Chrome Displaying Advertisements On Dashboard Page | Hacker News Reader

Chrome Displaying Advertisements On Dashboard Page

timflores.com

46 pointstea-flow47 comments

I for one am not too happy about this. What do you think HN?

Was that linked to Google's Chromebook site, or a third party manufacturer?

A single link to a product being designed by Google, when the product in question (a Chromebook) uses the same product (Chrome) as it's primary interface is hardly 'ZOMG! Chrome is running the ads now!!!'.

It's directly related to Chrome and Google is simply saying 'here's another way you can experience the browser you're already using that we came up with'.

http://media.tumblr.com/6d048ed2fd812e7352e7b07a8c959e80/tum... Look at it again and tell me how many "links" to Google services and products do you see?

Those are Chrome apps. The ad is above the icons.

Those are Chrome apps. The ad is above the icons. I had the same ad on my Chrome 'new tab' screen.

Yeah, but they are GOOGLE Apps for Chrome. Others have Chrome apps too, no?

They are apps he has installed. You don't call the Internet Explorer icon on Windows an "advertisement" do you?

Yeah, like Amazon, Mint, Tumblr or Wikipedia!

People use a free browser developed by a company driven by advertising revenue, and get shocked, shocked, at advertising being involved!

In other news, alternatives exist and work very well if it bothers you.

They did this before. One article from 2011: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57331212-264/googles-new-a...

Yes, this is nothing new. Surprised people never saw it before in fact.

Also surprised people didn't expect this. Like any company, Google ties its products together and promotes one on the other. As another example, some google websites will recommend using chrome.

Also annoying: the "you're missing out! -- sign in" appeal to associate your browser with .. what exactly? On Ubunutu, it's suggesting that I sign in to Chromium.

When you use a non-Chrome browser and use Google websites you get the "for a faster web" in all variations with a chrome download button.

Relatively annoying over time ;-)

It's the sort of thing that backfires and is actively off-putting. At least for me.

Synced autocomplete data is pretty sweet.

This is part of the reason I made https://starthq.com - a new tab replacement service.

Damnit. Nice, I was working on something similar. ;)

Want to help out? :)

Sure! Email's in the profile as I don't do the twitter. ;)

Couldn't find the email in your profile. Drop me a line at oleg at starthq com.

Nice idea! I guess it works on any browser?

All desktop browsers (IE8 +) and iPads, mobile phone support is in the works.

26.0.1410.3 dev-m -- no ads. 26.0.1411.0 canary -- no ads.

What version of Chrome is this?

I have them in this version 25.0.1364.45 beta

You're free to use a different homepage or override the dashboard (new tab) page.

http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/override.html

Awesome New Tab Page is a sweet one, with a programmable widget system anyone can add to. (I guess Google will do something similar and official at some point.)

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/awesome-new-tab-pa...

I just use the "empty new tab page" extension.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/empty-new-tab-page...

chrome is a free browser last time i checked it's fair if they advertise some products of them.

Because the billions they make from search aren't enough. Of course they are free to do whatever they want, and you are even allowed to hide those ads (or use open source version), but I think there's a limit where it will get too much.

If it bundles in advertising then is it really free? Consider how much money is spent on ads - they clearly have an effect, and given the obscene amounts of money spent, probably not a small one.

So what is the impact of advertising? We buy more things because someone has convinced us that we need them, become more likely to get into debt and save less as a result. I cannot consider this to be free in good conscience. I'm not the only one who sees it this way either -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/feb/14/ban-advertising-...

I use speed dial 2. works like a charm.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/speed-dial-2/jpfpe...

I'm working on a similar extension that stores your settings on a server (see my other comment to this post) and was wondering: what are the main Spped Dial 2 features that you use?

The homepage. With the links. Mostly that, in plain, no groups or nothing. Sometimes I like to fiddle with the background and some settings but 99% of my usage consists of that. I watched the statistics page once when I found it. I even disabled the sidebar because it was annoying. I really liked Opera and it remembers it a lot. If you can come up with something similar give me a shot I will gladly try it.

If they are using it to advertise to you, then it isn't "free" in my book.

Open source shouldn't be considered free either. People put in countless man hours working on open source projects, and giving something back in return should be common etiquette.

My point is, you always pay for something. In the case of Chrome, surely you don't believe that Google has no self-interest in building Chrome?

> Open source shouldn't be considered free either. People put in countless man hours working on open source projects, and giving something back in return should be common etiquette.

I have an open source project. I don't advertise on it. I give it away freely and happily, knowing I gain no revenue from it.

> My point is, you always pay for something. In the case of Chrome, surely you don't believe that Google has no self-interest in building Chrome?

It's clear that they have a self interest.

Though by that measure, HN isn't "free."

HN is a website. Chrome is a browser. Not sure I get the comparison?

What's wrong with the comparison?

Both are services (Chrome's a lot more than use an executable, does sync'd data, etc), that you don't exchange money with in return for functionality.

A web browser allows access to all websites (broad reach). HN is just one website on the web (narrow reach). Pretty clear to me why this is a bad comparison, just interested to know why the OP thought otherwise.

I don't see what reach has to do with making HN "free" and Chrome "not free" if they both use space in their interfaces to deliver advertisements. Arguably, Chrome would be more "free" since HN displays its advertisements more prominently than Chrome's and they masquerade as user-generated content. Is there more to your metric?

I never claimed that HN was free. I simply said that comparing it to Chrome was invalid.

Sorry, I should have read the parent post more carefully. However, I still think that's it's valid to compare Chrome and HN strictly on "freeness" regardless of whether or not they're the same kind of product.

We're talking about advertisements and the advertisement's only one one page. The scope of the actual advertisement is roughly the same as it is on HN. The fact that an advertisement in the default tab of a browser is likely to have more viewers is irrelevant.

They're both communication tools.

This is why I use Chromium and not Chrome.

Google is desperate for revenue, their PE is 25+, Apple and MSFT have it 10 or so. Their stock will drop in half if growth isn't there. Every search page with commercial interest is already pay-to-play, some openly, others obvious enough for anyone.

What's next for that 30% growth Larry wants? What other service is he going to ruin for short term profits? At their valuation it becomes harder and harder to beat the previous year's earnings.

Google has done a lot of sleazy and illegal things for revenue so spare me the outrage

Illegal things?

Yeah, it was all over WSJ a while back. Something to do with adwords and advertising for illegal drugs, hormones or something. Top execs knew but Google paid a fine and they escaped.

Google's default new-tab page has always seemed "salesy" to me.

I use Speed Dial 2 as my new-tab page, so I didn't even see this.

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