I find it super wild to see Googlers celebrate Chrome’s 15th birthday and bragging their part in it RIGHT after they tricked their users into the creepiest ad tracking platform with the darkest of dark patterns. I would be ashamed to be part of that. Personal values and integrity are liabilities.
@hynek I work at Google but I had nothing to do with chrome, but I still think it's appropriate to be proud of having played any significant part of building Chrome. For all its flaws, it is a major accomplishment and a consistently high quality product that has done a lot for the web in its time.
Not that I want to do anything to stop people from adopting Firefox, I use it and really dislike the chrome monoculture out there, but I think Chrome engineers deserve to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment despite the latest changes that I may disagree with.
@tymwol @hynek No, that is not what I'm saying. I'm not saying, "Hey, this privacy violating machine is a dystopian nightmare, but man is it efficient!"
I'm saying that Chrome is on balance an excellent example of a genuinely useful technology, and has almost certainly made most of our lives much better, even if we don't use it directly. The chrome team has had some missteps and the monoculture is not great, but they obviously have a genuine commitment to excellence and security.
@pganssle They can feel whatever they want, but weeks after sneaking in Topics API using shitty dark patterns is not the time for public victory laps.
@pganssle @hynek It's the “guns don't kill people” argument. The gun is also a technological achievement.