Google Is Removing the Desktop Notification Center From Chrome (chromium.org)

An anonymous reader writes: Google today announced it is removing the notification center from Chrome for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The reason the company is giving for the change is simple: "In practice, few users visit the notification center." The notification center in Chrome OS will remain. Google said this change will take effect for Windows, Mac, and Linux users "in the upcoming release." To be clear, this is not in reference to yesterday's Chrome 46 launch — the notification center is still there. We thus expect that the notification center will thus be removed in Chrome 47, which is slated to arrive in about six weeks.

Comments

Who used it?

[gstoddart]

Why would I want my web browser to give me desktop notifications? Why the hell would I want a website to give me push notifications even if my browser is closed?

Somehow apparently Google decided what users really wanted was an annoying and intrusive browser, when nothing could be further from the truth.

Definitely a feature which needed to be disabled as soon as it was discovered.

Re:Who used it?

[tripleevenfall]

I've been looking for something like the notification center ever since I lost my Bonzi Buddy :(

Re:Who used it?

[gstoddart]

Keep in mind that they are using it to push chrome apps as desktop apps

Yeah, not bloody interested.

It's a web browser. It needs to stay as a web browser. Don't try to integrate with my desktop. Don't create new vectors for shitware to get inroads into my OS. Show me a damned web page, and then STFU.

Stop trying to make the #*()%^$&*( web browser part of my desktop. It doesn't belong there, and I'm not interested in it.

It's "innovative" stuff like this which turns into security holes.

Re:Who used it?

[jedidiah]

> Why would I want my web browser to give me desktop notifications? Why the hell would I want a website to give me push notifications even if my browser is closed?

web applications.

The same reason for a normal application. You might not have your eyes glued on it 24/7 and you might want some indication that you need to go look at it again.

Re:Who used it?

[grimmjeeper]

But how are they going to monetize all of the revenue streams if they can't push a bunch of crap on you that you don't want?

Re:Who used it?

[hawguy]

Why would I want my web browser to give me desktop notifications? Why the hell would I want a website to give me push notifications even if my browser is closed?

Somehow apparently Google decided what users really wanted was an annoying and intrusive browser, when nothing could be further from the truth.

Definitely a feature which needed to be disabled as soon as it was discovered.

Because you get your emails, calendar appointments, and chat messages in your web browser?

Re:Who used it?

[grimmjeeper]

So leave the tab open.

Already gone in Dev channel

[The MAZZTer]

It's annoying because it FEELS like a bug. There's no way to view Google Now cards, or to access the "clear all" button, or the "do not disturb" functionality.

I'm using Google Chrome now

[I'm New Around Here]

I have no idea what the Desktop Notification Center is, or how to find it. I even followed a couple links in that post, and still have no idea how to access it. One link says to pull it up from the System Tray, but I have no Google icon there.

I can see why they are disabling the feature. No one knows about it.

Re:I'm using Google Chrome now

[gstoddart]

Settings > Show Advanced Settings > Privacy > Content Settings > Notifications.

Pretty much I went through that whole Content Settings section and selected "oh hell no" on day one of having Chrome.

Let a web page give push notifications to my desktop? No, hell no, oh god no, please fuck off and go away no. Just no.

I just want a damned web browser. That's it.

Re:I'm using Google Chrome now

[Carewolf]

Settings > Show Advanced Settings > Privacy > Content Settings > Notifications.

Pretty much I went through that whole Content Settings section and selected "oh hell no" on day one of having Chrome.

Let a web page give push notifications to my desktop? No, hell no, oh god no, please fuck off and go away no.

It requires explicit persmission from the user before sending any, and is useful if you are using webmail, web-based calender or a web-based chat/conference solution. For ChromeOS it makes sense because everything there is a web-app, so it is the way to make notifications.

Re:I'm using Google Chrome now

[fahrbot-bot]

Let a web page give push notifications to my desktop? No, hell no, oh god no, please fuck off and go away no. Just no.

I just want a damned web browser. That's it.

Anyway we can get Mozilla to create survey pages for the various "features" they're cramming into Firefox with multiple choice options like that? Because, I'd like to have just a damned web browser too...

• Yes
• No
• Hell No
• Oh God No.
• Please fuck off and go away.

Good

[sexconker]

The "notifications center" is the fucking shit that lives in the system tray 24/7 and spams you when shittysite.com wants to send you a notification, even after you've closed the tab. Websites pushing notifications that you didn't send a GET request for is an absolutely horrid idea, and I hope this is an indication that Google is giving up on it.

Re:Good

[war4peace]

I have it, never got shitty notifications, only buggy ones.
Somehow Google got this Google Maps weird setting in its head and notifies me on a daily basis about how congested the route from home to work is. Now, it would be a nice thing to have, except:
1. I have no idea how it got enabled;
2. It notifies me at 8 AM but my shift starts at 5 PM.
3. I have no idea how to edit or disable it.

The technology has potential, if implemented correctly. IMO its implementation was a fucking catastrophe.

Pushbullet

[craters]

How will this affect Pushbullet (https://www.pushbullet.com/)? I've come to rely on that a lot. I believe it uses Chrome notifications.

W3C Push API

[Njovich]

This is mostly a change in API, Google is now pushing for the W3C Push API to become the standard for web push notifications. This (amongst other things) allows developers to use the same much more commonly used push code used for Android notifications (Google Cloud Messaging) to send messages to web browsers. As Google is trying to push this API, having it's own internal (and hardly used) competitor doesn't make sense.

Re:W3C Push API

[Njovich]

Yes, if you follow the docs it's not really hard but feels like a mess... There is no way to send any payload or data with the message, they use registration id's which are depricated in real GCM, the service-worker and manifest seem overkill just to receive a message, and you need HTTPS for the service-worker (which is fine for production, but a bit of a pain for development). Hopefully they will improve things in the coming times.

Re:Desktop Notification?

[ZipK]

What spy features?

Cyanide cigarette, tape recorder camera, dagger shoe, garrote watch, underwater jet pack, oil slick tail pipe.

Doesn't Affect Web Notifications

[Scorpinox]

Note that the chrome rich notification center is different from the standardized Web Notifications API https://developer.mozilla.org/...

This story kind of freaked me out at first because I thought it was referring to that Web Notifications API, which I rely on heavily for web based chat and email apps.

Re: Desktop Notification?

[Anonymous Coward]

How about the one that told them that nobody was using it

Beware of Leopard

[Overzeetop]

"It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”"

The switch to turn it on was only five layers deep?
It amazing it wasn't adopted more universally with how obvious it was. If they wanted it to be used they should have only included it as an undocumented registry key hack. Then everyone would want it and there'd be dozens of site showing you how to enable it.