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Is Microsoft Retaliating For Chrome's Warnings About Extension Security in Edge? (pcworld.com) 40

Posted by EditorDavid from the battling-browsers dept.
Several pundits criticized Google for warning Edge users to switch to Chrome if they wanted to use Chrome extensions "securely". "In Chrome, a plugin can be remotely disabled by the Chrome team if it's considered unsafe for whatever reason," notes PC World. "Google lacks the ability to remotely disable the same plugin within Edge, prompting Google to recommend switching to Chrome, a source close to Google said."

Though PC World notes that Google isn't giving the same warning to Opera users...

Yet now when you try to add Chrome Extensions to Edge, Microsoft also gives you a warning of its own -- that extensions installed from sources other than the Microsoft Store "are unverified [by Microsoft], and may affect browser performance." And while Google.com is still displaying an ad for Chrome to web surfers using Edge, now if you search for "Chrome web store" on Bing, the first result is an ad ("promoted by Microsoft") for Microsoft's own Edge browser.

ZDNet's Chris Matyszczyk asked both Google and Microsoft for a comment: [N]othing from Google. But suddenly, a confirmation from Microsoft that it wouldn't offer official comment. My sniffings around Google suggest the company may have been taken aback by the positive public reaction to Edge... My nasal probings around Redmond offer the reasoning that, well, Microsoft hasn't tested or verified extensions that arrive from places other than they Microsoft Edge add-ons website. Why, they're far too busy to do that. And, well, it's the Chrome web store. Who knows what you'll find over there? Oh, and Edge gives you more control over your data, so there.

Could it be, then, that Google is being vacuously childish and trying to scare people into resisting the lures of Microsoft's browser handiwork? Could it also be that Microsoft is doing something rather similar in either retaliation or merely homage to the brutally competitive instincts of social activist Bill Gates?

Could it be that both of these companies should pause to examine their consciences, go sit in a corner and embrace their customers' needs and choices a touch more fully?
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Is Microsoft Retaliating For Chrome's Warnings About Extension Security in Edge? More

Is Microsoft Retaliating For Chrome's Warnings About Extension Security in Edge?

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  • of running the Play Store, then OK. It seems to me they want a free ride.

  • Nice pissing match (Score:3)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Saturday February 29, 2020 @05:21PM (#59782614)

    Let me grab my popcorn while two multi-billion dollar companies get into a pissing match...

    On second thought, I'll switch channels.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Now that is exactly what is happening. Most users are simply get pissed off with Google and M$ and the two are now fighting for a shrinking base. The rest of the world is looking to develop their own and push Google and M$ out from the majority of the market, with the Government of China making a big push against both companies, promoting local development very aggressively and Russia and India are also in there (a million coders working on FOSS and social media that is not US based).

      They will become incre

      • Re:Nice pissing match (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Saturday February 29, 2020 @07:57PM (#59782936)

        M$ will either have to stop it's privacy invasive and control freak practices or it will lose more and more ground to Google as Google itself loses ground in the rest of the world.

        Funny, I've always considered Google to be the bigger privacy rapist [urbandictionary.com] between the two companies.

        • By extension, does that make Facebook the Marquis de Sade of privacy?

        • Have you taken a look at some of the 'telemetry' functions in Windows 10? Under default settings, among other things, Microsoft gets to see every URL you visit (for Smartscreen purposes), every launching and every exiting of a WinRT program, and every query typed into the start menu. Both companies are very heavy on the spying.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Are you kidding? Microsoft built spyware into the OS. They don't even hide it, they extensively document it: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-... [microsoft.com]

          So far nobody has been able to show any evidence that Google does anything without consent or that Chrome is spyware. I keep asking but I'm forced to conclude that the evidence just doesn't exist.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Sebby ( 238625 )

            So far nobody has been able to show any evidence that Google does anything without consent or that Chrome is spyware. I keep asking but I'm forced to conclude that the evidence just doesn't exist.

            Do a search on Google's search engine (you know, the one thing they're best known for), and see exactly where all the result links take you first.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Ad company vs ad company :)
      Only the NSA wins.

  • Could it be that both of these companies should pause to examine their consciences, go sit in a corner and embrace their customers' needs and choices a touch more fully?

    Funniest thing I've read all week.

  • if their new browser wasn't based on Google Chrome to begin with.

    • But that's the reason why it makes sense for the warning to be issued (or not) regardless of whether it's Opera or Microsoft's browser. They're both Chrome-based. So either being based on Chrome makes both secure, or neither.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        As the summary explains it's the ability of Google to remotely uninstall extensions that it finds to be malware that is the issue.

        Also there might be issues with the changes that Microsoft made to the code. They might have also made it better.

        I just wish someone would make Firefox mobile better.

    • Why? They forked it, yes? That's what open source is all about, yes? Why is a fork bad or have lesser moral value?

      • They forked it, yes?

        I don't believe they forked Chromium - they're just skinning it. So basically it's the same as Chrome or Opera, but with Edge's skin layered over the top. And when Google patches a security bug in Chrome's core, it means Edge will get that patch too.

        So, yeah - Google's being disingenuous about security. But Microsoft is being petulant as well. Basically, these two huge corporations are behaving like spoiled children.

        • https://www.cnet.com/news/micr... [cnet.com] That's from April last year saying that yes it's mostly a skin at the time but they intended to make real changes over time. I didn't look for anything newer but I assume by now they have at least a few small changes in there. Another 2-3 years should see some significant changes.

          Either way, they both have their own "Store" and can't be held responsible for stuff in the other store. That's just common sense. It's not unfair for both to display a message when going to a

  • Interesting quote. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lordpidey ( 942444 ) on Saturday February 29, 2020 @06:33PM (#59782764) Homepage

    "Google lacks the ability to remotely disable the same plugin within Edge, prompting Google to recommend switching to Chrome, a source close to Google said."

    Or in other words "We're unable to remotely brick your stuff without warning if you use Edge. Use our stuff!"

    • And then you look at the recent news where they deactivated a huge number of installed extensions with spyware in them.
  • Both companies' positions make sense to me, from a pure security perspective, nothing to do with competition or pettiness. Given the rash of bad Chrome extensions that Google has had to disable, they have good reason to worry about the potential effect of bad extensions installed from the Chrome store that they can't shut down. Being able to remotely disable bad stuff is a core part of their extension security model, at least at present. Meanwhile, Microsoft has absolutely no control over what extensions t
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • I imagine Mozilla pulling their hair out over this. It reminds me of two separate scenes from the Simpsons:

    * The one where Kang and the other alien are the two main-party candidates for the US presidential election, and even when people find them out, they decide to vote for one of them anyway rather than a 3rd party candidate.

    * The one where a government witness relocation program agent is trying to train Homer to respond to "Hello, Mr. Thompson" ("Thompson" being his new surname) by stamping on his foot w

  • lol no, no one actually uses opera, it was a cool thing to say like 15 years ago but yea

  • I'm not privy to Google's internal thinking. So they could very well be being childish. But urging the public to stay the hell away from Microsoft's browser offerings is anything but vacuous. It's just good and common sense. Seriously, as many times as we've been burned by that trash, a tech journalist should already know that it's a given that the best way to treat Microsoft browsers is as if they were day-old road kill.

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