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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

#71

Post by oarsinsync »

jve wrote: post #35
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 user…

> Their rollout strategy is good.

I think you've misunderstood what they did

> the flag was in beta for 5 months. And then they turned that on in prod for %1 users, still no reports.

It was in beta, had no reports, and then they turned it on for a subset of users, and created a flood of problems.

> Well what better could they do?

Release it in a new version that doesn't auto-enable for small subsets of people, but is enabled for everyone if they've deployed that version. It's how software releases used to work. Enterprise environments can then test before it gets rolled, and save this problem from occurring.

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

#72

Post by vanadium »

jve wrote: post #35
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 user…

Making experiments opt-in seems like a good first step, no? As it is, there wasn’t even a clear opt-OUT.

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

#73

Post by vanadium »

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!

In the bug thread, multiple orgs stated they tried to downgrade to the last version and encountered the exact same problem. This alone is going to leave orgs circumspect about their security and Chrome’s reliability, at the very least.

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

#74

Post by technofiend »

Slartie wrote: post #43
omh wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm seriously baffled by the audacity of Google here Join the club! > 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. It looks like they're downloaded from https://clients4.google.com/chrome-variations/seed Blocking the entire hostname would cause problems with other features of Chrome. But I think blocki…

Digging in the code also brought up that URL, and it appears as if the entire feature was disabled if Chromium is built without the "Google Chrome branding" flag (and can then be reenabled by specifying a seed URL yourself via command line). Hence one might get by with building from unmodified Chromium source. But the options to disable it on official prebuilt Chrome appear to be grim indeed. SSL interception might n…

Amusingly Chromium shows up in my list of things to disable in the Google security checks results.

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

#76

Post by slenk »

So when Firefox did this earlier in the year for the expired cert, everyone was freaking out that Mozilla had that ability.

Where is all the freaking out at Chrome? My theory is that is was mostly Chrome users (the majority) complaining last time when they had no personal experience.

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

#77

Post by chris_wot »

I think we are now seeing that the attitude of Google in the way they treat Chrome users is seriously worrying. There are now a litany if issues - from adversely affecting ad blockers, linking Google sync to logons to Gmail and to now rolling out “experiments” unannounced... surely by now it is time to seriously consider Firefox?

Of course, Mozilla needs to make sure they never enable extensions like the way they did for the Mr Robot one many years ago...

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

#78

Post by jacquesm »

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…

> Did you, dear sysadmin, pay anything for Google Chrome? No? Are you in any contractual relation to Google that covers your use of Chrome?

The idea that because you did not pay anything for a product translates into 'you have no rights' really is getting old. Even if you don't pay you have plenty of rights and the provider of the software should not - and in many places can not - walk away claiming that because you did not pay you have no rights. It may not be the rights that you want, and it may very well be that certain behavior even if you don't like it is allowed but it just simply isn't true that you have no rights.

And that contractual bit runs both ways: companies have tried to argue time and again that free users of websites and software products were bound by EULAs, that means you can't now turn around and suddenly claim that there is no contractual relationship. Yes, there is no paper contract. But you are in a relationship and if Google or any other provider claims that they have rights by the definition of the word 'consideration' so do you.

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

#79

Post by chris_wot »

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…

Some of them do. If a company purchases GSuite, GSuite for Education or Chrome Enterprise Support then they have paid for this.

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/188447?hl=en

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

#80

Post by chris_wot »

m-p-3 wrote: post #45
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 being a GSuite customer counts as paying for Google Chrome? If that doesn't count, there there is no scenario where you can say you've paid for it.

It does. Under “Can I get phone support” it states:

Yes, if you have a G Suite or G Suite for Education account, or if your company purchased Chrome Enterprise Support.

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/188447?hl=en

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