Google has removed two extensions from its Chrome Web Store namely ‘Tweet this page’ and ‘Add to Feedly’ that violated the company’s terms of service. The two extensions included code that generated too many adds, much to the frustration of users.
Both ‘Add to Feedly’ and ‘Tweet this page’ had very few users, the latter having only 32,000 users. The owners of the extensions had updated the source code to include undesirable ads. The updated extensions caused ads to pop on any website visited.
Last year, in December, Google had updated its policies on extensions. Under revised policies, the extensions cannot use advertising on more than one part of a page and that they must have a ‘single purpose’ and be ‘narrow and easy-to-understand’.
However the situation is even more worrying. Amit Agarwal, the developer of ‘Add to Feedly’ extension said that he sold the extension for a small sum and the new owners have updated ad code into it. Similarly, the developers of other more widely used extensions with a large user community are being offered huge sums to enable advertising in the extensions.
One of the fundamental reasons behind such an issue is that Google does not review updates made to an already installed Chrome App and the updates get pushed to the user’s computer automatically. But an step like removing extensions that don’t meet Google’s policies gives a strong message that Google will not entertain compromising user experience.
Techlomedia advises you to add AdBlock – a Google Chrome extension that blocks unwanted ads and pop ups – to your Chrome Web Brower. This extension is trusted and has 10,000,000+ users.
Download extensions for Google Chrome Here.
Download AdBlock for Google Chrome Here.
