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Few month ago we developed and launched an AI-based AdBlocker (called AdFilter) and also had several problems with Google Chrome Web Store. Almost every week th

Few month ago we developed and launched an AI-based AdBlocker (called AdFilter) and also had several problems with Google Chrome Web Store. Almost every week they had a "strange reason" to remove our extension from the Google Chrome Web Store. We had more than 380,000 DAU (Daily Active Users) from 36 countries with all good feedbacks on Google Chrome Web Store, but even so, Google always tried to find a way to get us delisted and sometimes removed... they called it "an automated review process that is not performed by humans". Every time this happened we need to send several messages to all available email address to get our extension approved and listed again in 24-48 hours. After facing this kind of situation more than 12 times, we simply gave up and remembered that it's not worth trying to build a business (or App) on top 3rd party company, like Google or FB.

losteric 10y ago
It's possible to install Chrome extensions outside of the store: https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/Install-AdNauseam-on-Chrome-Without-Google's-Permission https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/Install-AdNauseam-on...
- diggan 10y ago
  > Earlier this week, on Jan 1st 2017, we were informed by our users that Google had banned AdNauseam from its Chrome Web Store. We’ve since learned that Google now also disallows users from manually installing and updating AdNauseam, thus locking users out of their own saved data, all with no prior notice or warning.
  - losteric 10y ago
    I'm not sure why you're quoting that? I literally just installed the plugin. Google has blocked installing AdNauseam from the Chrome store and installing the .crx file manually. Manually installing the developer package is completely unhampered.
    - snowwolf 10y ago
      Restart your browser and you will see the extension is no longer installed. This is deliberate on the part of Chrome (Firefox does this too) - It is to prevent malicious extensions from using the developer mode as a backdoor to install themselves. On each restart, you will need to re-add the extension from source.
      - Fnoord 10y ago
        I've been needing to do this with the LastPass Chrome extension as well. It is rather annoying, but if you just keep the browser running it is bearable. I'll slowly switch back to Firefox though. They are adding sandboxing and swapping Gecko to a Rust-based engine. We'll see about the performance. Bottomline is, I'm done with being overly reliable on Google.
      - losteric 10y ago
        Oh, I didn't know that. I restart Chrome less than once a month :)
hedora 10y ago
I'm surprised people still use Chrome and not Chromium. Perhaps a few devs in your situation could improve the Chromium installation flow for Windows, etc. Google doesn't have much incentive to make it easy, but third parties (like Debian) do, and do a lot of the heavy lifting on an ongoing basis.
- andylei 10y ago
  why are you surprised? most people don't care about stuff like this. most people don't use ad nauseum. most people don't even use ad block.
- recursive 10y ago
  I can't even figure out how to install a stable version of Chromium. I only spent two minutes trying, but installing Chrome consists of one web search and one button click, so the difference is pretty obvious to me.
  - cdubzzz 10y ago
    I thought for sure this was an exaggeration but you are absolutely correct. I couldn't find anything in two minutes either. I have Chromium installed on a my Ubuntu desktop but I think I had to add a PPA to get it.
    - yellowapple 10y ago
      No PPA necessary: http://packages.ubuntu.com/yakkety/web/chromium-browser http://packages.ubuntu.com/yakkety/web/chromium-browser Most of the more-or-less mainstream distros ship Chromium in their standard repos. In fact, they're more likely to ship Chromium than Chrome due to the fact that the former is FOSS and the latter is not. Neither macOS nor Windows have such a philosophy of "prioritize the FOSS alternative", so Chrome is unsurprisingly the better-supported option there.
      - saghm 10y ago
        > Most of the more-or-less mainstream distros ship Chromium in their standard repos. In fact, they're more likely to ship Chromium than Chrome due to the fact that the former is FOSS and the latter is not. That's actually how I first started using Chromium early in my Linux days; I didn't really know the difference between Chrome and Chromium, so I just picked the one that was easier to install. Once I finally learned the difference, I consciously made the choice to use Chromium on all of my systems, even the non-Linux ones.
arcticfox 10y ago
Meanwhile, there are blatantly illegal things on the Android app store with no touch at all from Google. (For example this Age of Empires "clone" https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squid.ageofemperos&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squid.ageo...) Priorities clearly higher in killing ad blockers.
- jonas21 10y ago
  How is the game you linked to "blatantly illegal"? Edit: I'm genuinely curious -- did they copy the actual assets from the original game, or did they just copy the style and gameplay (which would generally be legal).
  - Certary 10y ago
    Screenshots, graphical assets and soundtracks / - effects are one to one copies.
  - arcticfox 10y ago
    Sorry for the delayed response, but yes, they copied the original assets.

losteric 10y ago

It's possible to install Chrome extensions outside of the store: https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/Install-AdNauseam-on-Chrome-Without-Google's-Permission https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/Install-AdNauseam-on...

diggan 10y ago
> Earlier this week, on Jan 1st 2017, we were informed by our users that Google had banned AdNauseam from its Chrome Web Store. We’ve since learned that Google now also disallows users from manually installing and updating AdNauseam, thus locking users out of their own saved data, all with no prior notice or warning.
- losteric 10y ago
  I'm not sure why you're quoting that? I literally just installed the plugin. Google has blocked installing AdNauseam from the Chrome store and installing the .crx file manually. Manually installing the developer package is completely unhampered.
  - snowwolf 10y ago
    Restart your browser and you will see the extension is no longer installed. This is deliberate on the part of Chrome (Firefox does this too) - It is to prevent malicious extensions from using the developer mode as a backdoor to install themselves. On each restart, you will need to re-add the extension from source.
    - Fnoord 10y ago
      I've been needing to do this with the LastPass Chrome extension as well. It is rather annoying, but if you just keep the browser running it is bearable. I'll slowly switch back to Firefox though. They are adding sandboxing and swapping Gecko to a Rust-based engine. We'll see about the performance. Bottomline is, I'm done with being overly reliable on Google.
    - losteric 10y ago
      Oh, I didn't know that. I restart Chrome less than once a month :)

hedora 10y ago

I'm surprised people still use Chrome and not Chromium. Perhaps a few devs in your situation could improve the Chromium installation flow for Windows, etc. Google doesn't have much incentive to make it easy, but third parties (like Debian) do, and do a lot of the heavy lifting on an ongoing basis.

andylei 10y ago
why are you surprised? most people don't care about stuff like this. most people don't use ad nauseum. most people don't even use ad block.
recursive 10y ago
I can't even figure out how to install a stable version of Chromium. I only spent two minutes trying, but installing Chrome consists of one web search and one button click, so the difference is pretty obvious to me.
- cdubzzz 10y ago
  I thought for sure this was an exaggeration but you are absolutely correct. I couldn't find anything in two minutes either. I have Chromium installed on a my Ubuntu desktop but I think I had to add a PPA to get it.
  - yellowapple 10y ago
    No PPA necessary: http://packages.ubuntu.com/yakkety/web/chromium-browser http://packages.ubuntu.com/yakkety/web/chromium-browser Most of the more-or-less mainstream distros ship Chromium in their standard repos. In fact, they're more likely to ship Chromium than Chrome due to the fact that the former is FOSS and the latter is not. Neither macOS nor Windows have such a philosophy of "prioritize the FOSS alternative", so Chrome is unsurprisingly the better-supported option there.
    - saghm 10y ago
      > Most of the more-or-less mainstream distros ship Chromium in their standard repos. In fact, they're more likely to ship Chromium than Chrome due to the fact that the former is FOSS and the latter is not. That's actually how I first started using Chromium early in my Linux days; I didn't really know the difference between Chrome and Chromium, so I just picked the one that was easier to install. Once I finally learned the difference, I consciously made the choice to use Chromium on all of my systems, even the non-Linux ones.

arcticfox 10y ago

Meanwhile, there are blatantly illegal things on the Android app store with no touch at all from Google. (For example this Age of Empires "clone" https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squid.ageofemperos&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squid.ageo...) Priorities clearly higher in killing ad blockers.

jonas21 10y ago
How is the game you linked to "blatantly illegal"? Edit: I'm genuinely curious -- did they copy the actual assets from the original game, or did they just copy the style and gameplay (which would generally be legal).
- Certary 10y ago
  Screenshots, graphical assets and soundtracks / - effects are one to one copies.
- arcticfox 10y ago
  Sorry for the delayed response, but yes, they copied the original assets.