Re: [PLUG] The Value of Software Diversity / Beware of Google

It all comes down to money in the end. If you're downloading your Youtube video, you're not watching stupid commercials before it, and therefore not making Google any money.

You'd run into a similar situation if you were able to filter the ads from search results (the "sponsored links"). Google would tolerate it for a very little while, then it would become the second class of banned extension in Google's history.

On the one hand, I agree with your core message completely. Diversity is good. Having all your computing eggs in Google's, Amazon's, or Microsoft's product basket is equally bad.

On the other hand, I don't really object to what Google is doing here either. They've been very transparent and very straightforward about what they're doing and why, and they are just protecting a major revenue stream. They left enough slack and workarounds that you can still download videos if you're motivated enough, as well.

On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 5:44 AM, Casey Bralla <MailList@nerdworld.org> wrote:

A while ago, after I gave up on Firefox due to their lack of tolerance to
opposing views, I tested over a dozen browsers before I eventually settled on
Google Chrome.

Recently, my daughter sent me a link to a youtube video that I wanted to
download and save on my computer. I tried to use the download extension that
I have used many times before to save videos. However, when I tried to
download from youtube (which is not normally a source of my videos) I got a
very interesting pop-up message that said

"Note: Chrome Web Store does not allow extensions that download videos
directly from YouTube."

I tried another downloading extension and got a similar error message.

Downloading from within Firefox worked fine, however.

So Google is fine about you downloading, but just don't even think about
downloading from them. (Kind of like the burglary gang that gets mad when you
steal from one of their members.)

I learned 2 important lessons from this:
1. Software diversity is truly a good thing because it greatly expands our
options and limits any one organization's power over us.
2. Google is just as bad as any other organization with as much influence as
they have.

--

Casey Bralla

Chief Nerd in Residence
The NerdWorld Organisation
www.NerdWorld.org
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