Exactly. The Google culture nowadays is a lot of climbers cynically trying to sell new ideas and then abandoning them once they get promo. It didn't always used to be like that.
Their company culture sounds like shit. They should be more like Valve. Make a great thing and then forget it exists until it sucks just because it's too old.
Google: "Thanks for your feedback, we hear you loud in clear. In response, we've launched 5 new messenger apps (only 3 available in your region), changed the names and branding of 3 other messengers, and completely discontinued 8 other messenger apps. We hope you enjoy playing our little game of Three Card Monty trying to figure out which messenger actually works now."
My favorite thing about this is I was using Hangouts for SMS messaging for like two years after they said they'd stop supporting it. I don't know if I just got lucky and someone forgot to turn off a server somewhere or what, but even their inconsistency is inconsistent.
I'm not defending Google but I think the change is just an admission that the old "Chromecast" branding is outdated. It wouldn't surprise me if less than 5% of users still regularly cast from a desktop browser.
Pretty sure they can't bundle it. AFAIK the libraries required for it ship with Chrome / Android and it's not an open standard. The hacky weird workarounds are people brute forcing it.
How? It's closed sourced tech. Not like Firefox can just add it, they would have to pay Google for it (and that's assuming google would license Firefox for this and remove a competitive advantage from Chrome Browser)
All I know is I appreciate their slow roll. Everytime they break something I replace it with the non-Google option. I've got a small nuc as my main HTPC tied into my plex. Been waiting for an excuse to swap my first Gen Google hockey Puck from like 2012 in my bedroom.
Imo the old UI was way less clunky than the new one with the remote. You didn't need to log into anything, just cast to the screen. EZPZ. The new one, you need to install the app on the Chromecast, log in on the Chromecast, then you can cast n it will work maybe 60% of the time with casting. Casting's broken, but hey, it's cool, we have apps and a remote now, just use those. The stupid remote gets lost all the time, which obviously wasn't an issue before because your phone/ laptop was the remote. Google thought ahead though, and added remote functionality to the home app that also works about 60% of the time.
Crazy to think that even the newest Pixels can't cast to any device unless you specifically have Chromecast support, which most of the TVs don't. I can cast my Samsung or iPhone just fine tho