Derek DeVries – Imprudent Loquaciousness

The MikeLike “Pinterest Button” as it Appears in the Chrome Web Store

Public Service Announcement: Beware MikeLike and the “Pinterest Button”

My extraordinarily significant other recently noticed while browsing images in Pinterest that she suddenly had a button that said “Pin to MikeLike” appearing over every photo.  We tracked it down (props to Lani Rosales and Jen at Pin-n-Tell for their sleuthing)  to a deceptive piece of crapware calling itself the “Pinterest Button” in the Google Chrome store.

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If one were looking for a way to quickly pin things to Pinterest from their browser (as was the case here), they might accidentally install this turd and end up getting a pitch for the Pinterest clone MikeLike.

• The “Pinterest Button” extension was created by Yoshua Wuyts (who is from Amsterdam, so in fairness it could be poorly named because of the language barrier).
• MikeLike is a Pinterest copycat owned by Kalador Entertainment, Inc. in British Columbia, Canada.  Its UVP is that it purports to offer “private” pin boards.  Yippie. /sarcasm

You can remove the offending extension with these instructions.

Google Chrome Web Store Needs Better Support

Scumbags like Yoshua Wuyts ripping off the ideas of others and using deceptive social engineering tactics to spread their products are nothing new.  I apportion them the standard amount of shame they deserve.

What I’m more angry about is the Google Chrome Web Store, which is in serious need of some improvements:

1. Lackluster “Report This” Support: I searched the Chrome web store high and low for a “contact us” or “report this” option but didn’t find anything until I searched the “help” section and found a four-step process for flagging violations for review.  C’mon Google – you’re Google.  You can make this easier for people.
2. Mandatory Installations for Reviews:  Unfortunately the review feature of the Chrome web store requires that you install something in order to review it.  Seriously Google – you’re going to force me to install malware on my computer just so that I can warn others?