Bob, spot on!! Your picture is worth 1000 words lol! Now if you click on "learn more" toward the top of the page, you will see Google has a record of your access, as long as your arm. I am glad to see that your version of the Google info also spells "chrome" and not "chromium". I admire the level-headed way you do your posts (I have read many of them). People tend to forget that blustering a reply stays there, and something may come up that makes such a reply look stupid
DavidR, not sure why you can't see it, but thanks for trying to be constructive, appreciated
As for the ticket reply I got from avast! around the browser issue, they used the exact words "Google Chrome" as used by them for their browser in avast!. Unless avast! themselves don't know the difference between "Google Chrome" and "Chromium", or are perhaps themselves confused as to what is actually in their product, I will nonetheless for the interim accept their reply above attempts to mush the two terms by others. Its Google Chrome for now.
As for Google being able to advertise to me in the Safe Zone - this implies said company has the privilege to read from, and write to, the so-called inner sanctum, the 'Safe Zone' - yet we are assured that keyloggers (probably written by dumb nerds who don't know better) cannot?. Ehh? This fact, in addition to the Google Chrome issue above, makes me very uncomfortable indeed. For those who feel I am pointing fingers, pick one. Of course it would be stupid of avast! to deny such privileges to Google, especially if these two companies have some sort of partnership, where Google somehow (shows a fat wallet) rides on the back of the avast! product for advertising reach while at the same time avast! helps spread the Google Chrome Gospel. That seems like the usual business partnership thing. Where avast! seems to have blundered is in the way they have gone about answering queries like mine (they were honest about Google Chrome, but fudged the advertising one - mixed messages to my mind), and of course their bungling of the well-known Google Chrome installation issue. My point is: why don't avast! / Google just state this up front (or openly deny it), allow customers to openly and fairly choose whether they want the naughty bits together with the main package, and respect their customers wishes after that?
By the way, I did my homework before the original post, and have stated publicly on this forum my experience and feelings about them. I am convinced this is a good way to subject these to public scrutiny, and my hope is to learn from the greater 'crowd'. It would be nice, though, if those who do reply, do their homework first, too