Obviously they could have a consensual and transparent updating mechanism. This was not some sort of oversight.
Google's software is a cascade of lies and deceptions.
Think about this: when you start to tamper with Keystone agent, it never says anything to you, it just silently reinstalls itself somewhere else like spyware.
It will keep asking over and over for root access, without explaining why. They make it seem like your installation is incomplete without root access, but that is a lie. It will function fine running out of ~/Library/ as /Library. But there is no way to make it stop asking.
Google Earth, Google Drive, or many other Google products will re-install Keystone agent.
If I try deleting it, then that means I probably want it gone. They should prompt me to repair it or leave it alone.
You would think that Google would want to show off their updater. Even just a growl notification that an update has occurred.
But it makes sense why they don't want users thinking about it. If they were more transparent, they would say:
We've installed this software that will monitor your filesystem and make irreversible changes whenever we feel like it. Sometimes we will break things, but most of the time we won't and if we do break something, we will fix it. It is possible to disable, but you will have to search for it, because you will never discover it yourself. Oh, we could just have a checkbox in Preferences, but we want to make you work for it. And all you are doing is requesting that we stop updating, but we'll still be running.
it's telling that you're still willing to put up with all of this despite what appears to be several really, really angry posts about it.
you have tons of complaints in this thread about google's "bad behavior" but you continue to put up with it to by patronizing the company and their tools, without even apparently asking the question, "do i really need chrome?" or whatever. have you asked yourself why you keep their software on your computer if it's such a headache?
i'm sure i'll get the typical "but there's nothing better!!" response and there may not be, but it's telling of you personally that you are willing to get so upset with all of this and then... keep on keeping on.
Are the issues I've brought up not worth being frustrated about? Do you think I'm a hypocrite for complaining about the thing that I use?
What would you suggest I do?
I use Chrome sometimes. Firefox is bad in its own way, often emulating the worst of Chrome. Like, at least the Keystone agent is unobtrusive and you don't even know it is there. Last time I checked, Firefox's Updater.app is just as disrespectful to the user, but it is horribly inefficient and clumsy.
Google's software is a cascade of lies and deceptions.
Think about this: when you start to tamper with Keystone agent, it never says anything to you, it just silently reinstalls itself somewhere else like spyware.
It will keep asking over and over for root access, without explaining why. They make it seem like your installation is incomplete without root access, but that is a lie. It will function fine running out of ~/Library/ as /Library. But there is no way to make it stop asking.
Google Earth, Google Drive, or many other Google products will re-install Keystone agent.
If I try deleting it, then that means I probably want it gone. They should prompt me to repair it or leave it alone.
You would think that Google would want to show off their updater. Even just a growl notification that an update has occurred.
But it makes sense why they don't want users thinking about it. If they were more transparent, they would say: We've installed this software that will monitor your filesystem and make irreversible changes whenever we feel like it. Sometimes we will break things, but most of the time we won't and if we do break something, we will fix it. It is possible to disable, but you will have to search for it, because you will never discover it yourself. Oh, we could just have a checkbox in Preferences, but we want to make you work for it. And all you are doing is requesting that we stop updating, but we'll still be running.