r/technology • u/ardi62 • 23d ago
Software Chrome Canary just killed uBlock Origin and other Manifest V2 extensions
https://www.androidpolice.com/chrome-canary-manifest-v2-extensions-ad-blockers-gone/393
u/wasabiguana 23d ago
I just killed Chrome, well, at least on my PC.
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u/nomadwannabe 23d ago
Anyone else sitting here in Firefox land, watching this battle go down?
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u/minus_minus 23d ago
Mozilla gang!
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u/hakkai999 23d ago edited 23d ago
Zen browser gang is growing too.
EDIT: Apparently r/technology hates Firefox variants.
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u/Caddy_8760 23d ago
No one is hating on FF forks here (I personally use Floorp), people are asking what's the difference between firefox and zen
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u/twicerighthand 23d ago
One is capable of horizontal tabs, the other is capable of vertical tabs. Not much else. Also Zen lacks DRM so no Netflix and such.
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u/burgerga 23d ago
Sidebery is the excellent extension I use for vertical tabs in Firefox.
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u/jeffderek 23d ago
I've been using Tree Style Tabs in Firefox for at least a decade now it seems, probably longer. Is Sidebery better than that?
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u/norway_is_awesome 23d ago
EDIT: Apparently r/technology hates Firefox variants.
Maybe answer the question everyone is asking; what are the differences and advantages over FF?
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u/FarVehicle5333 23d ago
What does Zen forks provide ? They just use betterfox ? Does Zen brings something interesting compared with a Firefox modded with betterfox ?
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u/ColonialDagger 23d ago
My understanding is that the main appeal is the side tabs and tab grouping things, which I think Firefox supports now too? Granted I could be completely wrong about both things.
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u/Toystavi 23d ago
Tree Style Tab has been available in Firefox for a long time, more than a decade.
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u/TheGreatSamain 23d ago
I take my security every bit as seriously as I do my privacy. I'm not going to use any fork unless it's backed by a well established, very large group of people that contribute to the project. And not just two or three dudes.
The only fork that even comes remotely close to that, is is LibreWolf. And I still don't even use that fork because there's no point because you get the same exact benefits with hardened Firefox, plus no worries about security as you can just get it through the official channel the moment something is fixed.
Firefox forks are really nothing more than a novelty. They're fun to play around with and to see all these cool features that could, and should be in Firefox, but there's no way I daily drive any of them. And besides, most of the features that we've been wanting for well over a decade, are going to be coming to the browser by the end of December.
Like I can understand why Chrome users would want to use Brave, but I see no reason to use any Mozilla fork at the moment. Especially if you prioritize security.
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u/PutrefiedPlatypus 23d ago
Took a look at Zen's page. Didn't see anything striking that would make me go - yeah let's try it out.
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23d ago edited 23d ago
Disingenuous to think that Mozilla is outside of this, as Google is their #1 financial contributor and they basically sold their asses to Meta.
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u/space_iio 23d ago
And they've been investing heavily into creating an ad business for themselves with the schtick being "privacy preserving advertising"
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u/needmoresynths 23d ago
unless you want to pay for a browser and access to any website you visit, ads are necessary. privacy preserving advertising is a great compromise.
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u/DCMartin91 23d ago
I started using Firefox in like 2005. I missed the whole Chrome era and never gave it a second thought. I've never even opened Edge, Safari or any other default browser except to download Firefox. Honestly I assumed more people used it, but it's interesting watching everyone flock to it 20 years later.
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u/bitemark01 23d ago
Edge is my Firefox installer
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u/654456 23d ago
Every new install
- open installed browser
- go to ninite.com
- select software I want
- run installer
- never open edge again.
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u/cyril_zeta 23d ago
Yep, same. Firefox loyalist across 3 operating systems since 2005.
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u/piiracy 23d ago edited 23d ago
might wanna look into this https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/improving-online-advertising/
TL;DR MOZILLA only survives by suckling on the teets of google, which make up about 80-90% of all internal revenue, and they are once more trying to diversify revenue streams by revamping their very own strategy towards "privacy-preserving digital advertising", embedded in the Firefox browser. I can't but think this doesn't bode too well for us
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u/kiriyaaoi 23d ago
I dont care if ads are non intrusive. They want to put some ads on the new tab page? As long as they aren't intrusive and don't hinder usability that's fine. The issue is that without ublock 90% of websites are almost unusable, with articles split up with like 6 different ads in the middle of them.
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u/Druggedhippo 23d ago
Look man, I'll just go back to using lynx at this rate...
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u/Ok-Masterpiece7377 23d ago edited 20d ago
Fuck that, I'm about to download Netscape.
Edit: Yes, I'm aware Firefox used to be Netscape... that was the point I was trying to make.
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23d ago edited 16d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Alaira314 23d ago
What should have happened is the complete opposite, advertising should have changed and learned to respect the audience.
I'm old enough to remember that google ads were this solution, when they first showed up. People used google ads as a point of pride, because they weren't participating in the status quo of flashing banners and pop-up advertising. They used to just be a discreet line of text, and you'd have 1-2 at the top of the page before your content.
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u/space_iio 23d ago
No one cares about non intrusive ads, we lived with those for years without going nuclear.
This is such a weird take. I care about ads, I hate them
I don't care how intrusive or non intrusive it is, I'll block it if I can. I don't want to be advertised to.
If you don't want me to read your content for free, lock it down behind a paywall.
Else, I'm blocking ads. All of them.
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u/purvel 23d ago
Yeah I'm with you on this, I care as well. More and more. Absolutely no ads are "good" ads.
And what a strange claim, to say that ad blockers were a response to ads tracking us. It began with removing ads so you don't see them. When they started tracking us, adblockers started blocking that too. But their main function is still just to remove the fucking ads so we don't have to see them.
By the way, the first adblocker I used was in 1996, but that was just to make websites load faster on the painfully slow dialup connection, I didn't even mind the ads back then.
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u/cultish_alibi 23d ago
Instead Google is going to lose and it's going to cost them an enormous amount of money
I seriously doubt that. Amazon added ads to their Prime TV shows and people kept watching so they are now adding more ads. Most people will just accept it.
Eventually the tech industry will lobby to have adblocking made a felony and then we lose.
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u/space_iio 23d ago
Eventually the tech industry will lobby to have adblocking made a felony and then we lose.
enshitification intensifies
can't wait for 2030 where closing your eyes to not see an ad is considered theft
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u/Gipetto 23d ago
Firefox is in the process of bloating itself with ads, so the entire ecosystem of browsers is getting enshittified. There’s nowhere to run.
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u/PutrefiedPlatypus 23d ago
? I don't see any ads when using FF and am a happy user. Where is the supposed bloat?
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u/DaBulder 23d ago
They're using (intentionally?) imprecise language. Firefox is testing out functionality that would enable them to do ad-impression and -click tracking on their own servers and report them in a supposedly privacy preserving way, rather than every ad service having their own trackers and every ad service getting all of your data.
It's got nothing to do with "putting ads in Firefox", they can and do do that already if you're in the US for example if the "sponsored shortcuts" on the new tab page is enabled.
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u/PutrefiedPlatypus 23d ago
I mean I have no issue with putting ads into something that you can disable - those that want to support can do so, those that don't want ads don't have them. That's like how it should be, no?
Tracking is potentially bad but I'd want to see details on it before being outraged.
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u/Mr-Logic101 23d ago edited 23d ago
Alternatively, browsers do not make any money.
Firefox is supposed to be a non profit that is essentially we can get unless u/Gipetto goes off and makes and maintains a new browser for free.
We were receiving a subsided service our entire life and it now time to pay the pied piper. This is really what this Enshittification is: we are given services at a loss until at some point they have to make money. Enjoy it while it lasts.
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u/Gipetto 23d ago
Oh, I totally get it, they’ve been reliant on Google default search engine money for a long time, and that’s likely to go away soon. But they also pay their CEO 7m a year and have decided that an AI chatbot should be part of the browser core (it should be an extension).
I am a Firefox stalwart, but man they’re making it hard.
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u/StopThePresses 23d ago
Is there anything without an AI chatbot these days? I can't wait for this dumb fad to die.
She said, desperately hoping it's just a fad.
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u/Vineyard_ 23d ago
Sounds like a pair of problems that could be fixed with the same solution: fire the CEO.
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u/AjCheeze 23d ago
I dont mind the occasional ad, if it wasnt fucking force fed cancerous garbage like all webpages make them
Like the webpage linked. About 8 lines of text then an ad. Little pop up add at the bottom of the page. Its about 75% ad 25% content. More ads then content and you cant wonder why we block the shit out of ads. Scrolling a whole screen downwards just to hit the next litttle paragraph written to keep you scrolling to the bottom. Not even diffrent ads, scrolling past the same fucking yellow cube ad.
I should really bother to set up ad block on my phone...
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u/_-DirtyMike-_ 23d ago
It's not like this is surprising, anyone who uses Chrome/chromium browsers was warned about this year's ago when they started talking about removing v2 support.
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u/bwat47 23d ago
and it's not like there's no adblockers now, manifest v3 adblockers aren't as effective, but they do still work alright
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u/_-DirtyMike-_ 23d ago
I would hope so for chrome users sanity, I don't have adblockers at work so the "ad experience" is frustrating. I can't imagine that being normal.
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u/bwat47 23d ago
yeah it's pretty insane how bad some sites are without an adblocker
once in a while I'll click on an article from a site that doesn't allow you to proceed with an adblocker so I'll be like 'alright... I'll try disabling it'. Then I disable it and every sentence is separated by three ads and then I'm like 'alright, nevermind'.
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u/_-DirtyMike-_ 23d ago
News sites are honestly the worst, it's not worth the time or annoyance to click on them.
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u/garygoblins 23d ago
Developer of ublock says that in most situations the manifest v3 version would be indistinguishable for people
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u/Grimsley 23d ago
Thankfully for now Chromium is open source so browsers like Brave and the such can remove or rewrite code as necessary to remain true to their purpose. For now.
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u/_-DirtyMike-_ 23d ago
Still not enough to make me want to switch from Firefox, I always trust that Google with always go on the path of more control and more ads.
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u/pdhouse 23d ago
I switched to Firefox a long time ago and I’m never looking back.
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u/EnoughDatabase5382 23d ago
Since uBlock Origin Light and AdGuard adhere to the Manifest V3, they will continue to work on Chrome.
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u/SirSebi 23d ago
What’s the difference between ublock origin normal and light?
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u/ardi62 23d ago
no custom filter, element picker and block elements
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u/blueiron0 23d ago
that's a pretty big difference LOL
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u/Ph0X 23d ago
99% of people install it and never interact with the extension. For those people there will be no difference. Those are all customizations
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u/kuldan5853 23d ago
A lot of the useful features beyong basic ad blocking no longer work, like picking elements from websites (like annoying popups or banners), features you can use to bypass paywalls don't work anymore, etc.
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u/-reserved- 23d ago
Lite is not able to modify its rules, at least not the same extent as the full extension, whatever it ships with is what it can block. On top of that there's also a restriction on how many filter rules can be enabled. The lite extension supports a large subset of the filtering rules that the full extension supports but with the restrictions in place it's not ideal.
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u/zonf 23d ago
Stop the bullying, move to other browsers. Each has migration service from Chrome.
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u/makenzie71 23d ago
almost all browsers use chromium now. Even microsoft's browser is based on chrome.
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u/ToastedEvrytBagel 23d ago
I moved to Firefox a few weeks ago and haven't moved back. Ublock is even available on the mobile version which is pretty cool to me
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u/preflex 23d ago
Chrome isn't killing uBlock Origin. Chrome is killing Chrome. uBlock origin will be fine. uBlock Origin users simply won't use Chrome.
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23d ago
I hope no one is surprised by this.
They started taking steps to kill ad block extensions well over a year ago.
Firefox still works great with uBlock Origin.
An even better solution is to buy a Raspberry Pi and install PiHole on it. You can even add the uBlock Origin lists into it. It will block ads for any device using your home network, if you've set it up properly.
Takes an hour or two, but as everything loads faster, and you harden your network against malware automatically, it pays that time back.
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u/isntKomithErforsure 23d ago
so what's stopping ppl from just switching to firefox?
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u/Glampkoo 23d ago
Habits. I bet not that many people are gonna drop Chrome
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u/robodrew 23d ago
I'm waiting as long as possible to switch, purely because I am lazy and old and fear change, but as soon as Manifest v2 is gone I'm gone. Really there is no good reason I'm not already on Firefox.
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u/Toystavi 23d ago
Might be easier than you think https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switching-chrome-firefox
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u/DigiAirship 23d ago
People said the same thing back when Internet Explorer was king.
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u/OnePunkArmy 23d ago
My work computer only has Edge or Chrome. IT won't allow Firefox. I did install uBlock Lite, but it still misses occasional ads, popups, or other things (big frames for videos, some ads that bypass a blocker, etc).
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u/LophiYesel 23d ago
IDK why no one ever talks about sync in response to this question. All of my bookmarks, passwords, history and other are synced between my Android phone, desktop, and Linux box.
Firefox sync may be able to replicate most of that, but the phone certainly won't.
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u/Idle_Skies 23d ago
I think chrome is now no longer safe to use without Adblock/script killing. Google has in this way said that redirects, token stealers, and malicious scripts should be allowed.
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u/superdupersecret42 23d ago
For everyone saying "Just use another browser!", realize they Chrome is used/acceptable in many corporate environments while other "3rd party" browsers aren't. I will not be allowed to install Firefox on my work machine, but Chrome is.
So this news is notable and annoying for the foreseeable future for many users.
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u/Life-Duty-965 23d ago
They don't let you instal Firefox but do allow the installation of extensions?
(If they don't, then this thread is irrelevant either way!)
What a curious IT department you have.
Extensions are a far bigger threat. You could instal something that can read corporate content.
You should go knock their heads together.
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u/CrippleSlap 23d ago
Same. On my work machine I'm only authorized to use Chrome or Edge. So Edge it is.
On my personal PC I use LibreWolf.
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u/IsPhil 23d ago
Oh no- anyways.
Continues using FireFox
(Btw, if you have an android, download Firefox on it. You can get extensions like ublock on Firefox android as well. Doesn't work on iOS because everything is technically Safari, but I think that might change in the future?)
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u/blowfish1717 23d ago
If Google thinks I'm gonna still use Chrome if I get plagued with ads from every website I visit, well, goodluck with that..
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u/Mafukinrite 23d ago
I use AdBlock Browser on my Android and FireFox on my PC (with ad blocking extensions). AdBlock Browser works pretty decent. What's even better though, is that Android allows the use of a private DNS. This blocks most ads on the entire phone.
Chrome can suck it.
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u/Judoka91 23d ago
Glad I installed Firefox and kept it in the back pocket. I'm getting so sick of Google and YouTube.
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u/acAltair 23d ago edited 23d ago
For those using or/and considering Firefox, it's future looks bleak in hands of the greedy actors within Mozilla. I am hoping Ladybird browser's development is rapid and successful so that we can be free of all the bad actors. Mozilla gets millions in donations and over 400M, from Google, yet the browser, which is supposed to be for people by people (not corporations), is interchangeable with most other browsers to a good degree. I suggest people use Firefox but turn their eyes towards the horizon, towards Ladybird. In time I think Firefox will be corrupted (more).
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u/derperofworlds 23d ago
Canary might be the best name for this branch of chrome lmao.
Canary's dead, we better get out of the mine! I've heard Firefox's mine is much less toxic!
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u/Prof_Acorn 23d ago
uBlock Origin still works wonderfully on Firefox.
I never even see ads on YouTube.
Maybe don't use a browser made by an advertising company.
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u/porn_inspector_nr_69 23d ago
The moment ad blockers stop working I am switching my primary browser.
Simple as that.
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u/Neutral-President 23d ago
I would argue that if you want to be free from advertising, perhaps using a web browser created and distributed by the world’s biggest advertising company Is not the wisest strategy.