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The chrome web store is overrun with phishing apps like these, I think it's safe to say Google have given up.

by davidjgraph 5y ago

jarcane 5y ago
Just like they have with Play Store.
- emteycz 5y ago
  Perhaps if the store made more money, they would have motivation to do something about it...
  - rebuilder 5y ago
    If the store made more money, why would they do anything? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Now, if the store started making less money because of scams...
    - emteycz 5y ago
      Because of the prospect of losing that income stream. Their ad services are very well managed. AFAIK they're not making much/any money from the stores now so it makes sense they're not fixing it, or am I wrong?
  - swiley 5y ago
    It's Google. It doesn't matter how profitable something is, if it's incompatible with their org chart they'll let anything rot.
  - robjan 5y ago
    Chicken and egg. They would probably make more money if the store was more curated. At the moment it's hard to discover apps in the sea of spam and fake apps. As an example, there are literally hundreds of QR code readers, most of which are probably based on the same library but with very different levels of security. In fact, one of the top QR readers asks for very invasive permissions without any justification
    - emteycz 5y ago
      Agreed completely, Google seems to be totally lacking any resemblance of vision or direction. Hard to overcome the chicken/egg problem with that...
  - draw_down 5y ago
    Well it’s their store, what exactly is stopping them?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- greenshackle2 5y ago
  Just a couple of days ago, the #1 app in the Top Grossing chart on Play Store was "Funny Voice Changer", which is a sketchy app aimed at children that gets you to sign up for a 3 day free trial then charges $280. It has a 4.1 stars rating with mostly obviously fake reviews. I see now it's down to #29 on the chart, but it's still there. I understand vetting everything manually would take unreasonable amounts of manpower but maybe you should check that literally the #1 grossing app in you store is not a scam?
sexy_seedbox 5y ago
> I think it's safe to say Google have given up. As with sooo many of their underfunded departments. Google My Business is the worst, full of bugs and piss poor 3rd world country support staff.
- capableweb 5y ago
  > Google My Business is the worst, full of bugs and piss poor 3rd world country support staff. This I simply don't understand. Google Maps would be nothing against their competition if it wasn't for almost every single business being on there. But then the support and UX for actually being a business on Google Maps is absolutely horrific, and I think they simply stopped caring about it. As you say, it's full of bugs and every upgrade to the UX seems to make it worse for us as well. Not sure what's going on in Google's brain, but I'm afraid they have run out of lamp oil.
  - contriban 5y ago
    As a business, you just have to use it. Whether it sucks is irrelevant as that does not affect the reason why you're there. I've given up on thinking GMaps is in any way accurate anyway, since even if the business owner somewhat cares, they won't remember to update it immediately. Outside of some core products, Google software simply accumulates cruft and bugs and, I think, is rarely updated at all. They'd rather release a new product than make an existing one better. This sounds painfully familiar.
    - e3bc54b2 5y ago
      By core products, you mean Search, Gmail and YouTube? Let's see.. Search these days seems to have given up on SEO blocking, Gmail has given up on any kind of UX improvements, and YouTube has given up on being a decent platform for either creators or viewers. I think the CRU's of the issue is Search is so big, and despite getting progressively worse, brings in so much money, that eventually people at Google realised it doesn't matter whether their products improve or not. After that, its just path of least resistance.
    - 5y ago
geocar 5y ago
Many of the crap-extensions load ads which makes google money. I think it’s safe to say Google likes this sort of thing.
brutal_chaos_ 5y ago
Nah, I think they trust their (presumably machine learning) algorithms too much and need to include some(more?) humans in the mix.

The chrome web store is overrun with phishing apps like these, I think it's safe to say Google have given up.

jarcane 5y ago

Just like they have with Play Store.

emteycz 5y ago
Perhaps if the store made more money, they would have motivation to do something about it...
- rebuilder 5y ago
  If the store made more money, why would they do anything? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Now, if the store started making less money because of scams...
  - emteycz 5y ago
    Because of the prospect of losing that income stream. Their ad services are very well managed. AFAIK they're not making much/any money from the stores now so it makes sense they're not fixing it, or am I wrong?
- swiley 5y ago
  It's Google. It doesn't matter how profitable something is, if it's incompatible with their org chart they'll let anything rot.
- robjan 5y ago
  Chicken and egg. They would probably make more money if the store was more curated. At the moment it's hard to discover apps in the sea of spam and fake apps. As an example, there are literally hundreds of QR code readers, most of which are probably based on the same library but with very different levels of security. In fact, one of the top QR readers asks for very invasive permissions without any justification
  - emteycz 5y ago
    Agreed completely, Google seems to be totally lacking any resemblance of vision or direction. Hard to overcome the chicken/egg problem with that...
- draw_down 5y ago
  Well it’s their store, what exactly is stopping them?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
greenshackle2 5y ago
Just a couple of days ago, the #1 app in the Top Grossing chart on Play Store was "Funny Voice Changer", which is a sketchy app aimed at children that gets you to sign up for a 3 day free trial then charges $280. It has a 4.1 stars rating with mostly obviously fake reviews. I see now it's down to #29 on the chart, but it's still there. I understand vetting everything manually would take unreasonable amounts of manpower but maybe you should check that literally the #1 grossing app in you store is not a scam?

sexy_seedbox 5y ago

> I think it's safe to say Google have given up. As with sooo many of their underfunded departments. Google My Business is the worst, full of bugs and piss poor 3rd world country support staff.

capableweb 5y ago
> Google My Business is the worst, full of bugs and piss poor 3rd world country support staff. This I simply don't understand. Google Maps would be nothing against their competition if it wasn't for almost every single business being on there. But then the support and UX for actually being a business on Google Maps is absolutely horrific, and I think they simply stopped caring about it. As you say, it's full of bugs and every upgrade to the UX seems to make it worse for us as well. Not sure what's going on in Google's brain, but I'm afraid they have run out of lamp oil.
- contriban 5y ago
  As a business, you just have to use it. Whether it sucks is irrelevant as that does not affect the reason why you're there. I've given up on thinking GMaps is in any way accurate anyway, since even if the business owner somewhat cares, they won't remember to update it immediately. Outside of some core products, Google software simply accumulates cruft and bugs and, I think, is rarely updated at all. They'd rather release a new product than make an existing one better. This sounds painfully familiar.
  - e3bc54b2 5y ago
    By core products, you mean Search, Gmail and YouTube? Let's see.. Search these days seems to have given up on SEO blocking, Gmail has given up on any kind of UX improvements, and YouTube has given up on being a decent platform for either creators or viewers. I think the CRU's of the issue is Search is so big, and despite getting progressively worse, brings in so much money, that eventually people at Google realised it doesn't matter whether their products improve or not. After that, its just path of least resistance.
  - 5y ago

geocar 5y ago

Many of the crap-extensions load ads which makes google money. I think it’s safe to say Google likes this sort of thing.

brutal_chaos_ 5y ago

Nah, I think they trust their (presumably machine learning) algorithms too much and need to include some(more?) humans in the mix.