During a recent audit, Google discovered that some third-party Chromium-based browsers were able to provide their users with Chrome Sync, Click to Call, and other features exclusive to Google’s browser version. As a result, a small percentage of users were able to sign in to their Google Account via the browser cover and sync their data! Among other things, their bookmarks could be added to the overall experience in the same way that they would be in the regular Google Chrome.
Google has taken the open source code for Chromium and put countless hours on top of it with their own development teams to create experiences that are unique and competitive. The third-party browsers that were able to access Chrome Sync were not publicly identified via the Chromium Blog, but as a result, Google will restrict access to its private Chrome APIs as of March 15, 2021.
The company reassures users who were able to take advantage of this random access during this short period of time will still have access to their full account data via the internet or the official Google Chrome browser. In addition, Chrome Sync is now optional and not necessary, so users who want to use Chrome without syncing with the cloud can do so, though the benefits will be limited. Google Takeout also offers users the ability to keep a copy of their data for safekeeping.
This is an interesting and strange situation, but it’s good that Google has taken control of the situation. Say what you want to do from Google, but they work very hard with very intelligent people to come up with these unique and competitive features. If I were to create something, I would not want others to take it and use it elsewhere. It’s like eating a McDonald’s burger at Starbucks – it can be cool, but do not be that guy.
