It's pretty clear what Google is doing here, and it means that trying to keep the old Apps page will be fighting the tide.
For all the betas of the App Launcher until its recent release, the ability to select apps from within Chrome itself disappeared altogether when the App Launcher feature was enabled.
Google seems to think that 'Chrome apps' should not live in your 'web browser' (Chrome), but rather should just be a kind of regular app, for which Chrome is the backing platform -- like Java apps, or Air apps, or Silverlight apps, etc.
Apparently this was a bridge too far for users on release, so instead of moving to this new mode of thought all at once, they're giving us this intermediate form -- apps accessible from within Chrome, but much less conveniently.
In short: they're incentivizing you to use the App Launcher. Get used to it; they'll probably make it the only way soon!
Thank you SO much - I've been using fewer and fewer Google services, and the address box already does search so I don't need another bar, so I was really annoyed at these changes.
That said, I spent the evening trying to figure out how to fix Firefox's new tab page (half the thumbnails aren't there because Firefox doesn't store them for https:// sites to protect my privacy) - if you go into the thumbnails subdirectory of the Firefox profile directory, the files there are named using the MD5 hash of the URL of the page - just put a PNG in of the appropriate size and you can customize the blank thumbnails to your liking.
How can Google get away with intrusive changes like this especially if you can't even seem to disable major elements like the horrible most-recent boxes?
They can get away with it because it's their web browser and there are a lot of other choices. If enough people don't like it and switched they would probably change it back.
Tell me. How much did you pay for Chrome and what sort of service do you feel entitled to for that money?
Oh. Nada? Nothing at all. Then I guess they are at liberty to do whatever they damn please. Like they've done numerous times in the past.
If you want a browser you can make (and keep) yours, I suggest you move to Firefox. It's free (as in beer), so it suffers the same problems as Chrome, but it's extensible way beyond what the Chromium allows.
The biggest difference is probably that the Firefox-developers main concern is the browser, not the 200 other systems the company is trying to promote and shove down your throat, so asshattery like this is much more rare.
Tell me, how much did Google pay me for the right not to be criticized? Oh. Nada? Nothing at all. Then I guess I am at liberty to say whatever I damn please.
Oh feel free. I'm just telling you that you aren't entitled to anything. And that complaining is pointless.
Google is way past not listening to its users, power-users or regular users alike, as far as Chrome goes. They have a bigger strategy and Chrome is just one of many means to that end.
Make no mistake about it: Chrome will be bent and reshaped to fit that strategy, not your needs or desires.
I am entitled to complain and I don't think it is pointless at all. As you say, Chrome is part of a larger commercial strategy, but no such strategy can ever be completely detached from what people want.
In this particular case I'm actually pretty sure they will listen, at least partly. Forcing people to show their browser history to everyone around the desk every time you open a new tab has no future. This bug will be gone very very quickly.
Also, we need to finally realize that we are in fact paying customers of Google. The currency in the ad based parts of the economy is our attention. Using Chrome is paying Google. Chrome is how they gain privileged access to our attention. That is their strategy.
No, thanks. For the very same reasons I don't want all that junk on my new tabs, I don't want extensions.
Google can make the default whatever they want and I wouldn't complain if they'd just let me change it to what I want and if it would keep those settings across machines. Everytime I start Chrome and evertime I open a new tab in an existing window I want a blank page and an empty, focused omnibar. I'd also like to be able to remove the back, forward, refresh, bookmark star, and the '3 lines' button that no one has a good name for.
I hate this thing, now I have to scroll to open the most accessed pages. And what is the point of having a search bar there? I already got one below the tabs.
I bet the first draft for this thing was written in crayon.
For all the betas of the App Launcher until its recent release, the ability to select apps from within Chrome itself disappeared altogether when the App Launcher feature was enabled.
Google seems to think that 'Chrome apps' should not live in your 'web browser' (Chrome), but rather should just be a kind of regular app, for which Chrome is the backing platform -- like Java apps, or Air apps, or Silverlight apps, etc.
Apparently this was a bridge too far for users on release, so instead of moving to this new mode of thought all at once, they're giving us this intermediate form -- apps accessible from within Chrome, but much less conveniently.
In short: they're incentivizing you to use the App Launcher. Get used to it; they'll probably make it the only way soon!