We’ve been anticipating it for years, and it’s finally happening. Google is finally killing uBlock Origin – with a note on their web store stating that the extension will soon no longer be available because it “doesn’t follow the best practices for Chrome extensions”.
Now that it is finally happening, many seem to be oddly resigned to the idea that Google is taking away the best and most powerful ad content blocker available on any web browser today, with one article recommending people set up a DNS based content blocker on their network 😒 – instead of more obvious solutions.
I may not have blogged about this but I recently read an article from 1999 about why Gopher lost out to the Web, where Christopher Lee discusses the importance of the then-novel term “mind share” and how it played an important part in dictating why the web won out. In my last post, I touched on the importance of good information to democracies – the same applies to markets (including the browser market) – and it seems to me that we aren’t getting good information about this topic.
This post is me trying to give you that information, to help increase the mind share of an actual alternative. Enjoy!
I might try uBlock Origin Lite, then if it doesn’t work very well then maybe I’ll just use Firefox
I guess Google are betting that only a small segment of power users will switch to Firefox, while the mass of ordinary people won’t be bothered enough to switch.
Just use Firefox already
The mass of people don’t use any ad-blocking at all.
This is definitely a selfish opinion but people who block adverts or torrent being a small percentage of users can be a good thing.
If they lose even 5% of their userbase to Firefox over this decision, they’ll find a way to make grand modifications to Google search and YouTube in a manner that stops you blocking ads from alternative browsers, and while I’m happy swapping to an alternative search engine, it’ll definitely becometedious to sidestep Google’s gaze.
But if it’s 0.1% of people who swap due to this, and Google already don’t care about the small percentage they lose to Firefox then I would rather sit under the radar and not be cracked down on.
It kills the full version of uBlock but there is a lite version that has fewer functions as well.
For now. And Google super mega promises to never rug pull that one.
Oh great. Back to sucking Google’s teat for me then!
Honest question here, since chromium (vs chrome) is open source, can someone not fork an older version, or remove the new code blocking ublock?
I mean i assume it cant be done, but i dont know why
It can be done, but then whoever forks that will need to stay on top of keeping that fork up to date with other changes in the original chromium, and that gets harder and harder to do as time goes on and more changes are made to the same or related parts of the codebase.
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Google: We changed a color
Fork Developer: they changed a color and it caused 50,000 breaking changes that a diff tool can’t handle automatically wtf.
Google: sorry wrong color here’s a new one
Fork developer: another 100,000 breaking changes that a diff can’t handle?!?!
Also all the ad blocking extensions would have to continue maintaining forks of their own projects for increasingly obscure manifest V2 Chromium browsers.
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Switch to Firefox
Or a fork :)
Or a spoon
And my axe!
And my bow!
And my mustache!
Free rides!
Free Hat!
We kept Firefox alive for you all these years. You’re welcome.
Didn’t Google paying them loads of money keep FF alive?
Yes, but Google would not have done that if nobody used Firefox
Yes and it’s likely that they will not be allowed to any longer after Google lost their anti-trust case.
Finally made the switch to Firefox just 2 days ago. Great so far.
be sure to check out the extensions, there’s several that are game changers.
What are some of the game changing extensions?
New tab tools.
You can even do a trick to make it your home tab
Ad nauseum
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We’ll, uBlock 😎
Listen here, you little shit
Camelizer, will give you price history for anything on amazon.
Vimium. Allows you to use your keyboard to navigate instead of needing to always reach for the mouse.
probably different for everyone, for me i use Adblocker Ultimate Ublock Origin Enhancer for Youtube DeArrow Stylebot Buster Context play/pause
Christ on a bike, you’d think they’d give it a more succinct name
(Either leave a blank line between lines, or put two spaces at the end of each word)
You used a comma once. You could have used it again …
Looking at the source of the comment, OP only hit enter once per extension name they entered, and that’s why they’re showing up as if they’re one long run-on sentence. @Num10ck@lemmy.world probably didn’t know that you have to double enter for things to show up on separate lines.
I went ahead and found links for all of them, for anyone curious to check em out. I don’t personally know any of them, besides uBlock and Stylebot:
Oh thanks! Dearrow looks interesting
thanks Riot, it looked fine in Voyager when i was creating it. hitting enter once for carriage return has been correct for a century, whats with the double enter system?
As far as I know, that’s just always how it’s been for markdown, which is what Lemmy uses. So in order to be sure that your comment looks the way you want it to, it’s a good idea to use the Preview function, which Voyager thankfully also has under the 3 dots menu in the lower right.
@Mr_Blott@feddit.uk also mentioned that you can put two spaces at the end of each word, and then it’ll count the one enter as a proper line break.
Like this. You can also do as I did, and just put a dash in front of everything, and then it’ll turn into an unordered list.
Libredirect
“I don’t care about cookies” although it does occasionally break some websites
For me, it was multi-account containers. All Meta properties open in their own independent, sandboxed tabs now. Xwitter opens in a different independent, sandboxed tab. It makes their tracking cookies useless, plus it also lets you be logged into the same service with multiple accounts simultaneously.
No, HVEC / H.265 codec support so no modern 4K security camera or plex/jellyfin etc high quality video support.
plex/jellyfin etc high quality video support
H265 isn’t the only option there. AV1 is great and fully supported by Jellyfin (and I imagine Plex?)
H.265 is the defecto standard on Security cameras, and I am not going to migrate content to AV1 that is already in H.265.
Use VLC to view the video feed for your cams, better experience overall for that
Not when you are using an NVR with scrubbing and everything in the web UI. https://frigate.video/
All in all it would be an inconvenient workaround for something that already works seamlessly across Safari, Edge, Chrome etc.
damn dude, all you do is bitch. maybe get a different camera setup.
How is giving a sober and straightforward explanation of why he can’t use Firefox “bitching”? The simple fact is “switch to Firefox” isn’t a solution for everyone in every case. Burying your head in the sand about that benefits nobody.
Na man I have modern 4k cameras, I need a modern browser… They have literally build chipsets around this and many standards call for h.264 or h.265. That isn’t changing.
Mozilla decided over 8 years ago not to support HVEC because of patents…
Jellyfin can handle the transcoding to AV1 where needed. Albeit that’s a bit less ideal than direct play as you need the hardware to transcode.
Not spending hundreds to upgrade my server to support 4K to 4K transcoding. Even accelerated on a VERY recent CPU or GPU Encoding in AV1 is costly while at the same time decoding H.265.
Again Essentially every major browser supports HVEC now, other than Firefox.
If it’s a personal machine in which you have a choice on browser why not just use one of the native Jellyfin apps?
major browser supports HVEC now, other than Firefox.
Every other major browser is an overcommercialized pile of crap (or built atop the same) that can afford to pay for the licenses to use HEVC or has no qualms shipping proprietary code with their software that they don’t control.
Also apparently on Windows you can enable experimental HEVC hardware decoding support. You’ll need to install “HEVC Video Extensions” (from Microsoft themselves) ($0.99) in the Windows App Store and toggle “media.wmf.hevc.enabled” in about:config.
looks like the bigger issue is hvec itself. Also the support is extremely spotty with all the other browsers as well, with it still only having limited support in Chrome as well depending on your hardware.
Or just use av1 instead. I’ve literally never run into this as an issue before lol.
Jellyfin
Use the desktop client or jellyfin-mpv-shim and you’ll get HEVC support and superior image quality.
According to caniuse.com, it works now in the Nightly builds and can be enabled in other builds via the
media.wmf.hevc.enabledpref inabout:config.I use Firefox Dev Edition and I think it’s enabled there. But either way, you can enable it on stable.
Night, windows only, and needs to be enabled with about: config… ie it almost has some support maybe. Also doesn’t work via webrtc so it doesn’t actually help me with the viewing the security cam feeds.
champagne problems.
Core web app compatibility vs … “enhanced” ad blocking. MS teams and some other business tools also don’t support Firefox but work fine in Chrome and Safari.
It is something the Firefox team needs to work on again. I used Firefox from when it was released until Chrome came out and mopped the floor with it. At the time Firefox became the bloated beast and went through a reset.
Unfortunately trying to have a firm stance on not implementing HVEC when they no longer had the largest market share was a bad move and they seem to be slowly back tracking on that.
MS Teams not working as well in Firefox is a “we want you using Edge or Chrome” Microsoft issue, not a Firefox issue.
You wouldn’t believe the amount of enterprise-sector MS websites that have went from works fine on Firefox to completely broken on anything but Chrome very quickly after Edge became Chrome with a lick of paint.
I work in IT I am well aware.
Probably no ads on your self-hosted frigate/jellyfin pages though, so you can just keep using chrome for that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
didn’t firefox remove ublock origin too?
I read that they temporarily (and apparently accidentally) removed the uBlock Origin Lite extension but they’re not getting rid of Manifest v2 that allows normal uBlock Origin to work.
The developer released the lite version on Firefox because it might be better for Android Firefox users. I guess there was some confusion.
i suspect that they will remove manifest v2 support
They said they have no plans to deprecate v2 and if they ever do, will provide 12 months notice before doing so. So, I think there will be time to prepare for that switch.
No. They didn’t.
It’s a “Recommended by Mozilla” extension.
Begone, concern troll.
Can I just add a different perspective on this?
My dad is really old (like early baby-boomers), and I am basically the in-family tech support when the home computer starts acting strange.
Well, right after google rolled out this update, my dad clicked on what he thought was an online shopping link. It was actually an ad for a toolbar add-on. Queue like 6+ hours trying to uninstall that add-on and the bundled software.
I never had to worry about that in the past with him because I had u-block origin installed. Now I need to find something else that can run quietly in the background. And probably a better antivirus.
I think you mean cue, not queue.
Buy a Raspberry PI, install PiHole or AdGuard, change router DNS, and you are good to go. Yes, not perfect, but doesn’t rely on a browser extension that can go extinct next time the browser decides it is time for a change.
Or just do what I do. Use Firefox and only keep Chromium around for those few sites that work better in Chromium.
… or use Firefox and migrate their bookmarks.
I recently switched back to Firefox, and almost immediately ran into an issue where I couldn’t log into Dropbox. It took me far longer than I’d like to admit, to realize that Firefox as the problem. I popped into edge and logged in immediately no problem.
I’m still gonna will with Firefox, but it’s annoying that it doesn’t work all the time.
This is part of Googles strategy. Ever since the Chromium engine took off enough and everyone else fell behind they began introducing more and more changes that merely benefits them, with less public debate or proper communication (or even adherence to common standards). Last thing I remember, aside of manifest v3, was them killing off JPEG XL as it was a competitor to webp and webm (which they control). JPEG XL was actively worked on and would’ve probably turned out better before they killed it without any previous notice.
Given Googles dominant market position, their influence and everyone wanting to cut corners wherever possible sometimes Firefox support is just ignored.
tl;dr It’s not Firefox’ fault. It’s Google’s sabotage.
Ah I see, it sounds like I’m saying it’s Firefox fault. No I definitely agree, chromium is the largest market share, and gets the most support, and doesn’t always follow standards, so some websites will have compatibility issues if they don’t specifically focus on Firefox support.
It’s just a sucky situation.
Uhh, that doesn’t seem normal at all. Is this a default config? Any extensions in use?
Fresh install of Windows 10, fresh install of Firefox, fresh install of Dropbox.
I was trying to log into Dropbox to authenticate the app, but every time I got to the part where I had to enter my 2fa it would say it was expired. I grew concerned that I was hacked and it was changed, but trying it on my old computer it worked fine.
Then I said fine, I had accidentally paired my Dropbox account with my Google account years ago, so I guess I’ll use that. So I logged into Google, and then clicked sign in with my Google account, and I got stuck in a loop where the page was refreshing everything few seconds.
The page would load, it would say “signing you in with your Google account”, then it would say at the top in red letters something like “sorry, you haven’t signed in recently enough to do that, please log in”, and the entire page would refresh and start the loop over, “signing you in with your Google account” etc etc. I left it go through several cycles, it was never gonna work.
It was about then that I guessed that Firefox might be the problem, and it was 🤷♂️
The only non standard thing about my config, is that Windows is inside of a VM. That could very well be it too? But edge was also in that same VM, and it worked. I only used edge because I’m trying to keep the VM light, so I didn’t install chrome for a one off thing.
I don’t know why I got down voted in my earlier comment, I’m not pooping on Firefox. I honestly want it to work, and am still going to use it. But the facts are facts, I literally just ran into this issue yesterday 🤷♂️
That’s what I ended up doing. It was a weird conversation though, telling him that if it seemed like some website wasn’t working, try it on chrome and it just might work
You’re awesome!
Nooooo, but MV3 is all about security!
This is how I know this is bullshit. I was reading the article and thinking "So, let me get this straight. The ads aren’t the security risk. It’s the ad blockers!"
Sure. Pull the other one.
You could leverage Kitbogas software in relation to scam/sketchy download protection.
Paid and closed source with a proprietary license.
Is there any organization out there that could actually promote an “Acceptable ad standard”? Like, maybe even something within web specs?
A long time ago, ads were slightly irritating, rarely useful, and considered a necessary evil for gently monetizing the web. We’ve had this slow evolution to draconian tracking nightmares that are genuinely dangerous and often written by malicious untraceable actors. I almost feel like we could pressure back towards decent ads if there was some standard by which they only received basic info about the user, showed basic info about a product, didn’t pollute the experience or ruin accessibility, and were registered to businesses by physical address with legal accountability for things like false advertising.
That is…perhaps a vain hope though. It’s just hard to picture futures where all websites run off of donations or subscriptions, because advertising is fucking hell now.
You mean like https://acceptableads.com/ which is only supported so far by Adblock Plus (and its parent company)?
The problem is until there is some kind of penalty for being too annoying or too resource consuming, it will always be a race to the bottom with more, worse ads. As people add ad blockers to their browsers, the user pool that isn’t running them begins to dry up and more ads are needed to keep the same revenue. This results in even more people blocking them.
Two of the things I had hope for on the privacy side was Mozilla’s Privacy-Preserving Attribution for ad attribution and Google’s Privacy Sandbox collection of features for targeting like the Topics API. Both would have been better for privacy than the current system of granular, individual user tracking across sites.
If those two get wide enough adoption, regulation could be put in place to limit the old methods as there would be a better replacement available without killing the whole current ad supported economy of most sites. I get that strictly speaking from a privacy perspective ‘more anonymous/private tracking’ < ‘no tracking’ but I really don’t want perfect to be the enemy of better.
Acceptable Ads is bullshit on many levels:
- It’s made by an ad company
- The same ad company runs multiple popular ad blockers (including AdBlock Plus)
- There are no standards on privacy invasion
uBlock Origin, or at least uBlock Origin Lite on Chromium-like browsers, are must-haves.
The best browser you can set up for a family member, IMO, is Firefox. Disable Telemetry (which should rid them of Mozilla’s own ad scheme too), install uBlock Origin, remind them to never call or trust any other tech support people who reach out to them, and maybe walk them through some scam baiting videos.
I’m still evaluating which Chrome-likes are best at actual ad blocking, and the landscape is grim.
Google would never push this because it would cost them money in the short term, eg, next quarter.
They can’t have that.
You can always keep Chromium installed for the odd site that doesn’t work in Firefox (my daily driver). I do web development and test in every browser and I almost never encounter sites that don’t work in FF. The only one I can recall is something in the Azure Portal, probably because Microsoft wants you using Edge.
Typically, Safari is the laggard and any developer worth their salt would make sure their site works on iPad and iPhone. When a new web standard is released, usually Chromium supports it first but even then, not always. And web developers usually don’t use features that aren’t implemented across the board yet. I know I go to caniuse.com before I use something fresh out the oven.
If a site requires chrome, it doesn’t require me. If I need it for work, I’ll use Edge instead.
but edge is based on chromium???
Doesn’t Vivaldi have built-in blockers?
Yes, Vivaldi does: https://vivaldi.com/features/ad-blocker/
Yes, but it’s neither as good at adblocking as UBlock Origin or as fully featured.
Brave will still support manifest v2 AFAIK.
Brave also has its own blockers built in. All of which, I’m told by this article, are still not as good as uBO.
Whatever. Just use Firefox for your daily driver and only use Chromium when absolutely necessary.
Or don’t. It will become obvious which browser has the better blocker.
This argument is covered in the article.
You can make a windows registry change to have Chrome let you keep using uBlock Origin, with the V2 manifest. It will buy you six more months, basically the enterprise support period.
There was a handy shortcut created by the Security Now podcast you can use as a one-click file to update the policy. The show notes also give a more detailed breakdown of what’s going on.
The relevant section in the notes is page 10. The link to the file is page 12. https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-995-notes.pdf
Or just use Firefox and deal with that.
After i uninstalled chrome some time ago, i noticed it had been slowing down my entire system even when its not on. There is nothing of worth in using it or any other browser derived from it.
Will Brave haves a built-in blocker. So here’s that.
Vivaldi has that, too, without the cryptobro People owning the browser.
I switched to Zen, personally as any chromium seems to be doomed unless someone manages to fork the base project and take it away from Google
idk if this blog is right or wrong correct me:
https://vivaldi.com/blog/why-vivaldi-will-never-create-thinkcoin/That’s explicitly making clear how bad of an idea crypto is?
It’s their opinion on crypto
Yeah - and they explain why they’ll never do a crypto currency. I don’t see how this is challenging anything I said before
Alr
Crypto stuff in Brave is opt-in. So just don’t turn it on.
personally as any chromium seems to be doomed unless someone manages to fork the base project and take it away from Google
ungoogled-chromium (windows version) is that.
Vivaldi is closed source. Brave isn’t. Even with all its very real problems, Brave is the best option aside from Firefox, especially once you turn off all the weird stuff
vivaldi has components open source but the ui is non-free
That’s essentially the same as not being open source considering the only part that’s open source is the engine code, which is mostly just chromium
i am talking about this, You cannot compile it from source tho.
this is why vivaldis ui is not open source
Chrome, now with added crypto and homophobia
Is duckduckgo chromium based?
I don’t use it, just curious.
Unluckily, yes.
There are only 3 independent browser engines left: Firefox, Chromium and Safari. And Chromium derives from Safari, so the only true alternative is Firefox.
There is also a developing project Ladybird (with homebrew libweb), although it is far from production-ready.
Yes, of course there are more projects. KHTML itself was a different engine (which Apple took, modified and re-released with the name of Safari). I just mentioned the only three “complete” and production-ready engines.
Eh, Chromium’s Blink and Safari’s WebKit diverged quite some time ago, I think it’s fair to consider them separate engines at this point.
There is also Goanna / Pale Moon: https://www.palemoon.org/
Gecko, blink and webkit
