Google Chrome Receives Heavy Criticism in Germany

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-07-n33.html

by nickb • 18 years ago

26 25 18 years ago

irrelative2• 18 years ago

The thing I find most interesting about journalistic coverage of Chrome is that they haven't brought up the elephant in the room: Chrome will not and will never have an (official) ad blocker.

Sure, Google also wants to have a stable client side for their javascript-based software, but the reality is that those programs don't make them the kind of money that search advertisement does. With Microsoft controlling the browser, they could conceivably release an ad blocker in IE8 and turn it on by default. Google would be in serious trouble very fast.

I'm not trying to say that this will happen, just that Google's being smart and mitigating risk. Until they start making serious money from their office applications, however, creating their own browser seems to me to be a defensive move, not an offensive one.

snprbob862• 18 years ago

Microsoft is trying to build a large ad business also. Why would they release an ad blocker?

I doubt we will ever see an ad blocker from any commercial entity. Unless, of course, ad blocking is the only motivator behind the entire business. Somehow, I don't really expect that either. Consumers of ad blocking software probably wouldn't be the kind of people who pay for things like that :-)

incomethax• 18 years ago

The fact that they are trying to build an ad business can be countered with the fact that they have not yet built an ad business _successfully_.

As such they don't really lose anything by taking away Google's core business in the form of an ad blocker. Microsoft has always been very worried about Google, and Balmer has compared Microsoft and Google as rivals in the software industry. If Microsoft can leverage their control over browsers in IE8 with an ad blocker, then they can potentially take a large chunk out of Google's bottom line, and make Google a much weaker 'rival'.

volida• 18 years ago

is it even legal to create an ad blocker or use one?

assuming it's altering the content of the site it's directly violating the copyright of the site.

attack• 18 years ago

Never? It's open source. I'll give it a month.

irrelative2• 18 years ago

Ok, putting it in my calendar :)

mccutchen• 18 years ago

> Chrome will not and will never have an (official) ad blocker.

Pardon my ignorance, but what web browsers actually have "official" ad blockers?

> With Microsoft controlling the browser, they could conceivably release an ad blocker in IE8 and turn it on by default.

Robert X. Cringely? Is that you? (http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080905_0054...)

axod6• 18 years ago

Most people don't care. Most people see adverts as a good way to keep the internet free.

It's only a very small proportion of people who like to block adverts and leech pages.

"With Microsoft controlling the browser, they could conceivably release an ad blocker in IE8 and turn it on by default. Google would be in serious trouble very fast."

Any ad blocker is at best maybe 50% effective. Most ads get through. You just don't realize they are ads.

It might take google... an hour at most to get past the ad blocker if ms did such a thing.

Jem5• 18 years ago

> It's only a very small proportion of people who like to block adverts and leech pages.

If you want to talk about leeching, why not address the issue of massive flash and image based adverts that suck-up the bandwidth of those on limited/capped connections? Is that not leeching?

toki• 18 years ago

I am from germany. You shouldnt overestimate the warning. Some background information:

1. You have to know the context: The situation is very special in germany at the moment. Here is a big discussion about privacy and data security. There was a big scandal some weeks ago because a call center company sold some data from its customers and other companys abused these informations. Somehow the politicians and goverment agencys have a "bad conscience" now.

2. Im a lawyer and i think if the warning is really an official warning it is rather problematic (for the goverment agency, not for google). But one has to know that in germany some ministries understand themselves somehow as consumer protection agencies. It is a little bit different than in other countries i guess.

3. The warning is more directed to people who dont know much about the internet: mums and dads and aol-users and so on. The goverment agency didnt tell them anything different then that what every reader of this page here already knows.

ken• 18 years ago

> Furthermore it was said to be risky that user data is hoarded with a single vendor. With its search engine, email program and the new browser, Google now covers all important areas on the internet.

Good thing no other company offers this trifecta. Or if they do, they must be really small, for the German government not to have heard of them.

Google Chrome Receives Heavy Criticism in Germany

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