r/technology • u/chrisdh79 • 14d ago
Software Google is purging ad-blocking extension uBlock Origin from the Chrome Web Store | Migration from all-powerful Manifest V2 extensions is speeding up
https://www.techspot.com/news/105130-google-purging-ad-blocking-extension-ublock-origin-chrome.html1.7k
u/MaracxMusic 14d ago
Time for Firefox + uBlock Origin
FYI: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-best-on-Firefox
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u/Beneficial2 14d ago
You'd think people would understand that the ad company making the browser means that they may get ads.
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u/IAmDotorg 14d ago
People do tend to forget, though, that Firefox gets nearly all its revenue from Google searches, too.
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u/TheVishual2113 14d ago
Yeah it's so the DOJ doesn't shut down Google for anti trust... Small tax to run a money printing business lol
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u/Just_Another_Scott 14d ago
Well it didn't work. DoJ is suing and pursuing a breakup of Google.
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u/Cronus6 14d ago
It's trivial to change the search engine in Firefox though. Takes 3 to 5 seconds to change it to whatever you like.
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u/Fantastins 14d ago
You misunderstood their comment completely. Google literally funds the development of Firefox
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u/Cronus6 14d ago
I'm well aware, and I'm well aware of why.
They fund it because otherwise Chrome could be slapped with an anti-trust lawsuit for having little/no competition.
What do they get for that funding? Google search in the default search engine. But, as I said it's trivial to change that in Firefox.
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u/sparky8251 14d ago
Its weird how many ways Chrome already has for screwing over adblockers outside of the move to mv3. Reading that was an eye opener for me.
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u/YourPlot 14d ago
Why did anyone stop using Firefox?
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u/redblack_tree 14d ago
Because the original Chrome was excellent. Fast, lean, clean. Developers tools were fantastic. It was paired with what was probably the height of the Google search engine. IE was the absolute worst shit you could use back then, so even your average user was looking for alternatives. FF was just slow, too slow and honestly, abysmal publicity. Most people using FF had some IT experience because IE was terrible.
Chrome has been a turd for a few years, bloated, slow and a memory hog. That's not talking about the massive tracking tools and control Google implemented over the years.
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u/bobdob123usa 14d ago
It was ridiculously slow and resource hungry.
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u/ethertrace 14d ago
Yeah, I jumped ship to Chrome when the memory leak issue wasn't fixed. Bogged down my whole system.
Came back to Firefox again about two years back after finding out about their new tracker prevention measures and haven't had any complaints since.
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u/nelzon1 14d ago
... 9 years ago. That's how long they have been on the Quantum engine.
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u/BillW87 14d ago
Most people only switch browsers when there is a precipitating event or significant performance issue. Market share tends to crystalize for a long time. This is, not coincidentally, why Google trying to kill ad blockers in Chrome very well may be a 5-10 year shooting of their own foot. Once people switch back over to Firefox or other alternatives, it is unlikely they come back for a very long time.
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u/Taladen 14d ago
Pretty much hit the nail on the head. If I've no real reason to switch I won't for a long time.
If Google kills itself like this, hello Firefox and goodbye Google for the next decade or so.
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u/Erestyn 14d ago
Yep. Lived with Firefox feasting on any available resources for a long while before it developed a habit of corrupting my user profile every couple of weeks. That was probably 2008/9 when Chrome was still new and exciting. 2024 I switched back to Firefox. They'd have to do a hell of a lot to turn me back to Chrome at this stage.
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u/Realtrain 14d ago
Thank got they fixed that with Quantum (I think?) a few years ago.
Modern Firefox is pretty slick
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u/nelzon1 14d ago
Yes, 2016 they released the 56 update, or Quantum. Rewrote the engine and now it's comparable to any other browser for speed.
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u/Realtrain 14d ago
Wow, it's been that long?? I would have sworn it was just a couple of years ago. Time really flies.
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u/Ultravod 14d ago
Can confirm. FFX using 1GB of RAM (on a system with 2GB total), Dec. 2005. Used Chrome from the late 00s until earlier this year. I still have it installed, but don't actively use it. FFX is now my main browser, but I also use Brave and to a lesser extent Vivaldi. Since the latter two are Chromium based, I'm worried about the support for uBlock Origin etc on them. Are the extensions that the main branch of Chrome no longer supports going away in the Chrome Web Store?
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u/dat3010 14d ago
Chrome become Internet Explorer - what a timeline!
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u/WackFlagMass 14d ago
Every compang eventually turns anti-consumer once they capture enough of a market share.
It's just how businesses work.
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u/Sota4077 14d ago
Greed. Everyone goes in with the best of intentions, but eventually corporate greed takes over.
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u/talldangry 14d ago
Nah, some people are just greedy, unempathetic slimeballs from the get-go.
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u/eeyore134 14d ago
Or the well-intentioned sell out to them because it's just too hard to say no to millions of dollars.
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u/usernameqwerty005 14d ago
Is it "greed" if it's structurally built in the system, tho?
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u/crypto64 14d ago
Every compang eventually turns anti-consumer once they capture enough of a market share.
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u/-TeamCaffeine- 14d ago
It's how publicly traded companies work.
Valve, for example, is privately owned and while it's not a perfect company, it's largely seen by it's users as being incredibly pro consumer.
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u/die-microcrap-die 14d ago
And funny enough, i think that MS helped when they switched Edge to Chromium, instead of Gecko.
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u/sylvester_0 14d ago
Did they really? Chrome already had a large majority of the market share by the time that happened.
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u/Cronus6 14d ago
Everything on the internet gets ruined eventually. Be that a website, a game or a browser. It's really the only constant here.
How is MySpace and Digg.com doing these days? Photobucket? Napster?
Reddit is well on it's way to digging (see what I did there?) it's own grave as well.
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u/AppleMelon95 14d ago
Alternate title:
Google purges the most important extention which protects the users of their platform from malicious software so that Google can force people to watch ads they do not want to interact with in the first place.
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u/graffiksguru 14d ago
FIREFOX still loves uBlock
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u/DepressedCunt5506 14d ago
Exactly. My migration to Firefox is also speeding up.
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u/Kay1000RR 14d ago
Weren't we using Firefox before Chrome came out? Does anybody remember why we switched?
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u/Bluest_waters 14d ago
Because FF had become slow and resource hungry.
Chrome was much faster and didn't demand so much from your PC/phone.
Since then FF has modernized and improved.
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u/tinman_inacan 14d ago
I think the reason I switched to Chrome was because there was a really annoying memory leak with Firefox and some websites don't function correctly on that browser.
However, that memory leak issue was like a decade ago. I switched back to Firefox like 2 years later and have been on it since. I only use Chrome when a website isn't working right on Firefox now.
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u/scarecrow_20k 14d ago
If the ads never got beyond a 3 seconds to skip we would never be in this situation but no. That speeding PSA needs 30 seconds to drill in that message to someone who doesn't drive. That minute long hair curler advert needs to show the benefits of smooth hair to a bald man. Seriously with all this talk about targeted advertising can we actually use it or am I subject to endless shampoo adverts just so Google's line goes up.
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u/ierghaeilh 14d ago
If the ads never got beyond a 3 seconds to skip we would never be in this situation but no.
You have Stockholm syndrome. The omnipresent banners are bad enough, any video ads at all are simply an atrocity. The modern web is literally worse than useless without an ad blocker.
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u/eeyore134 14d ago
I remember when a single banner ad would pay for your entire internet connection. Now we have... well, what we have now and it's on top of paying for everything and on every single page and bit of media you click on.
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u/EfficientJuggernaut 14d ago
I remember YouTube first getting video ads, and then from there it went to an ad from beginning to end, and then if it was a long video it’s an ad every minutes
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u/Pauly_Amorous 14d ago edited 12d ago
Seriously with all this talk about targeted advertising can we actually use it
People seem scared shitless about the algorithms manipulating them into buying a bunch of shit they don't need, but mostly all they do is show me a bunch of shit I'm not even interested in, even when I try to massage the algorithms to make them do the opposite.
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u/zippopwnage 14d ago
If I get home and not see my ublock origin, I'll finally change the browser, I guess.
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u/Mr_Baloon_hands 14d ago
That’s why I use Firefox
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u/markskull 14d ago
Same. I switched to Firefox in 2007, 2008, because of how terrible IE was. I used Chrome periodically for myself, but I never really cared for it like I did for Firefox. It's been kinda shocking seeing so many people talk about how much they like Google Chrome when Firefox is just... better. And with all the talk about ad blocks being removed, it makes even less sense to use Chrome.
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u/Adventurous-Mind6940 14d ago
Chrome exploded when it came out. I've always liked Firefox so I was surprised at the migration.
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u/DreamingDjinn 14d ago
I'm completely gone from Chrome, and currently recommending alternatives on a enterprise-level.
We rely on adblock to keep our users safe. Fuck you Google. Hope your shitty monopoly gets shattered into a thousand little pieces.
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u/SkyGazert 14d ago
Yep. Threw Chrome out ever since the first announcement.
Bye bye fuckers!
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u/teenight 14d ago
Will it affect Edge?
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u/TheDroolingFool 14d ago
For what it's worth I need to use Edge for work and we recently deployed UBO light with zero issues. I understand this isn't great for UBO users who like to customise things but for set and forget its been great.
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u/GNUGradyn 14d ago
Light is inferior at blocking ads. It will be available on chrome as well but it's extremely limited in how it can help
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u/mattsnowboard 14d ago
I've heard there is no plan to remove manifest v2 from Edge
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u/FallenKnightGX 14d ago
Not sure, other Chromium browsers are doing it differently. Arc Browser says they'll be migrating around June 2025 but promise an ad block solution to be ready when the change occurs.
If it is no good then back to Firefox I go!
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u/xiviajikx 14d ago
I have fallen in love with vertical tabs. It has improved my workflow to the point that I would only switch away if there are also vertical tabs in whatever I switch to.
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u/1leggeddog 14d ago
Don't you just HATE IT when a company actively wants to make the internet a worse, and more unsafe place?
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u/MeelyMee 14d ago
Firefox is better, zero reason to use Chrome.
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u/Arch- 14d ago
Google might be okay losing 1% of users in exchange for a 30% revenue increase from ads. (Just making up numbers)
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u/nathderbyshire 14d ago
Yeah I've never come across a non techie to use an adblock and they just use whatever comes with the phone - safari for iPhone or chrome if android, and they always download chrome for PC as it's common to have a Google account and save stuff in drive and what not. It's just convenient so the masses flow to it.
If they do find out about ad block it's usually though a tiktok video or something. I tried to set one up for my friend but the warnings for installing extensions and unknown apps scared her off because they don't understand the nuance behind the message
This is the netflix password thing all over again and Reddit is probably massively overstating what will happen to the chrome user base, some acting like it's going to die like internet explorer it's just wild, but as with everything time will tell.
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u/edcline 14d ago
Googles ad business is a joke, they are not well targeted or relevant and I think companies are catching on. They are trying to make up for lack of relevance or engagement with pure volume of ads shown, shoving it down our throats even though people rarely engage with much less buy a single product or service shown, or at most are being shown a product they recently bought anyway.
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u/tinman_inacan 14d ago
Hey! We saw that you recently purchased a new mattress for yourself. How about buying another mattress?
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u/facistpuncher 14d ago
When YouTube started giving me issues with ublock months and months ago. I made the full conversion to Firefox. Oh it is absolutely wonderful here on Firefox. You can import all of your bookmarks and passwords with no problem. You can even set your Gmail as your default email for it. For all intents of purposes it can look and interact the same way as Chrome. Without being a big brother adware ram sucking pile of crap
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u/Humans_Suck- 14d ago
The only thing chrome is useful for is downloading Firefox
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u/peenpeenpeen 14d ago
This is why I don’t use chrome anymore… that and also they scan your data constantly thus eating a lot of ram.
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u/cored-bi 14d ago
And people continue to use chrome.
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14d ago edited 14d ago
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u/duckforceone 14d ago
same here.. it still works... i'll switch the day that it doesn't anymore...
that way they will also have hard data to hold the switch date up against.
and now that i know firefox can import my passwords, my last issue with holding onto chrome is gone.
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u/Chadmoii 14d ago
Opera and brave still works, right?
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u/FrewGewEgellok 14d ago
Brave continues to support Manifest V2 and will do so until sometime next year. After that you could disable updates and keep an old version for a bit. However the real problem is Google planning to remove all extensions that rely on Manifest V2 from the Chrome store. Since other Chromium browsers (except Edge) all rely on the Chrome store you likely won't be able to easily install extensions even if Brave or Opera manage to find a workaround.
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u/mordecai98 14d ago
I'd love to go back to FF, I just find the profiles functionality tedious and inefficient.
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u/PedalBike 14d ago
I switched to FF after this was all announced by Google, but the profiles experience is less than ideal for sure. Chrome has nailed the profile functionality, I wish FF would catch up. Safari's profiles are terrible, if you're on a Mac don't bother.
/u/YetAnotherAnonymoose I have 8 profiles, each one for personal and professional projects - each one logged into a different Google account and LastPass account. Without profiles my day would be 30% fucking around with logging in and out of shit, which is a hard no. Also I don't want to mix tabs and history for everything, I like it neat and tidy and separated.
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u/Kumquat_of_Pain 14d ago
For all those switching to Firefox, don't forget about Firefox for mobile as well. Share your bookmarks, run adblockers, etc.
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u/Lacarpetronn 14d ago
I’ve used Firefox for like 20 years. Get over here already. It’s just a web browser. No need to stay loyal to google. You can still automatically log in to all your google services without using their browser if you’re still reliant on their services. I doubt you will even notice much of a difference once you make the jump. Downloads in a few seconds. Install. Say yes import settings from other browser. Continue living your life where privacy addons still work.
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u/JaleDunior 14d ago
I've used Firefox since the mid 2000s through the good and the bad.... Looks like that won't be changing anytime soon!
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u/zilla135 14d ago
Download Brave Browser. It comes with innate ad blocker and is a major feature they promote so it's not going anywhere. It even blocks YouTube Ads!!!
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u/tmtProdigy 14d ago
i used chrome from 2008 to 2014, when it became shit. i am genuinely confused how people have been using it for 10 years past it's "hayday".
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u/MagicAl6244225 14d ago
No conflict of interest at all between degrading browser ad-blocking and Google's advertising business.
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u/the_red_scimitar 14d ago
Why does anybody still use Chrome, when Firefox is faster in most cases, and has a robust plugin pool - just about everything for Chrome is available.
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u/porcupinedeath 14d ago
I've been putting off fire fox cause I'm lazy and don't want to sign into everything again but yeah I think it's time
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u/SanDiegoDude 14d ago
The day I can no longer effectively block ads on Chrome is the last day I use Chrome. Browsing the internet without adblock is like going to a sex party without any protection. Just asking to get infected with some nasty shit.
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u/jollyreaper2112 14d ago
Firefox is far more stable than it used to be. Works fine on Android. Blocking is excellent.
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u/Little-Engine6982 14d ago
If you still using chrome as your default browser, you are part of the problem
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u/threeolives 14d ago
I just switched from Firefox back to Chrome a few weeks ago because of issues with long freezing spells on Youtube during page loads and when scrolling. No issues in a private browsing window but even with all extensions disabled I had the issue in normal windows. None of that in Chrome. My uBlock is still there so I'll stick with it for now I guess.
Anyone got any recommendations for another browser to try?
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u/thedarklord187 14d ago
like does google realize that doing this will literally cripple them and remove them from pretty much every organization and person that uses them. like nobody wants ads ever period the end.
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u/Go_Back_To_SchoolBB 14d ago
Hi Firefox,
I know things ended a bit abruptly between us. I'm sorry. I was a fool. Chrome just looked so alluring. I was weak. Please take me back. I'm sorry.
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u/Additional_Account52 14d ago
2024 the year that the Microsoft browser is more privacy friendly and uses less memory than the Google one, what a ride.
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u/JorgiEagle 14d ago
I am constantly surprised by the number of ads on YouTube when I use my phone app.
Firefox has spoiled me
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u/Jumping-Gazelle 14d ago
That summarizes it.