alt Hacker NewsI remember when these rolled out.. it was just an obvious cash grab by cert vendors, trying to create a trust-badge in collusion with browsers.
Back then, cert vendors would try to sell you on "premium" certificates.. telling you that cheap ssl certificates weren't good enough, so you needed to pay for $100-300+/yr certificate, and you could show to your visitors by displaying silly trust seals like the "Thwarte Seal".. as if customers would know who the hell Thwarte is.
Then this EV seal was launched, displaying what was essentially a trust seal in the browser.. and these same vendors would charge $500+/yr for it.
I can't express how great it is that EV certs died.
The browser vendors, I think, were at least making a good-faith attempt to address a real security problem; it's not like they made any money from EV certificates. Even if it was inevitably going to be marketed somewhat predatorily, and ultimately didn't work out.