Current situation with Google API keys and Chromium?

[BarryK]

@mikewalsh @peebee @rockedge @dimkr
Great, right now running Chromium in the upcoming Kirkstone-series of EasyOS, just about everything cross-compiled in OpenEmbedded, including Chromium.

It doesn't have Google API keys.

1.
I have read that Google have reduced the effectiveness of those keys in Chromium, but I haven't paid much attention, so don't know what that means. Are the keys still of use in Chromium?

2.
I think that the keys can be provided when compiling Chromium, but I think read somewhere that they can be provided afterward, to the binary. Is that true?

3.
I also read that keys can be obtained from Google, but they are for personal use only. I also read somewhere that there are keys available that can be used by anybody. Is this true, or is it actually illegal?

4.
If legal, does anybody know where to obtain them?

Questions, questions!

Planning to change to Chromium builtin for the Kirkstone-series, changing from Firefox. Initial impression, runs fast.

[mikewalsh]

@BarryK :-

Um.....o-kay.

So, let me get this straight. What you've essentially built is an embedded, 'vanilla' Chromium, direct from the source code.....yes? At least, that's what it sounds like.

I doubt I can be of much use here. I may re-package many of the Chromium-based 'clones', but the 'parent', Chromium, is paradoxically the one I actually know the least about. It tends to be always built utilising the very newest, cutting-edge versions of everything; essentially, Chromium is Google's R & D "testbed" for Chrome, since they're the ones who originally founded the Chromium Project to allay cries about being proprietary.......and have always been its principal 'sponsor'.

That said, whenever Google deem any given release to be stable enough for their own, Google-badged builds, they always re-compile that source code against a much older build environment. Which helps to make it available to, and usable BY, the greatest possible number of users. Which in turn boosts its perceived popularity.

Wheels within wheels, within yet other wheels..!

I think peebee would probably know more about the situation with Chromium than anyone else in our community. He has been supplying Chromium builds for as long as I can remember, and has often had to obtain his material from quite a range of different sources.

Mike.

[BarryK]

Mike,
Yes, it is the official source:

https://commondatastorage.googleapis.co ... PV}.tar.xz

where PV=106.0.5249.119

And various patches are applied:

https://github.com/OSSystems/meta-brows ... r/chromium

Released October 11, 2022:

https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/2 ... op_11.html

[peebee]

@BarryK

AlienBob has been discussing the api key situation on his blog for some time.............

This post probably gives the most background and information:

https://alien.slackbook.org/blog/how-to ... xperience/

[BarryK]

peebee,
That link is a great read, thanks very much!!!

So it seems the only reason for having the keys is for "safe browsing", that identifies unsafe web sites.

Personally, I don't use "cloud sync", but it is probably something others would miss.

Thanks for posting those keys.

Mike,
Regarding your comment that the ready-made Chromium binaries are compiled on older distributions, yeah, that's a disadvantage of what I have done. My Chromium is compiled for the upcoming Easy Kirkstone-series, and they are very recent libraries. glibc 2.35 for example.

But on the otherhand, have achieved a pleasingly small chromium binary.

[mikewalsh]

@BarryK :-

Syncing is great for anyone with a smartphone as well as a laptop or desktop PC, and more so if you're the sort that keeps multiple pieces of hardware in different, physically separate locations. It enables everything to operate from a single, "common" Google profile......because all you have to do is to sign-in.

Since I don't possess a smartphone - and wouldn't use it even if I did! - and both my machines are in the same physical location, running on a common LAN - I find the method I employ (that of 'sharing' a single instance of a 'portable' browser - with its profile - between multiple Puppies) to be every bit as effective.....because you're running the exact same browser - complete with browsing history, stored passwords, etc - regardless of the Puppy you happen to be in at the time. And if I use something like Ungoogled Chromium, then I'm effectively limiting Google's access to my data while I'm at it. They've had enough of it over the years; a little bit less won't do them any harm!

Mike.