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Everyone seems to be arguing the utilitarian merit of this feature, but I just don't like what it signals for Google's approach to the web. They're building in

Everyone seems to be arguing the utilitarian merit of this feature, but I just don't like what it signals for Google's approach to the web. They're building in features that integrate their browser into their web pages. As far as I'm aware no other major browser holder has done anything of that sort, but I'm probably missing some examples.

Meai 8y ago
It does seem weird that this would be lauded. I want my browser to be completely independent of what I'm doing on the website because there is no telling what the browser might be doing on my OS and frankly if I want to sign into a website, I will. It's not any of my browser's business what I do on the websites I visit. This seems like a fundamental part of sandboxing but maybe other people don't see it that way. I imagine more and more so called convenient features might come where Chrome can suddenly install entire Windows apps, clean my files, and replace my OS. Then again, why not. Who am I to tell Google how to compete, maybe they can replace Windows with something better by gradually bloating up Chrome into an OS inside an OS.
- ux-app 8y ago
  > maybe other people don't see it that way If the HN backlash is anything to go by, a lot of people see it the same way as you (me included). Every company will act in it's best interest not ours, particularly in the case of Google who are blatantly building out a vision of what they want the web to be for 1 singular purpose: to more closely monitor you for the purpose of selling your online activity to the highest bidder. This much influence being concentrated is bad for the web. Viva la revolución!
  - clear_dg 8y ago
    > If the HN backlash is anything to go by, a lot of people see it the same way as you (me included). HN isn't representative of most users of Chrome. I doubt that we qualify as "a lot" to Google. An extremely vocal minority, at best.
    - ux-app 8y ago
      you're a techie i'm guessing? How many of your friends/family ask for tech support/advice? There's a serious multiplier effect at work. I'm a high school IT teacher. I influence approx 600 students per year. We now cover online privacy and I will be setting assignments that ask students to investigate and make reasoned arguments about the impact of Google's dominance on their privacy. Once you annoy enough of the tech literate, word will start to spread. Slowly, then quickly. How do you think Chrome got its foothold to begin with?
      - clear_dg 8y ago
        I won't deny that the tech crowd can influence things, but it's become quite hard for regular users to quit the whole Google panoply of services and tech products. Mail, browser, maps, dns, search, etc... It isn't painless and easy to abandon all of this and I have doubts even tech-savvy influencers can counter it at this point, only by word of mouth. And about how Chrome got a foothold in the first place, I distinctly remember Google agressively advertising their own product on their search engine page, and bundling the binary with everything under the sun (Adobe Reader, anti-virus, etc...). Every time you installed software, there was a good chance Chrome was included with it. Tech influencers had their part in the success of Chrome, but it definitely wasn't the only factor, or maybe even the most important one.
  - kmlx 8y ago
    anecdotal, but i don't know anyone outside of HN who actually thought this was a bad idea. on the contrary, most of my coworkers that use shared pcs praised logging in to both the browser and other google services as it helps them improve their productivity.
unilynx 8y ago
IE's NTLM authentication, which can integrate with your Windows login, might come close.
- fuzzy2 8y ago
  (Almost) every browser does that. Firefox is just a little more restrictive and doesn’t do it with non-FQDN addresses by default .
cyborgx7 8y ago
Google is kind of a special case in that they are the developer of the biggest web browser and the developer of the biggest web-apps. The integration between the two becomes somewhat inevitable at that point. Eventhough I too very much disagree with it.

Meai 8y ago

It does seem weird that this would be lauded. I want my browser to be completely independent of what I'm doing on the website because there is no telling what the browser might be doing on my OS and frankly if I want to sign into a website, I will. It's not any of my browser's business what I do on the websites I visit. This seems like a fundamental part of sandboxing but maybe other people don't see it that way. I imagine more and more so called convenient features might come where Chrome can suddenly install entire Windows apps, clean my files, and replace my OS. Then again, why not. Who am I to tell Google how to compete, maybe they can replace Windows with something better by gradually bloating up Chrome into an OS inside an OS.

ux-app 8y ago
> maybe other people don't see it that way If the HN backlash is anything to go by, a lot of people see it the same way as you (me included). Every company will act in it's best interest not ours, particularly in the case of Google who are blatantly building out a vision of what they want the web to be for 1 singular purpose: to more closely monitor you for the purpose of selling your online activity to the highest bidder. This much influence being concentrated is bad for the web. Viva la revolución!
- clear_dg 8y ago
  > If the HN backlash is anything to go by, a lot of people see it the same way as you (me included). HN isn't representative of most users of Chrome. I doubt that we qualify as "a lot" to Google. An extremely vocal minority, at best.
  - ux-app 8y ago
    you're a techie i'm guessing? How many of your friends/family ask for tech support/advice? There's a serious multiplier effect at work. I'm a high school IT teacher. I influence approx 600 students per year. We now cover online privacy and I will be setting assignments that ask students to investigate and make reasoned arguments about the impact of Google's dominance on their privacy. Once you annoy enough of the tech literate, word will start to spread. Slowly, then quickly. How do you think Chrome got its foothold to begin with?
    - clear_dg 8y ago
      I won't deny that the tech crowd can influence things, but it's become quite hard for regular users to quit the whole Google panoply of services and tech products. Mail, browser, maps, dns, search, etc... It isn't painless and easy to abandon all of this and I have doubts even tech-savvy influencers can counter it at this point, only by word of mouth. And about how Chrome got a foothold in the first place, I distinctly remember Google agressively advertising their own product on their search engine page, and bundling the binary with everything under the sun (Adobe Reader, anti-virus, etc...). Every time you installed software, there was a good chance Chrome was included with it. Tech influencers had their part in the success of Chrome, but it definitely wasn't the only factor, or maybe even the most important one.
- kmlx 8y ago
  anecdotal, but i don't know anyone outside of HN who actually thought this was a bad idea. on the contrary, most of my coworkers that use shared pcs praised logging in to both the browser and other google services as it helps them improve their productivity.

unilynx 8y ago

IE's NTLM authentication, which can integrate with your Windows login, might come close.

fuzzy2 8y ago
(Almost) every browser does that. Firefox is just a little more restrictive and doesn’t do it with non-FQDN addresses by default .

cyborgx7 8y ago

Google is kind of a special case in that they are the developer of the biggest web browser and the developer of the biggest web-apps. The integration between the two becomes somewhat inevitable at that point. Eventhough I too very much disagree with it.