I have been using Chrome as my browsing tool for quite a while now. I almost went back to Internet Explorer when Google decided I didn’t need the up and down arrows at the end of the vertical scroll bar. Nobody needs those because you can scroll using the wheel on the mouse or your arrow keys. At least that is what they thought.
The problem is that when you have different areas on the browser window with separate scroll bars, the keys and scroll button don’t always work as expected.
So, here are my points:
- I don’t think they did an adequate job of research before removing the buttons
- They use continuous integration to take them away…so they just disappeared one day
- They use continuous integration…so they simply re-appeared when they got enough flack and third parties were writing code to fix it
I think this is a good demonstration of continuous release and how powerful it is for getting software updates into the hands of users. Not every product lends itself to continuous release…but when it is done well it can be a nice asset.
I think this is another example of how a company needs to be careful when making assumptions about how things are used. Microsoft made a lot of work much harder with the new Windows 8 interfaces (ie. missing start button). Google made scrolling more difficult in some cases. Software is supposed to make the life of the user better, not cater to the most inept user.
Please don’t leave the power users behind.
That’s enough ranting for me today. Now it’s your turn. Share your favorite feature that was removed by some omniscient software developer. Send me an email to btaylor@sswug.org, or share your comments here online.
Cheers,
Ben