Chrome for Mac Gets New Downloads Experience

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

I downloaded a PDF on my laptop earlier, I gathered the family so they could experience it with me. Incredible.

 

[iJest]

If you hate this, go to chrome://flags in the address bar, search for "enable download bubble," and choose to disable it. I can't stand the new download shelf. I prefer the downloads go to the bottom left where they've always been.

 

[eas]

It's been like this for absolutely ages!

And the tray was so much better.

It just rolled out to me. The tray took up precious vertical screen real estate. This thing is better in that regard. It's annoying though that it insists on revealing itself when the download finishes. It keeps interrupting me.

 

[ErikGrim]

Just goes to show why non-standard UI rarely has any benefits and stands out like a sore thumb on a Mac.

 

[Avenged110]

It just rolled out to me. The tray took up precious vertical screen real estate. This thing is better in that regard. It's annoying though that it insists on revealing itself when the download finishes. It keeps interrupting me.

There's a settings toggle to disable that function (I'm not sure the heuristics involved, but sometimes you can even toggle it within the downloads popover itself). It is certainly annoying.

 

[svish]

Good to see the change. But prefer to use Safari

 

[iJest]

Good to see the change. But prefer to use Safari

I do as well.

 

[MacBH928]

why would any one use this spyware? You can use Safari, Firefox, or Brave which is like a privacy friendly chome and is open source

 

[CarAnalogy]

Lipstick on a pig. Chrome has fallen to the fate of IE and Firefox before it. It is bloatware and spyware now. All three started out with the intent to be lean and fast and grew into these behemoths. Google tries to entice users with little things like this but newer, cleaner competitors like Edge and Brave outpace it. Safari hasn’t fallen the same way and I’m not sure why. It’s a bit of an interesting anomaly in this regard. On topic though, face lifts won’t bring me back.

You must not have used Edge for a while, especially on Windows. It is 100% adware now. Especially on a new install, it’s very difficult to get any work done because it is CONSTANTLY throwing up full screen takeovers, popups, focus stealing tabs, hovering elements, sidebars, giant Bing buttons, etc etc etc.

 

[djbuddha]

Like anything, some will love this, some will hate this. I’m definitely the ladder. Luckily, I was able to disable it back to the tray. But they’ll probably kill the ability to do that one day.

Here’s the way to do it if anybody wants to bring back the download tray:

Downloads bar gone from the bottom, how can I get it back? - Google Chrome Community

 

[GalileoSeven]

Lipstick on a pig. Chrome has fallen to the fate of IE and Firefox before it. It is bloatware and spyware now. All three started out with the intent to be lean and fast and grew into these behemoths. Google tries to entice users with little things like this but newer, cleaner competitors like Edge and Brave outpace it. Safari hasn’t fallen the same way and I’m not sure why. It’s a bit of an interesting anomaly in this regard. On topic though, face lifts won’t bring me back.

While this is a pretty apt description for Chrome & IE - Firefox has been nothing but smooth for me (on my 11" MBA, 27" iMac/mid-2015 and M2 MBA) and as long as they keep supporting ad/content blockers and the like, there's nothing that Chrome or Safari can do to get me to jump ship.

 

[bradman83]

While this is a pretty apt description for Chrome & IE - Firefox has been nothing but smooth for me (on my 11" MBA, 27" iMac/mid-2015 and M2 MBA) and as long as they keep supporting ad/content blockers and the like, there's nothing that Chrome or Safari can do to get me to jump ship.

I 100% agree, Firefox has gotten significantly better and is just as privacy focused as Safari. My only quibbles with it are that it uses certain non-standard UI elements (like bookmarks toolbar pop-up menus and a dark mode color that doesn’t match the system color). I also wish the iPad version supported a bookmarks toolbar like Safari does; that’s the only reason I stay on Safari.

 

[dead.cell]

Is this really a new feature?
I feel like I've seen it on different browsers. Definitely reminds me of Microsoft Edge.

Well, they're also copying the sidebar in Edge as well. Guess that's what happens when a company drags ass for such a long time. It used to be the IE team that was far behind Mozilla and Google but guess times changed.

 

[tomtad]

“Download experience” 😂

Love a good download experience me

Seriously though I wish Chrome would use the system menu design not some Android knock off they insist on using

 

[Rich74]

Why is everything an experience all of a sudden?

 

[Avenged110]

why would any one use this spyware? You can use Safari, Firefox, or Brave which is like a privacy friendly chome and is open source

Speaking personally, I use Chromium Legacy because it’s the only modern browser that runs on my OS X version of choice (10.9).

 

[mzeb]

You must not have used Edge for a while, especially on Windows. It is 100% adware now. Especially on a new install, it’s very difficult to get any work done because it is CONSTANTLY throwing up full screen takeovers, popups, focus stealing tabs, hovering elements, sidebars, giant Bing buttons, etc etc etc.

I use it when safari isn’t behaving well but I’m behind a Pihole for network level ad blocking so my experience might be different than normal… I’ll have to see what it looks like without.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I use it when safari isn’t behaving well but I’m behind a Pihole for network level ad blocking so my experience might be different than normal… I’ll have to see what it looks like without.

I have multiple layers of filters as well but this stuff is all coming direct from Microsoft through software updates and built in programming. No way to block it.

It’s not as obnoxious on the Mac, at least there are no fullscreen takeovers. This is mostly on client’s computers and new Windows installs.

 

[dead.cell]

I have multiple layers of filters as well but this stuff is all coming direct from Microsoft through software updates and built in programming. No way to block it.

It’s not as obnoxious on the Mac, at least there are no fullscreen takeovers. This is mostly on client’s computers and new Windows installs.

Well, this is what kills me: Edge isn't necessarily bad, if you tailor it to how you want to use it. However, the Windows team really gives it a bad name.

• Windows 10/11 updates prompting fullscreen ads, asking you to sign up for Microsoft 365, OneDrive, Edge, Bing, etc. Doesn't matter if you already have a 365 license and use Edge or Onedrive. This is by far annoying.
• The whole fiasco with Windows making it more obnoxious to change your default browser. Not to mention in the past with Windows 10 1809 I believe, where they reset your default PDF application back to Edge as well.

The Bing button can be disabled though, along with the sidebar, and their built-in version of Honey (which I do like, but agree it's obnoxious in a work environment). They're also changing things up with Edge for Business, as they try to continue making these features controllable through GPO.

The only real issue I have with Edge these days is when Edge itself gets an update, they like to push that stupid new tab to tell you all about the update... which is usually just their way of trying to get you to set Bing as your default search engine. I personally just ignore those screens anyway, as I think Firefox and Chrome push something similar. (granted, I don't think Firefox is trying to change your browser settings to default)

The real benefits for Edge to me are vertical tabs without an addon, coupled with the tab group which is amazing. The sidebar I use for opening tickets or our Active Directory system, which means I'm never having to mess with multiple tabs to do a task. You also get some further tracking blocking, even if you're still giving your data over to Microsoft. I don't believe Google has any of these features, other than maybe tab grouping.

Use what you prefer of course, I use Safari/Edge and Firefox occasionally. As far as Chrome itself, Google will siphon your data to the end of time... whether you're using Chrome or not, as we saw them exploit Safari to track people.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Well, this is what kills me: Edge isn't necessarily bad, if you tailor it to how you want to use it. However, the Windows team really gives it a bad name.

• Windows 10/11 updates prompting fullscreen ads, asking you to sign up for Microsoft 365, OneDrive, Edge, Bing, etc. Doesn't matter if you already have a 365 license and use Edge or Onedrive. This is by far annoying.
• The whole fiasco with Windows making it more obnoxious to change your default browser. Not to mention in the past with Windows 10 1809 I believe, where they reset your default PDF application back to Edge as well.

The Bing button can be disabled though, along with the sidebar, and their built-in version of Honey (which I do like, but agree it's obnoxious in a work environment). They're also changing things up with Edge for Business, as they try to continue making these features controllable through GPO.

The only real issue I have with Edge these days is when Edge itself gets an update, they like to push that stupid new tab to tell you all about the update... which is usually just their way of trying to get you to set Bing as your default search engine. I personally just ignore those screens anyway, as I think Firefox and Chrome push something similar. (granted, I don't think Firefox is trying to change your browser settings to default)

The real benefits for Edge to me are vertical tabs without an addon, coupled with the tab group which is amazing. The sidebar I use for opening tickets or our Active Directory system, which means I'm never having to mess with multiple tabs to do a task. You also get some further tracking blocking, even if you're still giving your data over to Microsoft. I don't believe Google has any of these features, other than maybe tab grouping.

Use what you prefer of course, I use Safari/Edge and Firefox occasionally. As far as Chrome itself, Google will siphon your data to the end of time... whether you're using Chrome or not, as we saw them exploit Safari to track people.

I use Chrome for Google properties and Edge for Microsoft properties. At its core Edge isn’t bad but as you say it’s all the adware, especially on Windows. I could forgive it all if not for the full screen deceptive takeovers. We get a lot of calls about those. And having had to use a few Windows systems myself with a fresh install, there are literally about twenty popups of various types you have to dismiss with the tiny text hidden in a corner and not the giant button in your face.

 

[SDJim]

Solid update, except I had part two of a tech demo today and was completely caught off guard when it was suddenly different from the day before and had to explain that it must have been a recent change and that the documentation would be updated accordingly.

Solid change, though! 😄

 

[PhillyGuy72]

Not a fan...and I've been using Chrome for ages!
AND I don't know what this is in "Settings." I just noticed this

"Your browser is managed by your organization"

-- Your administrator can change your browser setup remotely. Activity on this device may also be managed outside of Chrome.

What 'organization?'
I'm the admin...it's my Mac! 😒

No Malware showed up, I wiped out my cookies, cache. Signed out of my acct.
Ugh