Outrage grows as Google axes some Chrome extensions

  • 17 June 2014
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Google's hard stance against Chrome extensions for Windows hosted outside the Chrome Web Store angers some businesses and their customers.
by Seth Rosenblatt
 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Security firm Kaspersky was forced to update its Chrome security extension to make it downloadable from the Chrome Web Store.
 
Some businesses and their Chrome-using customers are furious at Google's crackdown on Chrome extensions that had been hosted outside of the Chrome Web Store.
Their ire stems from Google's forced disabling of extensions that shipped with paid software that have yet to be replaced, effectively hamstringing those services. Games, financial software, third-party Windows security suites, and productivity tools are among those affected. Some of the people who develop and use the extensions have registered their complaints on Google's product forums.
The change "makes it much harder to build tools to make Chrome a better citizen in the enterprise," said Gary Schare, former Microsoft employee and CEO of Browsium, a company that helps businesses manage multiple browser installations.
"Anyone running an older version of my extension on an unmanaged system just got broken, and there's not a thing I can do about it," he said. His company has been a major advocate for replacing Internet Explorer with Chrome in businesses.
 
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Great find Jasper! Although there are pros and cons I can see both sides! People can always use different browsers but as for the paid extensions in Chrome are sad at the least. :(
I feel for those businesses who use Chrome...
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I am not as sympathetic to extension developers if they have not tried working with Google on this.  Google announced this crackdown quite a while ago, and I have seen a number of companies work to either keep the existing extensions viable, or switch to Google hosted installation.
 
I will admit that not being a developer myself, I do not know how difficult it is for them to work with Google on this, nor how unreasonabe Google may be on this.
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Well @ I suppose you have a broader and more knowledgeable view of Google. ... 🙂
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I wonder if Webroot will have to work with Google to continue to add the Web Filter & Password Manager into Chrome?
 
Daniel
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Wow. Daniel great question! !! 🙂
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Excuse for asking (because I seem to be putting, with great regularity today, my foot in my vocal orifice) but was this not debated previously and Shawn came back to say that getting the Webrrot Extension into the Store was inhand?  Or perhaps I am living on another planet (can't find the thread now, drat).

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