Welcome screen pops up every time Chrome is started about newtab-redirect HOT 16 CLOSED

Me also. I see the page "New Tab Redirect! Options" far too often, especially when switching between different PCs. I've set "Show Welcome on upgrade" to off, but the setting has no effect.

Setting "Sync options" also seems to have no effect.

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Can you guys post information about your environment? e.g. contents of chrome://version (either paste here or email them to me at [email protected]).

I regularly use Chrome under Windows 7, Windows 8, Ubuntu Linux 12.10 and Mac OS X and I don't see this issue. I can try to setup a virtual machine to match the offending environment and chrome version to see if I can reproduce the problem.

Thanks!

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No problem. On one machine concerned, here is the output of chrome://version::

Google Chrome 24.0.1312.69 (Official Build 180721)
OS Linux
WebKit 537.17 (@140072)
JavaScript V8 3.14.5.6
Flash 11.5.31.139
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/24.0.1312.69 Safari/537.17
Command Line /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --flag-switches-begin --flag-switches-end
Executable Path /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome
Profile Path /home/mark/.config/google-chrome/Default

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I saw this again today after a crash and restore.

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@bbodenmiller I'm not sure what you mean by 'Crash and restore', but the welcome screen will display when Chrome or New Tab Redirect is updated. I have tested on multiple machines and under multiple operating systems and I don't seem to be able to reproduce the option not persisting.

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Every time Chrome or New Tab is updated? That's a bit annoying on the dev channel.

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Considering the dev channel warns to expect non-stable issues and
wonkiness, I don't consider adding code to appease devs only a top priority
at the moment.

I have considered adding a timestamp to the storage api which will display
the welcome page at most every 6 months but this would add complexity for
extension updates because the api which notifies of updates doesn't
distinguish between extension vs browser updates.

With so many users, I consider the tradeoff (between devs closing an
annoying tab and adding code which reduces the intended functionality)
worth it... At least for now.
On Jun 1, 2013 7:09 PM, "Ben Bodenmiller" [email protected] wrote:

Every time Chrome or New Tab is updated? That's a bit annoying on the dev
channel.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/12#issuecomment-18800584
.

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Dev channel or not I don't see any reason to display the welcome screen each time any sort of update occurs.

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@bbodenmiller

Consider this scenario:

About a month ago, a long-time user of the extension sent me an angry email claiming I had magically installed some unwanted software on their machine called New Tab Redirect. This user claimed I had essentially committed a felony. I responded with details of how Chrome is very secure and doesn't allow for anyone to remotely install software against the user's will, explaining that its possible that another user had installed the extension, and giving instructions for how to uninstall the extension. It turned out that this user had installed the extension so long ago, he had forgotten the extension was even there. The Welcome Page displayed and reminded him. Well, it reminded him when he uninstalled the extension and lost functionality that he thought was a part of Chrome itself.

Consider another scenario:

I was a regular user of an extension called Google Cloud Print, which was written and maintained by a single Russian (I believe?) developer who was not affiliated with Google. Like the user in my first scenario, I had installed the extension and became so accustomed to the functionality that I considered it a part of Chrome itself (this was before it was actually a part of Chrome). This developer was enticed by one of the marketing gurus that offers money to extension developers to gather anonymous data. The developer of the Google Cloud Print extension decided to incorporate this data collection into his extension without any sort of notice to the user. This marketing company was one that claimed the developer would simply need to drop a single JavaScript file into the extension and start gaining income. The problem is that the JavaScript file loaded a library that tracked my internet usage, sending every single page and who knows what else to their servers so they could display a slide-down coupon based on my usage. For example, I went to skype.com and an ad displayed for a coupon to a competitor VoIP solution. Having a business degree, I couldn't shake the feeling that Skype displaying a competitor's coupon was seriously screwed up, so I dissected the code of every single extension I had installed. I found the offending extension, emailed Google, and it was deleted from the market within 2 hours.

I have been offered slimy money-making 'opportunities' literally hundreds of times. I've been offered various amounts of money for this extension (between $100 and $50,000). What's to stop me from selling the extension to someone who then collects the data of 500,000+ users? That's simple -- a welcome page that reminds users they are using an extension written by a single developer and not by a company.

So you see, the welcome page is a form of trust that I consider a duty to display to users. Whether or not it displays when the extension or chrome updates isn't up for debate for two reasons:

1. When an extension updates and a developer does something stupid, the user should at least be aware of the update
2. When Chrome updates and possibly screws up the functionality of an extension that affects literally every tab you create, you should be aware of the update

So, like I said, I'm considering alternatives. But, I need to resolve the issue in a way I am morally comfortable with yet also prevents users from being annoyed.

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@jimschubert thanks for the response and background on this issue. It is a bit disappointing to hear that Google's extension marketplace isn't as secure as advertised. As for the welcome screen issue my impression by checking "do not show welcome screen" was that I am basically saying "update at will but stay out of my way unless you have something valuable to tell me". The only reason I really voiced concern is because out of ~20 extensions yours is the only that has the welcome screen every time Chrome updates. Imagine if each of them had a welcome screen... I'd feel like I was using Internet Explorer again, the whole point of Chrome is that it is fast, reliable, and just works so don't let extensions get in the way of that. As far as I'm concerned it is the users responsibility to understand what extensions they have installed, that is the whole point of chrome://extensions/. Additionally when a user installs an extension it specifically tells them what permissions it is requiring and if the permissions change the user must reapprove the extension.

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@jimschubert, very interesting post and yes there are fools who forgot they installed something and will whine, but that's just the life of a developer. Beware of "the squeaky wheel gets the oil" scenario, you're not going to eliminate all the idiots by prompting them repeatedly anyway, but you will annoy all the silent users who just get on with using your application.

Don't you see? You've created a magical app which removes annoyances. Your best customers are obviously going to be those people most sensitive to any form of annoyance.

Pop-ups make me irrationally negative and I won't change my perspective (if we did, we wouldn't need your app). I don't care how beneficial messages and popups are either to me or the dev. Anything which disturbs my browsing, even by one single click, is a negative experience. And clicking "don't bother me again" must be respected forever.

Fussy I know, but isn't your app targeted at fussy people? ;)

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My problem is that the don't show me again button works in all my test
environments and persists/syncs via Google Accounts.

Unless I can repro, I can't fix the issue. I can only offer solutions.
What I am saying is that I am not 100% comfortable with the solutions I
have. I have only had 5 or 6 users out of 500,000± installs complain about
the annoyance of the welcome page.

If this affected/annoyed a significant number of users, I would have no
issues pushing a shabby solution.
On Jun 3, 2013 1:55 AM, "abssorb" [email protected] wrote:

@jimschubert https://github.com/jimschubert, very interesting post and
yes there are fools who forgot they installed something and will whine, but
that's just the life of a developer. Beware of "the squeaky wheel gets the
oil" scenario, you're not going to eliminate all the idiots by prompting
them repeatedly anyway, but you will annoy all the silent users who just
get on with using your application.

Don't you see? You've created a magical app which removes annoyances. Your
best customers are obviously going to be those people most sensitive to any
form of annoyance.

Pop-ups make me irrationally negative and I won't change my perspective
(if we did, we wouldn't need your app). I don't care how beneficial
messages and popups are either to me or the dev. Anything which disturbs my
browsing, even by one single click, is a negative experience. And clicking
"don't bother me again" must be respected forever.

Fussy I know, but isn't your app targeted at fussy people? ;)

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/12#issuecomment-18828953
.

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Interesting - With those figures 5 out of 500,000, it must be something my end.
Though I wonder what sort of feedback you would get if you but a survey on the welcome screen along the lines of "Do you see this more than once?"

But please don't shabbify an excellent product on the basis of isolated problems. I've tried re-creating my google profile from scratch, but I'm not alone in sync problems somehow surviving an account re-fresh. I can make an exception in my strange habits. :)

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To further explain why I'm not 100% happy with the solutions I've considered...
Most of the users of the extension have no technical background. I've actually had people email me questions like "how do I open a new tab?" The welcome page is meant to be a quick tutorial for those users, which unfortunately outnumber the technical group.

For the technical folks having this issue, comment out or remove this line:

If someone who is having this problem could provide some details about local storage, I'd appreciate it.

To do this, go to chrome://extensions and click the Inspect views: _generated_background_page.html link (may need to enable Developer mode in the top-right corner of the extensions page).

This will drop you into the 'background page' of New Tab Redirect, which is where the code that orchestrates everything exists. Open a Console tab and execute:

chrome.storage.local.get('showWelcome', function(){ console.log(arguments); })

You should see two lines:

undefined
[Object]

Expand [Object] -> 0: Object and you should see showWelcome: false

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I ran this and had showWelcome: true yet I have unchecked the box countless times. I'll report back if it appears once again.

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I've changed the logic for displaying the welcome page in version 2.1, which I'm rolling out to users gradually.

Now, if you've disabled the welcome page it should never show. In fact, it should now only show on install and at a minimum of every 6 months.

Closing this issue. If you guys continue to experience after you've received the 2.1 update, please comment and I'll reopen for tracking purposes.

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