Comments on: Gmail Fighting Off Greasemonkey?

By: cr@zy

cr@zy — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 17:35:50 +0000

why should any service provider like gmail favor GM
1>If GM can rid websites off their ads and stuff that actually pay the cost for what the users are using for free.
2> if GM provides user-modified content that shows results from more than one service provider, where they are all competitors in the same business
3>if people can use a tool to use functionality of a site where the tool becomes more popular than the site (something that Scrapboy has done for orkut)

By: Joe Shelby

Joe Shelby — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 11:50:32 +0000

GMail is slowly removing the "G" because in the UK they couldn't get the trademark on the name and as such can't advertise the service as "gmail" without incurring the wrath of UK trademark law.

By: sogrady

sogrady — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 07:53:22 +0000

Rubikzube*: that's a great point, i'd forgotten that.

Jon: couple of points.
1. i guarantee you Google's aware of GM, if only b/c of Butler.
2. as far as priorities, you're correct – it's not high currently. the question to me, however, is should it? i think yes, you think no.
3. all i'm really pushing for here is the courtesy, nothing more.
4. when i speak of what Google should/shouldn't do, morals aren't my concern (though with their don't be evil stance it could be argued that its theirs) – developer relationships are.
5. catch-up is inevitable, and i have no issue with that. see further commentary here: http://www.redmonk.com/sogrady/archives/000787.ht…

By: Jon Dowland

Jon Dowland — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 02:58:34 +0000

I'm sorry, but I do not have any sympathy for you at all. Gmail must be a *massive* operation, and if the decision-makers are even aware of greasemonkey, let alone the gmail-specific scripts people have written for it, I doubt it registers very high on their priorities list. They would only notify you as a courtesy, not out of any moral obligation. You simply have to be prepared to make changes to play catch-up with the not-API. Let's face it, they could have been a lot worse than simply dropping one letter from a domain.

By: Rubikzube*

Rubikzube* — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:22:46 +0000

If Google's is "actively thwarting Greasemonkey type extensions to Gmail", then that's hilarious, because the person who initially coded Greasemonkey now works for them.

Talk about coming full circle.

By: sogrady

sogrady — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:35:29 +0000

well, i think it depends, pb.

for example, i don't expect Google to assess the potential impact to the plethora of GM scripts of every little minor change they make to their application. you're absolutely correct, that kind of transparency is difficult.

but would it be that difficult to post a notification that they're changing the entire domain of the service? i don't think so.

By: pb

pb — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 01:11:53 +0000

The kind of transparency you are asking for is *very* hard to deliver.

By: sogrady

sogrady — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 10:55:08 +0000

DeWitt: well, i'd be a bit more generous and say that we expect transparency not just b/c they say they are not evil, but b/c for the most part they haven't *been* evil. not perfect, but their corporate history as such things go is not all that bad.

that said, i do not think – as Jon Udell said in a Gillmor Gang podcast ages ago – that Google's transparency is adequate given their increasingly omniscient role with respect to our personal information. if they don't grasp that sooner rather than later, i think they'll learn the lesson harshly.

Jason: i'm not saying they're "bad" for breaking GM applications, i'm saying it's bad practice for an organization that's actively courting developers (e.g. Summer of Code), and shortsighted. ask yourself what it would have cost them to post a quick entry to the Google blog saying, "Hey, by the way, we're changing the domain for Gmail, because of the German lawsuit" – nothing. the potential benefit to such an announcement? developers might not be complaining today.

Javed: thanks for the link to the fix. for those wishing to repair their Gmail extension, pick up the new version here (http://nexgenmedia.net/extensions/) or by updating within Mozilla.

By: Javed

Javed — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 01:58:08 +0000

here's the link to that fix -> http://persistent.info/archives/2005/06/21/gmail-…

By: Javed

Javed — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 01:56:37 +0000

same happened with me…the Gmail Power tweaks that let's you persist your searches has stopped as a result of it too. There is a fix but you have to edit the script…something i'm not too happy about either.