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Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

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Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#71

Post by jiveturkey »

oefrha wrote: post #24
Someone1234 wrote: post #5

It is good that this was resolved, but not so good that they had to shame Google on HN/Twitter to get it looked at. I understand that the Chrome extension store is free, but if you're going to point a bunch of bots at it and have them de-list extensions based on unknown metrics, the least you could do is communicate the "gotcha" rules the extension supposedly violated.

> I understand that the Chrome extension store is free Pretty sure it’s not free, I had to pay a nominal $5 fee ages ago, and looks like that hasn’t changed. https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/publish#pay-the-develo... Even found a recent news article reporting that now you need to pay the fee immediately on signup as opposed to when you publish the first extension/app. https://9to5google.com/2020/03/12/chrome-web…

If you don't have $5, how do you have the resources to develop an extension?

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#72

Post by on_and_off »

archon810 wrote: post #43
RHSeeger wrote: post #7

> All of that attention resulted in our issue being resolved. This is good for us. It is not yet clear if the attention will help other developers that are struggling with similar vague rejections. I think it's been made abundantly clear that Google will not, in fact, improve anything from experiences like this. They happen over and over and every single time it's the same; if it gets publicity, someone helps resolve…

Have a look at this https://twitter.com/ArtemR/status/1261159338170658816 and the surrounding discussion. This is basically the only person at Google who can make things happen if there's a problem with Chrome extensions.

If it works the same way as the play store does, the DA has little to do with that.

A play store advocate can not look up why your app got rejected, they can at most ask their play store colleagues to look it up and to contact the app owner.

It is this way to avoid getting in a situation where being friends with a DA is an huge advantage.

Their job is to collect dev feedback, as well as evangelizing good practices.

And granted, both teams could do a better job at pinpointing the issues (and devs might also try harder to follow the rules .. fwiw play store bans threads have just been banned from r/androiddev because devs had a tendency to forget to talk about the legitimate reason why they got kicked out)

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#73

Post by patrickbolle »

oefrha wrote: post #57
asdf21 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always has been for 10+ years now. As a former Call Center Director, it's pretty amazing to me how much bad-will these massive companies are willing to foment by not running their support correctly. It's not that hard / expensive guys... you can hire great support employees for $20 / hour all across America.

Are these great $20/hr support engineers the kind I often deal with over email or phone, who usually employ canned responses, can’t solve off-script problems, tend to repeat the same unhelpful responses, and are sometimes indistinguishable from bots?

Look towards Shopify Support Gurus. Paid well, fully remote. As a Shopify Partner I deal with them a lot and have never had a bad experience; while some can't always answer my question, I always speak to a human (24/7 via live chat) and they direct my query in the right direction.

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#75

Post by jakozaur »

The current internet giants got huge monopolistic like power that many dictators of many countries would envy. The set their rules, execute them, and judge them.

I believe once you become a platform there should be an independent nano-courthouse where you can appeal. Today being rejected by Apple, Amazon, or Google platform is equivalent to the economical death penalty for many individuals.

It should be possible to pay $100 by individuals and appeal to an independent nano-courthouse if the original platform rejects or blocks you. If you win, the appeal fee is refunded and the platform has to cover the cost. If you lose, your $100 is gone.

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#76

Post by harpratap »

criddell wrote: post #36
RHSeeger wrote: post #7

> All of that attention resulted in our issue being resolved. This is good for us. It is not yet clear if the attention will help other developers that are struggling with similar vague rejections. I think it's been made abundantly clear that Google will not, in fact, improve anything from experiences like this. They happen over and over and every single time it's the same; if it gets publicity, someone helps resolve…

App and extension developers should organize into a trade group and collectively bargain with the companies running app stores.

It will be dominated by other big giants. Amazon, Spotify, Disney, Netflix, Facebook would all want more regulations put on these app stores

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#77

Post by graham_paul »

As a Firefox fan, I really hope it happens again and again. It's good for the web as a whole when Chrome fails and Firefox doesn't.

As a technical person, you should be advocating the use of (real, community owned) open source browsers not just whatever the majority uses.

I feel that Google's monopoly on the browser market for desktops will be more and more endangered as they (for legitimate business reasons) refuse to provide the services and processes that a modern browser user/developer deserves.

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#78

Post by slg »

microtonal wrote: post #66
slg wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any examples of free services that don't directly make a company money that include great support? I am struggling to think of any.

Since when are G Suite and Pixel phones free products?

Fair enough. I was mainly talking about this specific instance. From what I have heard, the G Suite and Pixel phone support is bad, but it isn't downright non-existent like it was here.

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#79

Post by smilekzs »

jiveturkey wrote: post #71
oefrha wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I understand that the Chrome extension store is free Pretty sure it’s not free, I had to pay a nominal $5 fee ages ago, and looks like that hasn’t changed. https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/publish#pay-the-develo... Even found a recent news article reporting that now you need to pay the fee immediately on signup as opposed to when you publish the first extension/app. https://9to5google.com/2020/03/12/chrome-web…

If you don't have $5, how do you have the resources to develop an extension?

Having to pay US Dollars can still be a big hurdle

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#80

Post by pgrote »

benatkin wrote: post #44
wpietri wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Pushbullet user, I think the two cases are nothing alike. Pushbullet is doing things for me. The toolbar plague was about getting access to do things to you. Should Pushbullet be using the minimum set of permissions for that? Sure. Could there be better permission models, ones that make sure Pushbullet doesn't do anything naughty? Possibly! But neither of those justifies a blanket ban.

I'd like to know what the number of users that directly used Pushbullet in the last day (or week, or month) over the number of users that have the Android app installed is. If they have it installed, everything they copy to the clipboard on Android is being sent to their servers, is it not? That puts them in the same category as Yahoo! Toolbar for me. At one time Yahoo! Toolbar was useful for a significant percentage…

I am a premium pushbullet user and have it on my android phone. It is the only reliable solution to handle texting and notification from the Windows or Chromebook desktop I have come across.

I've never thought about the information they capture or keep, but I do know photos sent through text are kept on https://dl3.pushbulletusercontent.com for a certain period of time. I don't know how long.

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