Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

developer.chrome.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 175 posts

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#91

Post by jfrunyon »

This is a VERY quick deprecation period... wow. And I wonder how many people have developed something during Covid, in anticipation of Google turning back on "new paid items", and now can never use that effort.

Moreover, it sounds like they're saying there will be no solution for having the user purchase an app prior to downloading the app - all purchase flows will have to be in-app? This sounds like it will make for terrible UX, with apps not disclosing (or people not noticing) that they have no free features until after you've downloaded them....

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#92

Post by bawolff »

_qulr wrote: post #73
bawolff wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody has ever managed to sell a web browser (Netscape's problem), im not sure why people would buy extensions when they wouldn't be willing to buy a browser.

iCab The problem today is that nobody can even make a browser. Even Microsoft failed, and was forced to adopt Chromium. The web has become far too complex.

"Forced" is a bit strong. They did the math and realized that being competitive in the browser market was not worth the $$$$ they would have to spend to get there. Given that web browsers aren't really going to make MS money, unless they manage to get full dominance (which isnt really their strategy anymore and would be difficult in modern context), it was probably a smart business decision. If the business calculus was different i am sure they could.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#93

Post by jfrunyon »

_qulr wrote: post #3

"There is no way to bulk export your existing user licenses, so you need to have your users help with this part of the migration."

And at some point users will no longer be able to help with it. According to the image on the page, they seem to expect that might be as soon as Q3'21.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#94

Post by jfrunyon »

AnssiH wrote: post #65
whoisjuan wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't even make sense. How are the users supposed to help? I think what google is suggesting here is to build a structure with all the license representations of all your users and then figure out how to enforce your licenses or recharge them or walk them through a process of migration to another licensing system which implies authorizing with their own accounts. At that point it's just easier to assume that a…

> How are the users supposed to help? By going to your site and authorizing it to access their subscription data with their Google login, like you said in the following sentence. That counts as helping, no?

How many users do you think will bother? No, they'll just complain at some point in the future, probably long after Google has completely turned down the API and migrations are no longer possible.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#95

Post by jfrunyon »

inetknght wrote: post #71
brian_herman wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://killedbygoogle.com/ This is my favorite site tracking stuff like this.

Too bad the site is just whitepage without javascript.

Wh- why is that a bad thing? What about it would be made better by JS?

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#96

Post by draw_down »

FridgeSeal wrote: post #60
stefan_ wrote: post #19

I love that this "deprecation timeline" includes March 27 where this forgotten about payment API randomly broke.

The cynic in me thinks that might have been them doing a "Scream test" - break something, see if anyone notices (enough), if not, continue with getting rid of it. If it causes a stir, pretend it was just a once off issue.

Yeah, or maybe it genuinely broke and then not much fuss was made.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#97

Post by jfrunyon »

bawolff wrote: post #92
_qulr wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iCab The problem today is that nobody can even make a browser. Even Microsoft failed, and was forced to adopt Chromium. The web has become far too complex.

"Forced" is a bit strong. They did the math and realized that being competitive in the browser market was not worth the $$$$ they would have to spend to get there. Given that web browsers aren't really going to make MS money, unless they manage to get full dominance (which isnt really their strategy anymore and would be difficult in modern context), it was probably a smart business decision. If the business calculus…

That's how a business gets forced to do something: money.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#98

Post by jfrunyon »

marcinzm wrote: post #18
filoleg wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to everything i read about chargebacks on Google services, they indeed don’t pay attention, they just automatically block access to any of your Google accounts and services shortly after you do a chargeback. And given the horror stories I’ve heard about trying to resolve or reverse any automated account bans by Google, I do not recommend following that route.

Yup, companies dislike charge backs and many will block you from all their services for requesting one. So don't go that route unless you never wish to use services from that company again. My wife accidentally did one for a mmorpg she plays and after 6 weeks (and dealing with support, multiple banks, etc.) it was only social media shaming that got them to unban her.

When I did support for a newly-launched MMO back in 2014, the policy for a chargeback was to permanently disable any using the card, and ban any cards used on those accounts.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#99

Post by mumblerino »

single_source wrote: post #78
YetAnotherNick wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate that he had sympathy, but I think max he can do is refund $25. I think that that amount is the least of concern to the most developers.

yeah, I've made my money back so I'm not as concerned about the $25, but there goes any chance of growing the revenue in any meaningful way. I am getting a kick out of all the people here saying that "no one pays for extensions". I've consistently made $50-100 from mine with no marketing whatsoever.

$100 total? Doesn’t sound like a lot unless you worked on it for a day.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#100

Post by 9HZZRfNlpR »

jfrunyon wrote: post #95
inetknght wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad the site is just whitepage without javascript.

Wh- why is that a bad thing? What about it would be made better by JS?

It's just a document, html is the reasonable choice for things like that.
Post reply on HN