Google bans Chrome extensions purchased to deliver adware | The Verge

Google bans Chrome extensions purchased to deliver adware | The Verge.

This is some pretty good news overall.  Google banning extensions that start generating ads and hijacking the browser.  I hope they start doing extensive testing though, because there are other problems to be addressed too.

For example, Chrome Extensions automatically update to the latest version in the background.  NORMALLY, this would be good, as it creates a seamless experience for the end user.  However, this isn’t always the best thing.

A while back, I started using Window Resizer (which has since gone away following the scandal — more) for application and website development testing.  About 3 weeks ago I noticed that my Google searches were redirecting to Ecosia.org and timing out.   A cursory Bing search took me to the developer page saying that they had updated Window Resizer to automatically opt everyone into using EcoLinks.  Ecosia couldn’t handle the load, and began timing out.  This effectively broke Google searching for a LOT of people.

All because the developer thought they knew better than the end user (“Hey this is a great idea and helps everyone so I’m going to make it opt-out instead of opt-in!”).

Needless to say I quickly uninstalled that extension and found another one to use.

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