This kind of stuff really grinds my gears, especially when you consider the obscene level of wealth and human resources available to these companies. There’s no excuse for secret experiments and forcing users to beta test, especially on the f’n job in real time with no heads up. The people and companies affected have every right to be upset.
I’m not sure about that. Chrome is a consumer product through-and-through. I know Google has published some GPO extensions for management, but at its core it’s a consumer product intended to gather user information. IMO not at all suitable for scaled deployment in a controlled professional environment. This is the kind of behavior to expect from a Google product. If the company’s LoB is so dependent on a web browser, Chrome is probably not the best choice.
That’s actually a good point; I hadn’t considered it from that angle, as it appears many are in fact using Chrome in a controlled professional environment, as you say. So that being the case — certainly Google is aware of this usage, even if unsuitable — I guess my question is, is it too much to ask for some transparency or a heads up rather than going the “secret experiments” route? The way I see it, it’s not even in their own best interest as a company (to say nothing of the best interests of others), with all the pissed off users and bad press that results. (And obviously it’s not just Google, we see this pattern of behavior from many others on a regular basis.) It doesn’t make sense to me, but maybe I’m missing something. 
How is that any different than any other browser? All mainstream browsers are consumer products, first and foremost.
And that’s another thing, even if it is a so-called consumer product and not for professional consumption, does that make secret experiments/testing any better? I don’t think it does.
It’s different because other browsers that have a branch suitable for professional use will issue release notes detailing such changes, and can be integrated better with endpoint deployment software to allow testing for problems like this prior to broad rollout.
Agree with you here, definitely crummy behavior by Google, professional or consumer.
My point is, angry IT pros should direct a bit of their anger at their own practices for allowing this to happen in their environment. I like this career because for the most part, you decide for yourself just how much work you’ll do. If you setup processes and practices wisely, your daily job gets much easier. Anyone who is allowing a third party to reach in and change bits on their network without their knowledge is asking for trouble.