hey Google - don't auto-update my toolbar!

auto-patching software is a big no-no

[amznVibe]

I was quite thrown when my Google toolbar suddenly sprouted new buttons and options!

Seems with the new toolbar going from beta to final they decided to push it onto all desktops.

Don't do this Google! Huge no-no! Can't you see all the flak Microsoft is taking for their automatic system update proposal? Don't touch my system without a warning and the ability to opt-out!

I was so surprised a company like Google would do an action like that. Very un-Google like.

I liked the old toolbar and I don't need any features in the new one. The old toolbar had a more compact layout since the search web button was integrated.

Now I have to rip out the v2 and reinstall the old one while blocking the auto-update.

[amznVibe]

Actually this event has helped me find another problem. I hunted down a copy of BHOCOP (not easy to find since Ziff Davis has seemed to pulled it from all their sites) which shows you all the items plugging into IE toolbar. I wanted to see how Google was attaching itself to IE. But I discovered some leftover items from other supposedly uninstalled programs that were still there and still active. Unhooked them and now new IE windows popup a little faster.

rytis - I highly doubt its Google slowing down your Outlook - not to scare you but there are a few very nasty viruses going around - I'd do a virus signature update and a full scan just to be on the safe side

vik_c if you are using the new v2 toolbar (and unless you have blocked it from updating, of course you are) - did you try using the experimental option it has to work through proxies? This may be your problem. There are other causes for that however, do some good searches for answers. (And if it needs to be said, remember the pagerank feature is NOT turned on by default)

[Luke_SR]

When peopel start to realize that google is JUST ANOTHER COMPANY TRYING TO MAKE A BUCK things liek that won't be much of a surprise.
you wouldn't be too much surprised if it was MS right? or AOL? now it's time to wake up and face reality..

[Net_Wizard]

I'm really inclined to level Google Toolbar as a Scumware...just like the rest of you, it upgraded my toolbar without any warning yesterday and I thought one of those email viruses got into my system that's when I noticed the toolbar have changed :(

As a result of this upgrade, my browser is very slow to load especially when you hit the back button or viewing the history folder.

Starting not to like Google at all.

[Webwork]

"Follow the money".

One of the 10 commandments of human interaction, a fundamental law of human thermodynamics.

Interpret everything, going forward, in the simplest of terms. It will be illuminating. I'm not saying right. Interpretation is seldom favored by such bright lines. How many would ever say "it's about money", but, how many would be left standing if not for money or its equivalent in exchange?

"Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate". William of Ockham (C. 1285-1349). The simplest explanation is often ....

Eliminating choice means fewer options to manage, cleaner data, greater control/consistency/predictability, reduced support requests due to fewer issues, etc.

Another way to think about it: This is the information age. It's all about the information. More informatin gathering is better if the information can be processed. He who gathers the most wins.

He who gathers the most wins.

Get it?

He who gathers the most wins.

Let that percolate. What's the driving force of the information age?

She who gathers the most wins.

Total awareness.

[bateman_ap]

Wonder if someone who has had their toolbar auto update could tell me if it auto blocks popups without a notice asking if you want that part installed?

[PhraSEOlogy]

I was wondering how my google toolbar updates all by itself. It would have been nice if we had some indication that the upgrade had been made. Instead we just get a "suprise!".

[kmarcus]

I wonder what ymakes people even use toolbars? WHat feature do you get from th etoolbar that you dont' have somewhere else? THe only thing I can think of wrt/google is that you get the PR of the site you're at shown -- but since they keep lowering everyone's PR pretty oon you can just assume they will all be zero unless it's google.

THe interesting thing here is that with google starting to pull out as many stops as they can, they limit their upsider potential: all the low hanging fruits have been eaten -- now it's time to work on the bigger things, whatever those are. In other words, they've done much of their growth and are probably looking for further ways to continue that growth path. I bet they buy gator next. :)

[Kukenan]

And they took the labor to come up vers 2.0 BEFORE creating a Mac version.

I know you PC guys are going to say "who cares" but I am really tired of having to ask people around just to get my pages PR!

Is there any reason not to launch a Mac version?

<edit> finished a phrase</edit>

[GoogleGuy]

Hey amznVibe, the fact that the toolbar auto-updates is listed in the first 10 questions of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages:
[toolbar.google.com...]

There are lots of good reasons to auto-update the toolbar. For example, about two years ago, a security company found a potential security issue with the toolbar. The toolbar team went into a non-stop quest to find and fix any security issues. With auto-update, we were able to deploy the fix to toolbar users before anyone but the security company knew about it in the first place. So we want users to be informed that the toolbar auto-updates, but I think that in general it can be a very useful feature to auto-update.

bateman_ap, I think that the toolbar team took care not to enable any extra options (e.g. pop-up blocking) if the toolbar upgrades--let me know if you find otherwise, and I'll pass the feedback on. The upgrade does have a lot of useful features that I think people would like (it took me about 10 minutes to really want the new version instead of the old version), and I'm not aware of any features that went away, so I hope people will explore the new version for a little while before assuming that the upgrade is for the worse somehow.

[dougb]

Ah. That statement is buried under the privacy document - an entirely seperate page from the terms link I show above. I think they need to repeat that statement under the terms page, I would have blocked it immediately.

That's not enough. They need to make it an option, and they need to make it opt-in rather than opt-out. This can be said of a bunch of bad decisions Google has made this year. It's frustrating to watch.