Google Starts Blocking Extensions Not In the Chrome Web Store

An anonymous reader writes "Google has begun blocking local Chrome extensions to protect Windows users. This means that as of today, extensions can be installed in Chrome for Windows only if they're hosted on the Chrome Web Store. Furthermore, Google says extensions that were previously installed 'may be automatically disabled and cannot be re-enabled or re-installed until they're hosted in the Chrome Web Store.' The company didn't specify what exactly qualifies the "may" clause, though we expect it may make exceptions for certain popular extensions for a limited time. Google is asking developers to reach out to it if they run into problems or if they 'think an extension was disabled incorrectly.'"

Comments

Welcome to your new walled garden

[TubeSteak]

It's only going to get worse as more and more "platforms" get tied to some company curated web store.
No thanks!

Re:Welcome to your new walled garden

[pitchpipe]

It's only going to get worse as more and more "platforms" get tied to some company curated web store.

HA! Pretty soon they'll have your desktop acting just like a smart phone: no privacy what-so-ever with every app knowing when you take a shit to when your SO is ovulating.

No fucking thanks indeed!

Re:Welcome to your new walled garden

[TubeSteak]

Chromium is open source so if you don't like it, fork you own copy and get whatever useless toolbars that install without permission that you want.

You let me know when Chromium gets bundled with Android cell phones or Chromebook laptops.

Re:Welcome to your new walled garden

[swillden]

Chromium is open source so if you don't like it, fork you own copy and get whatever useless toolbars that install without permission that you want.

You let me know when Chromium gets bundled with Android cell phones or Chromebook laptops.

Nicely done... you slipped that word "bundled" in there, because obviously that's not going to happen; Google will provide the normal Chrome builds. Users that want to can install Chromium themselves, of course, and in fact Google even provides instructions on how to do it, as well as all of the source code.

And you also slyly ignored the fact that the just-announced news doesn't affect Android or Chromebook, only Windows. Maybe Chrome for Android will eventually get the same policy, but it's likely that the superior security architecture of ChromeOS will make it unnecessary on Chromebooks.

Re: Welcome to your new walled garden

[Anonymous Coward]

I should not use windows to avoid google's bullshit? How about I stop using chrome until they turn it back into a browser?

Re:yeah whatever

[_xeno_]

Also to get rid of troublesome extensions like Adblock Plus. I seem to recall Google kicking Adblock Plus from the Google Play store, which while not the same thing as the Chrome Web Store, does seem a bit worrying.

Granted the reasoning used in that case (it "interfered with the operation of other apps") likely wouldn't apply to Chrome but it's the primary reason I want to be able to install extensions from non-Google "blessed" sources: I don't trust Google not to be evil.

Data loss due to accidental navigation

[tepples]

So how do I unambiguously indicate to a web browser that I want to delete only one character from a text area, not have the entire message be destroyed because I accidentally navigated away from the page?

Re:Data loss due to accidental navigation

[scottbomb]

Use Firefox. They have the same idiocy (mapping back to backspace - which I can't stand either) but at least you can turn it off. Almost nothing in Chrome is customizable. Why it has such a large following is beyong me.

Re:This is not new news.

[TheGratefulNet]

this time.

its not the step that's the problem; its the journey.

you google fans; you really can't see where the end journey is headed? no one knows where it will end, but you can, at least, see the *direction* its going, yeah? how can that not bother you?