Google pulls Chrome extensions that bombarded users with spam ads

Google has booted out two extensions that from the Chrome Web Store for violating the company’s terms of services. The extensions included codes that served up advertisements in a way that was unacceptable to Google’s terms, within the Chrome browser.   The Wall Street Journal reports that post complaints about the two extensions spilling out on the Internet, Google has pulled out two extensions named “Add to Feedly” and “Tweet This Page” off the Chrome store. Both these extensions catered to a small user base of less than 100,000 users, but is a signal of things to come regarding adware for Google.   Both these extensions would reportedly serve up undesirable ads, sometimes in the middle of a completely unrelated webpage, much to the angst of the users. The extensions earlier had decent reviews but a silent update to both that saw them put up annoying ad pop-ups saw their popularity slide. The reviews section for the extensions saw users calling them spam and one-star ratings became the norm for them.   Amit Agarwal, the developer of “Add to Feedly” sold his extension to an unknown buyer for a small sum. The buyer ended up altering the extension’s code to add invasive advertising to it, causing uproar. Agarwal clarified how selling his extension off this way was a bad decision. He explained in his blog post that the business model of the buyer was simple; he would buy semi-popular extensions and inject malicious ad services into it. Ars Technica reports that “Tweet This Page” is also another extension that was purchased recently and loaded with advertisements.   Google, in December, updated its policies to bar software developers from using extensions to add advertisements on more than one part of the page. It’s a variant of a malware, known as adware and is in violation of Google’s mantra of making extensions easy to understand.   This is turning into a bit of a trend. More and more developers are coming out and talk about how they’re being approached for injecting adware to their extensions. However, Google is donning its spring-cleaning toolkit and seems keen to be pulling out any extensions that could cause an irritation to the users of the browser.