Google Chrome becomes adware

[m^2]

Internet users are accustomed to seeing ads on Internet pages. One of the most prominent advertisement schemes used these days is Google Adsense which is available for websites, searches on websites and for mobile devices. Adword ads dominate the Google search result pages, and other Google properties are also displaying their fair share of ads.

Salimane Adjao Moustapha recently posted a photo of another place where Google (seemingly) has started to display ads: The Chrome browser.

http://www.ghacks.net/2011/11/24/goo...ng-of-the-end/

I looked into replacing FF with Chromium and watched the project to know when it's ready, but this kills the deal. There's just no way they can get me to accept such deal. Google, you screwed it up.

[Scubar]

Strange i dont see any of that on my Chrome.

[Otis11]

I saw that on my browser too the other day but it didn't really register until this was pointed out.

Personally I dislike the fact that they are making chrome adware, but if they are as minimally intrusive as this one is AND they only occur on the new tab page it's not enough to bother me. Heck, they could probably even push it to a full banner add on the new tab page before I would really bother leaving, but if it starts popping up on other pages, even as small as it is now, I'm gone.

[3NZ0]

A company who's main revenue stream is from advertising puts advertising in their browser!

More on this shocking revelation at 10!

Next up, apple users find themselves in locked into an apple ecosystem! Exclusive uncovered evidence shown!

[Gamekiller]

I've disabled anything that could possibly block this and I'm still not seeing any adds on the new tab page.

[dairyFarmer]

Google Chrome is different from Chromium? No?
My friend has been preaching me this for a while, hes on linux and uses Chromium.

The difference is chromium is open source, and can be compiled? So someone can alter the source code if they dont want XYZ feature (like phoning home big brother style, privacy, "adware"). My understanding is most of these issues are not present in chromium, and are added after the fact by google to Google Chrome.

Even after the fact this seems like a storm in a teacup. I use Google Chrome because i dont care much about my online privacy i.e. I dont have anything much worth keeping secret, and dont mind a few adwords in my gmail etc.

[defect9]

I first read this as "Google Chrome becomes aware"

and then realized firefox wasn't equipped to battle a sentient browser.


yet.

[3NZ0]

Google Chrome is different from Chromium? No?
My friend has been preaching me this for a while, hes on linux and uses Chromium.

The difference is chromium is open source, and can be compiled? So someone can alter the source code if they dont want XYZ feature (like phoning home big brother style, privacy, "adware"). My understanding is most of these issues are not present in chromium, and are added after the fact by google to Google Chrome.

Even after the fact this seems like a storm in a teacup. I use Google Chrome because i dont care much about my online privacy i.e. I dont have anything much worth keeping secret, and dont mind a few adwords in my gmail etc.

Chrome vs Chromium

Chromium is the name given to the open source project and the browser source code released and maintained by the Chromium Project.[7] It is possible to download the source code and build it manually on many platforms. Google takes this source code and adds:

an integrated Flash Player[8]
a built-in sandboxed PDF viewer[9]
the Google name and logo
an auto-updater system called GoogleUpdate
an opt-in option for users to send Google their usage statistics and crash reports
RLZ tracking when Chrome is downloaded as part of marketing promotions and distribution partnerships. This transmits information in encoded form to Google, e.g. when and from where Chrome has been downloaded. In June 2010, Google confirmed that the RLZ tracking token is not present in versions of Chrome downloaded from the Google website directly or in any version of Chromium. The RLZ source code was also made open source at the same time so that developers can confirm what it is and how it works.[10]

By default, Chromium only supports Vorbis, Theora, and WebM codecs for the HTML5 audio and video tags; whereas Google Chrome supports these plus AAC and MP3. On 11 January 2011, the Chrome Product manager, Mike Jazayeri, announced that Chrome will no longer support the H.264 video format for its HTML5 player, equally as Chromium does not.[11] Certain Linux distributions may add support for other codecs to their customized versions of Chromium

[Evantaur]

if firefox wouldn't have stoped to randomly load pages i wouldn't even use chrome now

[Sparky]

I'm not a big Chrome user (I use it as a secondary browser for occasional use), but that "ad" doesn't bother me. A single text line in a new tab that has nothing loaded yet, and that's it? I have no issue with that. Why anyone would is beyond me. I guess some people just like finding things to whine about

if firefox wouldn't have stoped to randomly load pages i wouldn't even use chrome now

I had that problem. Found it was because I was using AVG Free (yeah yeah), even though all the browser plugins were removed it was still causing the problem. I uninstalled AVG and ALL webpage loading issues ceased. I'm running Avast now.

[Otis11]

I'm not a big Chrome user (I use it as a secondary browser for occasional use), but that "ad" doesn't bother me. A single text line in a new tab that has nothing loaded yet, and that's it? I have no issue with that. Why anyone would is beyond me. I guess some people just like finding things to whine about



I had that problem. Found it was because I was using AVG Free (yeah yeah), even though all the browser plugins were removed it was still causing the problem. I uninstalled AVG and ALL webpage loading issues ceased. I'm running Avast now.

I don't think it's a problem with what they have now... as I sure don't. I mean they could put an actual add on the right hand side for all I care (looks cleaner without it but you get my point) the problem is where this leads... if they start doing that on other pages it could obstruct things.

IDK - could be over reacting, but if they did it to see the reaction, might as well give them one.

[celerity]

the ad only showed once for me, no big deal really, it's gone now

[m^2]

@ Chrome vs Chromium

Only Google knows what they add to Chromium.
That's why using Chrome was never an option. And while I am sure that quite a few people look at their hands, the choice of Chromium would be clearly the only feasible one.
And yes, there are some independent devs talking about forking Chromium if it gets ads too.

[XSAlliN]

Kept telling this since 2008... f'it - ignorant people deserved to be abused.

Reminds me of this cartoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVE4w7ukkUA

[p2501]

Get a system or home network wide filtering proxy (Privoxy for example) and you won't see ads (in fact, anything unwanted) anywhere. Problem solved.

[phantomferrari]

Get a system or home network wide filtering proxy (Privoxy for example) and you won't see ads (in fact, anything unwanted) anywhere. Problem solved.

you could also use adblock plus and ghostery chrome extensions. in ghostery's options enable "bug" blocking

[Philip_J_Fry]

this is news? google already spying on everyone from cookies, search results, mail content ads... etc. 1984 on steroid is where we are heading

[n00b 0f l337]

Did anyone else read the article?
They're complaining about the Chromebooks tab at the top of the browser. You know, that thing that Google just launched and wants to sell. Thats partnered to chrome.

It's not an ad for something not google. They have every right to put it there. And it hardly counts as adware.

[m^2]

Get a system or home network wide filtering proxy (Privoxy for example) and you won't see ads (in fact, anything unwanted) anywhere. Problem solved.

Sadly, ads business is getting increasingly sophisticated and I'm seeing a growing number of adds well embedded into websites, so even with dedicated Greasemonkey scripts it's hard to remove them.

It's not an ad for something not google. They have every right to put it there.

Nobody claimed otherwise.

And it hardly counts as adware.

But here I totally disagree. For me when software displays ads to me, it's adware, plain and simple.
Wikipedia seems to agree:

Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. These advertisements can be in the form of a pop-up.[1] They may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during the installation process.

[n00b 0f l337]

It is not a software package though.

[N19h7m4r3]

you could also use adblock plus and ghostery chrome extensions. in ghostery's options enable "bug" blocking

Don't for get adblock for Safari

There's a few handy cleaning extensions out there.

Also Chrome with adds, well that's not really use haha.

I find it funny when you're on some sights and they have a banner asking for you to turn off adblocking software. NO.
I want to use a sight and see video without all that rubbish in the way.