If you want to participate in the discussion about this feature, you can go ahead and comment on it in the tracking issue over at [0]. Oh wait, you cannot - it's set to private. It's almost as if Google didn't want any input from the community about Chromium, the open source project. Weird.
More seriously though, it seems the feature calls [1] to get the list of products to show on the new page. The call is made every time the new page is opened as long as Google is your search provider and the user is signed in (not sure if to the browser or Google services).
Why do people jump to replace safari on their laptops, and even their iPhones (often with chrome)?
Even before I became aware, and strongly opposed to Google's advertising and privacy practices, I had been a Chrome user. I was on a long road trip and was frantically trying to solve a P1 for my company. My new laptop battery was was chunking downward at a staggering rate and I felt like I was trying to diffuse a bomb. I dug into the energy metrics and found that the culprit was, by and large, Chrome. Switching to Safari has made a huge improvement for me and I actually don't remember now why I was using chrome in the first place.
Firefox and brave are excellent too, though they aren't default in the Apple ecosystem. I just don't understand why the draw to chrome and why it still commands such a large market share.
I’m an avid safari user on iOS and Mac, and I suspect I’ll be an avid Edge user on Microsoft now that it’s basically a better chrome.
I can see why people would want to switch it up. Especially if you use different operating systems, and want to synchronise your browser experience between them. Not having things synced has actually been a major advantage for me, as I use my phone and Mac very differently than I use my windows devices, but I can see why you wouldn’t want to run safari on Windows/Linux.
Hell, these days I gotta say that I can see why you wouldn’t want to run Safari at all. It’s terrible at Disney plus, and others, and while that may be a Disney plus and others problem, that’s still technology that doesn’t work right out the box like it’s supposed to.
I do think the fact that the new Edge is so good is going to eat into Google’s market. Exactly because of people like you and me who aren’t going to bother unless we have to.
>Why do people jump to replace safari on their laptops, and even their iPhones (often with chrome)?
totally unsupported conjecture: because to non-technical people, chrome is "the internet". It also didn't hurt that it was evangelized by many of their technical friends/family members/coworkers for being "the best", and that google bugged you to install it on many of their sites.
I use Safari and Firefox nearly exclusively. There is the odd page I use chrome for due to compatibility issues, but for the most part I really prefer the former two. I, on a daily basis, have 4-7 Safari windows (work and new home-hunting) with tabs open all over the place as well as a Firefox full screen with another series of tabs (personal tasks). Never any problems.
I think the fact that Google advertises the Chrome browser on all their major services plays a part in its adoption.
Funny enough, when I sometimes go to the google search page in Firefox, a pop up appears saying I should switch to Chrome because it saves battery life
For those who are required (or prefer) to use a Chromium-based browser, you might want to give ungoogled-chromium [0] a shot.
I switched recently based on a recommendation from a HN reader, and so far it has been a surprisingly seamless transition. I have yet to encounter any issues aside from being unable to install extensions directly from the Chrome Web Store, which was easily remedied by first installing the chromium-web-store extension [1].
My biggest gripe is that there are no 'official' binaries, so you'd either have to build your own or trust the user-submitted builds, though apparently the project owner is currently working on setting up an official build server [2].
> Google clarified these are not “ads.” The company points out that they only source free shopping listings for this widget and that the content is not sponsored.
I'm not sure I understand how these aren't ads? In any case, is this something that literally anyone asked for?
The title in the screenshot says “Continue search for Office Chairs,” which sounds like it shows recent Google searches that have significant presence in the “Shopping” tab of google.com. Sure these aren’t “ads,” like the article says, but if they are links to Google Shopping then they indirectly generate revenue for Google by sending you back to google.com.
> is this something that literally anyone asked for
Google executives probably. This is what you get when you hand control of the entire web platform over to an ad company. And the only way to stop it is to depose Chrome as the dominant platform.
And no, that does not mean switch to Brave or Edge. Chrome forks by and large fall in line with Chrome's choices. Firefox or Safari are the only choices.
Yeah. This doesn't seem like something that users would actually want, so there has to be a financial incentive for Google to do it. Perhaps they start off as "not ads" in order to minimise complaints about the feature, but intend to gradually allow companies to e.g. pay for prime spot.
For the average person, the definition of an "ad" isn't contingent on whether or not Google is getting paid for it. For the average person, a promotional 3rd-party text that is trying to get them to buy an office chair is an ad.
It's like Google claiming that if they give you free credits for adwords that it suddenly stops counting as an ad. Users don't care.
These aren’t ads in that they directly profit Google’s baseline just by displaying them. Google profits from increased ad-spend on search result sites that those things link to. If however you think every product mention is an ad, of course these are ads.
Either way, these things shouldn’t happen. Browsers should enable everyone to use the web.
Not a solution for most people, but if you didn't know, it's very easy to replace the new tab page with a custom one using a minimal, local extension. In your manifest.json include
"chrome_url_overrides": { "newtab": "ntp.html" }
and if you want it to work in incognito tabs
"incognito": "split"
(you will also need to go to your extensions's detail page and flip on "Allow in incognito").
Then create your ntp.html page (can be named whatever, just change the json to match), with CSS file(s) and image(s) as needed. I made a simple flexbox "speed dial" page with sites I specify rather than changing based on some kind of "frecency".
In chrome://extensions/, flip the "Developer mode" switch and then click "Load unpacked" and choose your extension's folder.
I wonder if one can rely on this working forever. I might have a product idea that relies on being able to change the new tab page, but I am kind of afraid Chrome forbids it one of these days.
I mean, Google's a business and Chrome is free so I'm not exactly surprised.
But I've used the "Empty New Tab Page" for I guess something like 7 years [1]. I don't like seeing any junk on a new tab page, I don't care if it's shopping or not.
Now if they take away the ability to customize the new tab page, then I'd be bothered...
It's not the case for Google, obviously, but sticking random adverts in prominent places in a desperate attempt to increase revenue is the sort of thing web businesses do immediately before they go bust, and this has exactly the same optics to me.
Weirdly enough, this actually corresponds to my habits, if I understand the workings right. I tend to open a dozen tabs when looking for a product, with different models, reviews, and second-hand prices. Then I get tired of sitting down, go do something else, do work, get sidetracked into researching other things, and when I get back to the topic of the product I have fifty more tabs and it's time to nuke the whole mess. To start anew, I would again go to those listings on local analogues of Google Product Search/Amazon and Craigslist, so I guess linking to them would sorta help.
Just use youtube-dl (it still works and will be forked) to suck the content you want out of Youtube. Use Tor Browser to screw Google out of your precious precious data as well.
Google's continued meddling with adding useless content on the new tab page is what pushed me to Chromium Edge. (The weird little news snippets on the bottom with no way to disable them was the first of these poorly-conceived experiments.)
Edge has a ton of awful content on its new tab page too, but there's an option to turn it off which makes all the difference.
Google owns Chrome and always have, and they're an advertising mill. What did you people expect? This may be one of the least worst things that Google has done to Chrome.
I was going to recommend Netvibes as a viable iGoogle alternative, but it seems that it has become quite "enterprisey". I, too, miss iGoogle (which ironically would be much better suited for ads like these).
I'm still using IceCat, I will continue to do so. Chrome's ugly, something about the font rendering and smooth scrolling is really off-putting, plus I just know everything I do is being reported to the Google mothership.
[+] [-] frankjr|5 years ago|reply
More seriously though, it seems the feature calls [1] to get the list of products to show on the new page. The call is made every time the new page is opened as long as Google is your search provider and the user is signed in (not sure if to the browser or Google services).
[0] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=113085...
[1] https://www.google.com/async/newtab_shopping_tasks
[+] [-] po1nter|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Hippocrates|5 years ago|reply
Why do people jump to replace safari on their laptops, and even their iPhones (often with chrome)?
Even before I became aware, and strongly opposed to Google's advertising and privacy practices, I had been a Chrome user. I was on a long road trip and was frantically trying to solve a P1 for my company. My new laptop battery was was chunking downward at a staggering rate and I felt like I was trying to diffuse a bomb. I dug into the energy metrics and found that the culprit was, by and large, Chrome. Switching to Safari has made a huge improvement for me and I actually don't remember now why I was using chrome in the first place.
Firefox and brave are excellent too, though they aren't default in the Apple ecosystem. I just don't understand why the draw to chrome and why it still commands such a large market share.
[+] [-] hesarenu|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] moksly|5 years ago|reply
I can see why people would want to switch it up. Especially if you use different operating systems, and want to synchronise your browser experience between them. Not having things synced has actually been a major advantage for me, as I use my phone and Mac very differently than I use my windows devices, but I can see why you wouldn’t want to run safari on Windows/Linux.
Hell, these days I gotta say that I can see why you wouldn’t want to run Safari at all. It’s terrible at Disney plus, and others, and while that may be a Disney plus and others problem, that’s still technology that doesn’t work right out the box like it’s supposed to.
I do think the fact that the new Edge is so good is going to eat into Google’s market. Exactly because of people like you and me who aren’t going to bother unless we have to.
[+] [-] gruez|5 years ago|reply
totally unsupported conjecture: because to non-technical people, chrome is "the internet". It also didn't hurt that it was evangelized by many of their technical friends/family members/coworkers for being "the best", and that google bugged you to install it on many of their sites.
[+] [-] 52-6F-62|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MattGaiser|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robotnikman|5 years ago|reply
Funny enough, when I sometimes go to the google search page in Firefox, a pop up appears saying I should switch to Chrome because it saves battery life
[+] [-] MikusR|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mc32|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] qwnp|5 years ago|reply
I switched recently based on a recommendation from a HN reader, and so far it has been a surprisingly seamless transition. I have yet to encounter any issues aside from being unable to install extensions directly from the Chrome Web Store, which was easily remedied by first installing the chromium-web-store extension [1].
My biggest gripe is that there are no 'official' binaries, so you'd either have to build your own or trust the user-submitted builds, though apparently the project owner is currently working on setting up an official build server [2].
[0] https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium
[1] https://github.com/NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store
[2] https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium/issues/1198
[+] [-] ant6n|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] saagarjha|5 years ago|reply
I'm not sure I understand how these aren't ads? In any case, is this something that literally anyone asked for?
[+] [-] ssorallen|5 years ago|reply
Agreed... who asked for this?
[+] [-] ocdtrekkie|5 years ago|reply
Google executives probably. This is what you get when you hand control of the entire web platform over to an ad company. And the only way to stop it is to depose Chrome as the dominant platform.
And no, that does not mean switch to Brave or Edge. Chrome forks by and large fall in line with Chrome's choices. Firefox or Safari are the only choices.
[+] [-] intellirogue|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danShumway|5 years ago|reply
It's like Google claiming that if they give you free credits for adwords that it suddenly stops counting as an ad. Users don't care.
[+] [-] eznzt|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dna_polymerase|5 years ago|reply
Either way, these things shouldn’t happen. Browsers should enable everyone to use the web.
[+] [-] abrowne|5 years ago|reply
Then create your ntp.html page (can be named whatever, just change the json to match), with CSS file(s) and image(s) as needed. I made a simple flexbox "speed dial" page with sites I specify rather than changing based on some kind of "frecency".
In chrome://extensions/, flip the "Developer mode" switch and then click "Load unpacked" and choose your extension's folder.
[+] [-] renke1|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crazygringo|5 years ago|reply
But I've used the "Empty New Tab Page" for I guess something like 7 years [1]. I don't like seeing any junk on a new tab page, I don't care if it's shopping or not.
Now if they take away the ability to customize the new tab page, then I'd be bothered...
[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/empty-new-tab-page...
[+] [-] fsflover|5 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...
[+] [-] onion2k|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aasasd|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] netfl0|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] falcolas|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fsflover|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skinkestek|5 years ago|reply
Rumble seems to be growing.
[+] [-] SwiftyBug|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FandangoRanger|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FreakyT|5 years ago|reply
Edge has a ton of awful content on its new tab page too, but there's an option to turn it off which makes all the difference.
[+] [-] TheCoelacanth|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tareqak|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] flattone|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ravenstine|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PokemonNoGo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SanchoPanda|5 years ago|reply
I'll give you this and one more if I can have igoogle back.
Love,
SanchoPanda
[+] [-] rbinv|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] haberdasher|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gondolf|5 years ago|reply
Not yet.
[+] [-] wlesieutre|5 years ago|reply
Every hit to those search pages makes Google money, and these "widgets" are ads for search pages.
[+] [-] brianzelip|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FandangoRanger|5 years ago|reply