100,000 Disconnect’ers

Sometime today, Disconnect and Facebook Disconnect combined got their 100,000th active user on Chrome. Disconnect was released exactly one week ago and had 25,170 users as of yesterday. Facebook Disconnect was released exactly two months ago and had 74,417 users.

That the extensions, with no viral features, marketing, or PR (I just gave TechCrunch an exclusive preview of Disconnect), are now being run by 100,000 people each week is a clear message to Facebook, Google, and every other Internet company that they can’t take our data without our permission anymore.

Meet Disconnect

My 2,686th, and Last, Day at Google

I left Google a month back (and have been doing a little hacking since). I’m told posting your farewell email is all the rage, so here goes:

From: Brian Kennish <bkennish@google.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 12:15 PM
Subject: My 2,686th, and Last, Day at Google


(Some of those were Saturdays, Sundays, and days I was pretending to be sick.)

Seven years, six jobs, four teams, three offices, and two coasts later, I’m turning in my Google badge. I’ve been getting asked for three-and-a-half years, “Why are you still here?” The answer was simple: devrel.

I’m certain the developer-relations job and team are the best things about Google. I can finally admit: I can’t believe you can get paid to help startups and independent developers build cool stuff — I’d do so for free. The people on this team and those we work closely with are amazingly talented and dedicated and I’m feeling lucky I got to learn from many of you. Most of all, I want to thank Mike for turning this ragtag bunch of misfits into an important and respected part of Google. We’ve come a long way and I don’t know another manager who would’ve gotten us so far.

I wish I could say goodbye to everyone and have hardly had a chance to to anyone. But if I linger, I might end up changing my mind. Please stay in touch. You can get a hold of me by replying-all to this message (my personal address is in the “To:” field). And I’m pretty easy to find on the web now — a year and a half of developer advocacy and I’ve totally pwned the other three Brian Kennishes in Google search results.

Boo! Facebook Disconnect’s Scary Install Dialog

It’s Halloween, a good time to answer a frequently asked question about this scary confirmation box that pops up when you install Facebook Disconnect:

Google Chrome Extensions, like all installable software, can potentially do bad things and the extension gallery displays accordingly dire warning messages. Unlike compiled programs, though, extensions let you easily view their (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) source code to make sure they don’t actually do anything malicious.

Facebook Disconnect triggers a warning because the extension has to inject JavaScript into every page you browse to disable the component Facebook links. There are three ways to get a packaged extension’s code (a topic worthy of its own post), but you can just look in my repository since I’ve open-sourced Facebook Disconnect.

Update (December 3, 2010): If you’d rather take my word for it than read my code — Facebook Disconnect doesn’t store your personal data and never will, unless you opt in to anonymously provide data for diagnostic purposes in the future.

Facebook Disconnect Logo

I’ll have more to say about the making of and response to the Facebook Disconnect extension later. For now, I’m dumping all different sizes of the logo I made for you to post. These images are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (the same license Creative Commons marks their own work with).

Spread the word!

140 x 140:

128 x 128:

64 x 64:

48 x 48:

32 x 32:

16 x 16:

HTML5 Game Jam in 20 Pictures

Last weekend, we ran Google’s first-ever game jam in the Netherlands (with Spil Games) and San Francisco. We put food, beer, and developers in and fun games came out. Here’s a look at the sausage being made in San Francisco:

Mobile Lawsuit T-Shirt

George Kokkinidis made an awesome infographic yesterday, which shows who’s suing who for infringing their mobile patents. Since I’m speaking on a panel at the CTIA wireless conference tomorrow, I turned George’s chart into a shirt to wear there:

P.S. You can pretty much calculate how screwed (or not) a company is using the chart. Here’s an equation to do so:

E.g., Kodak is:

100% screwed.

Almost Resignation Letters on TechCrunch

I thought TechCrunch’s acquisition by AOL was a Bad Thing, for pretty much everybody involved — the readers, the writers, the startups, AOL. Paul Carr voices what must be the prevailing feeling among his peers: “Like most serious writers, I’ve always dreamed of working for AOL.”

So I can’t say I’m surprised by the ha-ha-only-serious letters of resignation that have been popping up on the site since. Already, three of TechCrunch’s dozen staff writers have posted all-but-goodbyes:

• “I Can’t Work Under These Conditions :-)” — Michael Arrington
• “NSFAOL: Highlights From Yesterday’s Secret ‘Welcome To AOL’ Meeting” — Paul Carr
• “If Web 1.0’s Kryptonite Was the Bust, Web 2.0 Kryptonite Was the Grind” — Sarah Lacy

Of Fail Whales and Other Fine Feathered Friends

(OK, so whales don’t have feathers. What are you a fucking marine biologist?)

Facebook introduced their error page to the world yesterday and they certainly set a new standard among social networks for animal-themed whimsy.

First, Twitter threw down the gauntlet:

Then, Digg:

And now, Facebook:

Shouldn’t Hulu Be Saying “Congratulations”?

As in, “Congratulations, we’re unable to load a message from our sponsors!”

Upcoming Speaking Gigs

I'm giving a few talks in the next couple weeks. Here are my session titles and abstracts, the where and when, and my speaker bio:

• Extensions5: Advanced Google Chrome Extensions with HTML5
  Google DevFest Japan
  March 11th

  A deep dive into advanced techniques for developing extensions — like communicating within and between extensions, effectively injecting content, and integrating HTML5 features.

  More Info

• HTML5 101
  South by Southwest Interactive
  March 14th and 15th

  An overview of the latest HTML, CSS, and JavaScript features being built into modern browsers — including audio, video, typography, animation, notifications, and more.

  More Info

• Advanced Google Chrome Extensions
  South by Southwest Interactive
  March 14th

  [See above.]

  More Info

• Brian Kennish was the first support engineer at Google back when the AdWords API was launched. Since then, he's helped launch four more Google developer products — gadget ads, the Analytics API, Wave, and Chrome Extensions. Brian is currently a developer advocate for Google Chrome.

Since the Google Buzz Logo Looks Like a Pie Chart …