
Google Chrome's biggest annoyance: Download bar - electic
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=36901
======
tzury
I personally bless this design everyday at least twice a day.

This usually happens when I download a file from one web-service and then
switch tab to send that file as an email attachment or upload it to another
service (google drive, drop box, etc.)

Having the file box at the bottom let me easily drag that file onto the other
tab and get it done.

Yet, by all means, there should be a checkbox available for those who prefer
not seeing it at all.

~~~
namzo
I had no idea you could drag a file from the download bar. I usually click on
the arrow & "Show in finder". Thanks. Definitely a time-saver.

------
tjoff
Firefox biggest annoyance: The download window. I feel like I've taken a time
machine to the 90's every time it pops up.

Chrome's download bar on the other hand is quite neat and it doesn't distract
your workflow.

~~~
mcpherrinm
Have you seen the replacement UI?

<https://wiki.mozilla.org/File:DownloadsPanel-Downloading.png>

For reasons unknown to me, it's been delayed for ages. So long that even
Safari has copied and deployed it before Firefox did.

~~~
lobster_johnson
That's the UI used in Safari 6. It's pretty terrible, in my opinion; it hides
too much information in a single button. It's roughly equivalent to Chrome's
download bar, except with less information.

~~~
lovskogen
What info do you need?

~~~
lobster_johnson
If I am downloading more than one item (and maybe I am waiting for a
particular one), it's not telling me which ones are finished.

~~~
lovskogen
OS X postfixes files that are being downloaded with .download – so if you're
looking at a file, you should see if it's done or not.

------
autodidakto
2 and a half years ago I tried Chrome and was turned off by the download bar.
I pleaded, along with a few others, for at least a shortcut that would close
the bar. The response was: What's the matter with your mouse?

EDIT: Oh wait. This issue was from 2 years ago. Silly me thought something
finally changed. And it seems the main discussion isn't in the OPs link, but
here: <http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=27797> and here:
<http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=89922>

~~~
mattacular
I've noticed the Chrome team are pretty cavalier and don't seem to appreciate
outside recommendations and critiques.

If Google ever changes the download bar in Chrome, you can be damn sure it has
nothing to do with a snarky Chromium bug tracking thread. And they wouldn't be
totally in the wrong because it isn't a bug, obviously.

~~~
bpatrianakos
But honestly, would you be so quick to respond to a snarky bug tracking
thread? I wouldn't. The fact that it's so snarky with such an entitled
attitude would push me to give it attention at some point but it definitely
wouldn't make my top ten list. There are better ways to go about this stuff
and I think reports like this one are counterproductive.

------
sofa420
Looks like someone at Google is working on this actually. Found this in
chrome://flags

New Downloads UI Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS

Disables the download shelf. Will show the new downloads UI as it is
implemented.

~~~
wut42
This flag exists since chrome://flags exists. I always enabled it (due to the
shitty download bar), but never saw a new UI, even 2 years later.

~~~
hellerbarde
There is some "new UI" insofar as the "Keep"/"Discard" Buttons for "dangerous"
files are now in the Download Window. Maybe they were talking about that...
Who knows

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ronyeh
Totally agree with you. :-) I spend so much time every day clicking the little
X to kill the download bar. I think Google developers design for 30" monitors
or something... I work on a laptop all day and my vertical pixels are very
valuable to me.

~~~
resure
You can type Shift-Cmd-J + Cmd-W to hide it.

~~~
leephillips
<control>-j + <control>-w for me (on Linux). That solves the major annoyance
of this, which is not having a keyboard command for closing it.

------
xam
I think Safari's download window is the most elegant solution. Chrome's
download bar is annoying, but functional for the most part.

------
bpatrianakos
When I read this I was just astounded by the self-righteous, entitled tone as
if the person who filed this knows (yes, "knows", not "believes" or "prefers")
that the download bar is an annoying, unnecessary, undesirable feature that
the Chrome team _must_ fix immediately. It's not the request itself that
bothers me but the tone of it.

I use Chrome on 4 very different machines. A 10-11" Xubuntu laptop, 11.6"
MacBook Air, 20" iMac, and a dual 17" monitor Win7 machine. On each computer I
feel a bit differently about the download bar. On the MBA and iMac I love it,
on the Win7 machine I'm indifferent to it (I actually have a love/hate
relationship with it on that one) and on my Xubuntu "netbook" I consider it a
necessary evil. So I feel both ways about the download bar but I would never
call for its end because it's far more helpful than not.

Its really not difficult or at all time consuming to close it out. And yeah, I
totally agree that it would be a good idea to have the option to not show it.
Notice I said "it'd be a good idea" and not "there _should_ be that option".
If I were the guy on the Chrome team that read this I'd consider it but not
make it a priority simply because it sounds like entitled user complaining
which the web is so chock full of, especially when users get something free.

Sometimes I really hate users. I mean, lots of people like me need them to
succeed with our startups but god damn it if they don't just piss you off to
no end sometimes. There's a big problem with users not being able to tell the
difference between what they'd like to have and what they need to have. Often
it's a real fine line. Yes we should give the users what they want within
reason (the customer is always right and all that) but at what cost? My web
browser needs to allow me to download files. I would _like_ for it not to
clutter up my screen with another window made active by default. Solution?
Download bar. Great! But now I need the download bar to just go away because
it takes up too much screen space. Or do I? Maybe what I really need is a
bigger monitor or to close the bar when it shows itself. Is it an annoyance?
Yeah. Is my demand more important than the desires of other users if they're
happy with the download bar? No. Unless I'm the only user. It really seems
like lots of users really believe they're the only users. It's like every user
on the web is an only child or something that's been accustomed to being
served everything they want all their lives at the expensive of others' needs.

To be clear, and to repeat it again, I really do think the option to always
hide the download bar would be a great thing for users and it'd even help me!
It's just that I've seen so many entitled attitudes from users, my own
clients, and others this past year and a half that it gets to me bad and I
think a lot of people can relate. There's a way to get attention and there's a
way to get the wrong kind of attention. You know, Chromium is open source.
Maybe someone who wants it bad enough will fork it, add the functionality
mentioned, and submit the changes back to Google. Who knows, maybe the next
auto-update will surprise us with this new feature.

------
endeavor
If you look at the screenshot you get a better picture of why it bugs the
issue submitter so much: he's downloading torrents. I.e. in Chrome he's
downloading a tiny .torrent file, and the real download is happening in
uTorrent or some external downloader. So you can probably assume he's also
downloading quite a lot of those files.

Personally I like the Chrome download bar, but I get why it might get in the
way of some uses.

------
aristidesfl
The best download UI right now, is Safari's

~~~
bpatrianakos
Why? Come on man, don't leave us hanging. Give us an argument. Start a
discussion. You can't just leave that dangling out there like that. That's why
these comment threads exist.

------
mjcohenw
No! The biggest annoyances for me are:

1) Not easily switching to a new tab when it is opened (I somehow learned
about command-option-shift-click, but, really);

2) Not being able to use ctrl-scroll wheel (on Logitech trackball) to zoom
(command +/- not nearly as nice).

------
velodrome
My biggest annoyance: When I click on downloaded items on the download bar, it
takes me to the folder instead of opening the file.

Anybody have this same issue?

~~~
ps258
It opens the file for me.

------
klous
I've found Google Chrome's downloader stalls out or fails from time to time,
so I'm pushed to Firefox for these failed downloads.

------
ElliotH
Go to about:flags, enable New Downloads. Bar is disabled.

Easy.

~~~
pooriaazimi
OS X, Chrome 22 dev

I see no such flag.

~~~
ElliotH
Strange, I have it on both Windows and Linux, and the flag claims its
available on "Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS"

~~~
pooriaazimi
Yep. I updated my old PC's Chrome (it was on version 6! I thought Chrome auto-
updaed itself?) to latest version (21) and it was there. But strangely
changing it didn't change anything in the download UI.

------
TuanaJenn
There are hundreds of millions of people all over the world dying of diseases
and starvation. And you are complaining about the "download bar"? Are you
kidding me?

~~~
Farow
There are hundreds of millions of people all over the world dying of diseases
and starvation. And you are complaining about people complaining about the
"download bar"? Are you kidding me?

------
Karunamon
_There won't be an option to disable the shelf. There are other bugs about
making dismissing it easier. Status: WontFix_

Grr. What's the bloody point of open source if the developers of the project
won't accept wanted fixes? There are a number of ways I can think of off the
top of my head that don't involve taking up unnecessary screen space like
that.

Heck, even the Firefox extension for a download status bar isn't that absurdly
large.

~~~
Achshar
The point of open source is that if you don't like something, you can fork and
make your version which pleases you. Just because a project is open source
does not mean it will _have_ to incorporate every user request. Project
leads/managers still have their say in that project.

~~~
Karunamon
>..you can fork and make your version which pleases you.

Which is completely unrealistic for 99% of people out there. Nobody's going to
fork Chromium based on a single UI facet. And then even if you do, you're in
the unenviable position of maintaining a branch for a single UI fix.

Not happening in this universe, guys.

I just wish project leads/managers would listen a bit more to the community
rather than arrogantly dictating "It will be done this way, deal with it".

Failure to do that leads to crap like Gnome 3's infamous shutdown option.

~~~
Achshar
> I just wish project leads/managers would listen a bit more to the community
> rather than arrogantly dictating "It will be done this way, deal with it".

You say that looking at single side of the coin. On the other side, the story
is different. The devs receives several feature tweaks every single day. One
can give detailed responses for only so much longer. There will be one time
when you just cant write a satisfying response because it is not your main
job.

~~~
Karunamon
>There will be one time when you just cant write a satisfying response because
it is not your main job.

I've got to disagree here. There's always time to remain gracious and
professional. If you can't bother to keep those two qualities when dealing
with your users, you should probably find a new line of work.

~~~
madsushi
If I was the developer of the browser with the most rapidly growing market
share, I would definitely be looking for a new line of work. Wait, what?

~~~
Karunamon
If I was the developer of the browser with the most rapidly growing market
share, I would definitely not go out of my way to make my users feel
unimportant.

