Chrome installs app(s) without your knowledge
Just got around to debugging an issue where bookmarklets stop working on YouTube. Turns out that Chrome build 16 onwards, the official YouTube app for Chrome gets auto-installed for Chrome users and screws up bookmarklets on YouTube.
For the geeks, related bug details are here and here.
When I went into my Apps section of Chrome I found two which I don’t remember installing ever (including some obscure game I can’t recall now, as I removed it immediately). Remember the ninetees when Yahoo! Messenger was hot, but installing it using the wizard installed a couple of toolbars you didn’t care about? Me too. I think the term was bloatware.
Why install apps without the knowledge of the users? Beats me. I don’t use Chrome much, and I don’t even know what a Chrome App for a website does apart from being a glorified bookmark, but technically it interferes with bookmarklets, so it must be more than that.
Anyway, hope you remove all crapware that Google pushes to you through Chrome without your knowledge. Just open a new tab, click on Apps on bottom bar and check out the apps installed in your Chrome. If needed, right click and remove.
P.S. If you run a service that offers bookmarklets which might run in YouTube like Radbox you should check if it works on removing the YouTube app in Chrome.
