upgrade to chrome that way. It's a well known way of doing stuff.

Microsoft has done that for ages in the past and got bashed for it until they started to fall.

When Google does it, it's ok tho. Figures.

ps: this is actually doing evil

Re: Google's playing the closed-open game again, this time with HTML5

#49

Post by zobzu »

drcube wrote: post #35
mvzink wrote: post #9

Useless article. This has nothing to do with "openness", just marketing: what is Google's incentive to building the site in the first place if they can't make people download Chrome to view it? That said, they could at least add a "Try it anyway" button for other browsers.

Chrome is free. Google builds websites to attract advertisers. Which makes Google's lack of openness all the more perplexing. And what's this about not being able to get the Android source!? I'll buy an iphone right now if that's true. At least Apple doesn't try and pretend they're not evil.

Android source for Honey comb is indeed not available and hasnt ever been, so far. Only the GPL parts (kernel, iptables basically) are open because they're forced by law.

I don't think we'll ever get HoneyComb source. We might get Ice cream sandwich source. Might. Only Google knows.

Re: Google's playing the closed-open game again, this time with HTML5

#50

Post by walrus »

Sukotto wrote: post #37
jannes wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get why this is downvoted. You are right. At least Google explicitly marked this as a "Chrome experiment" instead of labeling it as a "HTML5 showcase".

How are you seeing the vote count? I don't see a way in my profile to turn it back on [Edit to add] It's a serious question. Parent refers to downvotes of GP post. That makes me wonder if there's a way to turn the numbers back on. Something I would very much like to do. Why the downvotes?

I'm guessing that at one point the post's text was gray due to downvotes.
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