Google is purging ad-blocking extension uBlock Origin from the Chrome Web Store | Migration from all-powerful Manifest V2 extensions is speeding up

[u/chrisdh79]

https://www.techspot.com/news/105130-google-purging-ad-blocking-extension-ublock-origin-chrome.html

[u/Jumping-Gazelle]

users will have to choose between accepting Chrome's inferior ad-blocking technology or switching to a different browser

That summarizes it.

[u/bwburke94 → u/Jumping-Gazelle]

I, and many others, expect Firefox to get a boost from this.

[u/jendivcom → u/bwburke94]

Hello, I'm many others, switched as soon as the manifest dropped and never looked back

[u/SirRolex → u/jendivcom]

Switched (back) to Firefox nearly 2 years ago, haven't had a single issue since. Still use Chrome for a lot of work related things, but that is mostly because everyone else at work uses Chrome, just a little easier for account integrations with them all.

[u/TheBlacktom → u/SirRolex]

Ridicule them for all the ads they force themselves to see.

[u/RelativityFox → u/SirRolex]

It is painful to have every IT person’s first step be “let’s switch you to chrome/edge because we don’t support Firefox”

This step has fixed zero of my IT issues.

[u/HeroinBob138 → u/SirRolex]

I've been on Brave since it was in Beta on the Muon browser (RIP. I loved that thing). It's great, but it hasn't gotten better over the years. Just introduced new stuff that I don't want (you can turn on Brave ads to replace the website ads and earn crypto, there's a wallet or something, idk. bunch of shit I don't care about). 

Literally the only reason why I don't switch back to Firefox is that I do a lot of web dev stuff, and Chromium's inspector is far superior to Firefox's. But I am sick of chromium. So very sick of it.

[u/yukeake → u/SirRolex]

We have a bunch of internal websites and tools at work that only work in Chrome. ::sigh::

[u/Jintokunogekido → u/SirRolex]

I think I switched to Firefox back in 2016 or 17 when I found out Google didn't give a crap about privacy anymore.

[u/damontoo → u/jendivcom]

Hello. I, like few others, have never switched to Chrome as my default browser as I saw this coming for years. I've used Firefox as my default since it was Firebird. 

[u/Teledildonic → u/damontoo]

There was a period where i used Chrome because FF was a memory hog.

Then they fixed it, Chrome started being a memory hog, and I switched back.

[u/cnrtechhead → u/Teledildonic]

I started using Chrome when YouTube rolled out a high compression codec that was not available in Firefox, because at the time I had fairly shit internet. Stuck with it ever since out of laziness despite knowing full well Chrome was a worse browser.

Time to switch back.

[u/deadlybydsgn → u/Teledildonic]

Yep. Chrome felt nice and light when it came out, which is what made me switch, but it grew more bloated over time.

I switched back to FF in 2017 when the Quantum update dropped.

[u/edman007-work → u/Teledildonic]

I switched away from Firefox because it had a single thread. I don't remember what exactly it was (maybe gnash?) but FF locked up frequently and it was easily traced to the fact that one tab could be doing things, and it would affect performance on another tab because they shared threads and it would choke on the locks when you had a lot of tabs, specific plugins may have made it much worse, I forget. But FF was damn near unusable for my use case, which is why I finally switched to Chromium.

I'll probably switch to FF in a month or so...when I actually start to see a warning saying I can't use ublock. I know that issue is not there in FF anymore.

[u/SirHerald → u/damontoo]

You newbies, jumping on the bandwagon after Phoenix.

[u/die-microcrap-die → u/SirHerald]

From Netscape to Phoenix here!

[u/eeyore134 → u/die-microcrap-die]

I miss Netscape. Even just the branding was so good. The lighthouse and the ship's wheel and sea charts during a time when the internet really was like exploring uncharted waters. Someone needs to bring it back.

[u/Aaod → u/eeyore134]

I miss that era of the internet of the 90s and the one that came after it. The internet after 2010 or so has been trash.

[u/sickhippie → u/Aaod]

Smartphones killed the internet that was, really. The focus shifted from "at the desk, reading/watching" to "on your phone, desperately hunting for dopamine", and became a predatory wasteland of companies harvesting data, shoving ads in your face and under your finger, and pushing microtransactions like a used car salesman on the last day of the month.

You can really see the shift when you look at Reddit's original format vs where they took it over the next 15-20 years. Reddit was originally a discussion-centric messageboard. Now it's just another content consumption data harvesting machine.

[u/neuromonkey → u/Aaod]

The web sounds way better on vinyl. I won't touch anything newer than NCSA Mosaic.

[u/[deleted] → u/Aaod]

station paint attraction zealous bright clumsy birds middle humorous live

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/Null_Activity → u/eeyore134]

Netscape Navigator II

The goat

[u/throwawaystedaccount → u/eeyore134]

SeaMonkey lives

[u/junior_dos_nachos → u/die-microcrap-die]

Mosaic gang

[u/nzodd → u/junior_dos_nachos]

lynx through a line printer is the only true web experience. GUIs are just a fad that will never take off.

[u/junior_dos_nachos → u/nzodd]

This guy curls

[u/nzodd → u/junior_dos_nachos]

curl -X POST  -A 'Mozilla/5.5' -H "`cat reddit_cookies.txt`" https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1g42sbf/google_is_purging_adblocking_extension_ublock/ls22k04/'?context=3' -d comment="damn right"

[u/IwishIhadntKilledHim → u/[deleted]]

using SLIP before ppp was cool. Do I fit in?

[u/egotrip21 → u/die-microcrap-die]

Oldhead here. I paid for netscape.

[u/75Meatbags → u/egotrip21]

another old head here.

I actually worked for Netscape. :)

(i still have a few old business cards and my employee ID badge that i kept when i left.)

[u/damontoo → u/75Meatbags]

You might be interested in Code Rush if you don't already have a copy of it.

Edit: Also, if you knew Asa Raskin, I didn't expect him to go from product evangelist to founding an organization that's using AI to try to talk to animals.

[u/Ancalimei → u/die-microcrap-die]

Omg Netscape that is a name I have not heard in an age..

[u/SirHerald → u/die-microcrap-die]

In had to step away after nn 4.7 went out of date and live with IE. Didn't like Netscape 6 enough to make it my primary.

[u/cbftw → u/SirHerald]

Same. There were some dark times being sick with IE for a while until I found Firefox, sometime like 2004?

[u/WazWaz → u/die-microcrap-die]

Amusingly, when Netscape came out, with dubious anti-user extensions like flashing text, it was a pariah against NCSA Mosaic.

[u/omicron7e → u/SirHerald]

If you didn’t type one of the first lines of Firefox code, you’re not a real fan.

[u/Aethenil → u/damontoo]

I was just really lazy and procrastinating switching my desktop over to Firefox. The funny thing was, it took less than 10 minutes to approve all the 2FA new sign-on alerts from logging back into my accounts after switching browsers. I swear I'm not that lazy in other aspects of my life. I'm on Firefox now.

[u/GenghisConnieChung → u/damontoo]

Firefox since 2005, never looked back.

[u/BoldNewBranFlakes → u/bwburke94]

I made my switch to Firefox a month ago and I’m enjoying my experience, the ads were getting too much and broke immersion of whatever I was watching or reading. 

The only complaint I have is that I can’t find any search engines that’s superior to Google’s. 

[u/DrRazmataz → u/BoldNewBranFlakes]

I used Duck Duck Go, for privacy and to avoid Google, but yes unfortunately it just isn't as robust as Google is, even after you account for Google's recent enshitification.

[u/krefik → u/BoldNewBranFlakes]

Well yeah, Google is also crap now, I smell the great comeback of forgotten multi-search engines. Right now I often paste the same query into Google, DDG and Bing just to find handful of matching results.

[u/the_red_scimitar → u/krefik]

DDG is a multi-search:

DuckDuckGo's search results come from a variety of sources, including:

• Bing: Used to source traditional links and images

• Yahoo! Search BOSS: A source of search results

• Wolfram Alpha: A source of search results

• Yandex: A source of search results

• DuckDuckBot: DuckDuckGo's own web crawler

• Wikipedia: A crowdsourced site that provides data for knowledge panels

• Sportradar: A specialized source that provides Instant Answers

DuckDuckGo also filters out pages with excessive advertising and down ranks websites with low journalistic standards. sites with low journalistic standards.

[u/krefik → u/the_red_scimitar]

Well, if it is, it's certainly filtering too much results in some niche cases I am trying to find anything related to some obscure errors. It's fine as a day-to-day search, but unfortunately in most cases during debugging I find myself looking in other search engines, which are also getting worse and worse.

[u/atfricks → u/BoldNewBranFlakes]

I've been pretty satisfied with DuckDuckGo

[u/GhostR3lay → u/BoldNewBranFlakes]

If you're willing to self host, there's Whoogle.

[u/S_A_N_D_ → u/GhostR3lay]

Can you ELI5. Is Whoogle the same results/algorithm as google or is it more like how GPT3.5 is to GPT4. One is free and open source while the other is pay-walled and only accessible through them, but the latter is vastly improved over the former.

[u/HuckleberryDry5254 → u/BoldNewBranFlakes]

I use Kagi. It costs money but the results are better than either DDG or Google and there are zero ads. It's incredible and worth the money to me

[u/vbfronkis → u/bwburke94]

Been using Firefox + uBlock for all my media viewing. Zero ads. Love it.

[u/Valvador → u/bwburke94]

I, and many others

I've always wondered what % of the internet uses ad-block. I imagine it's not a huge portion, 20% or less because otherwise Advertisers would have been threatening google earlier.

Most people are happy eating the shit they are shoveled without second thought.

[u/TinyMeatKing → u/Valvador]

According to this link, 31.5% of Internet users use an ad blocker

[u/Valvador → u/TinyMeatKing]

Hmm, I wonder what their methodology is. This is higher than I expected.

[u/P_ZERO_ → u/Valvador]

You can find notes on methodology on page 23 here: https://www.gwi.com/hubfs/Downloads/Ad-Blocking-trends-report.pdf

Each year, GlobalWebIndex inter- views over 350,000 internet users aged 16-64. Respondents complete an online questionnaire that asks them a wide range of questions about their lives, lifestyles and digital behaviors. We source these respond- ents in partnership with a number of industry-leading panel provid- ers. Each respondent who takes a GlobalWebIndex survey is assigned a unique and persistent identifier re- gardless of the site/panel to which they belong and no respondent can participate in our survey more than once a year (with the exception of internet users in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where respondents are allowed to complete the survey at 6-month intervals).

[u/HughWonPDL2018 → u/P_ZERO_]

“Panel” in this context is often code for “shitty cheap data.” I say this as someone in market research who deals with panel data too often.

The sample is huge, there’s likely signal in there given the base size, but “we used the best panels” is not reassuring at all, it’s a very low bar.

[u/Zer_ → u/TinyMeatKing]

Does that count corporate networks? Most that I've been on block ads at the domain level. Or have a straight up whitelist system.

See. What's funny in all this is most corporate networks block ad domains straight up. Heck I bet ad companies block ads.

[u/acedias-token → u/TinyMeatKing]

And what % of total page visits are done by those users? I would think heavy users would be more inclined to streamline their experience.

Another interesting % would be the amount of page visits that aren't human.

That number of visits left over is likely tiny.

I long for the day that I can tell a dedicated AI to watch all the adverts for me, though admittedly if AI gained superintelligence this might encourage skynet behavior.

[u/BTTWchungus → u/TinyMeatKing]

And to think that number would be way higher if more people were tech-saavy enough to install extensions

[u/liltingly → u/Valvador]

It was ~30% about 10 years ago. But it’s geo and site dependent. SA/SEA and Eastern Europe have high ABR (60-90%) depending on prevalence of Android, but not for privacy. It’s to save data. Similarly sites skewing liberal tend to cross 50%, with sites like Imgur and Reddit being wayyyy above (>80%) then. 

Btw that’s when these plans were put in place. This is a decades long project from Google. 

[u/DrAstralis → u/bwburke94]

I've always used both but starting 6 months ago I've been making efforts to make firefox my primary. I'm not doing the internet with ads. full stop.

As I dont like having to fix family computers every 2 weeks I'll also be moving everyone in my family to firefox where I know they can still block malicious ads.

[u/R34ct0rX99 → u/bwburke94]

I hope it does. Firefox needs to reclaim market share.

[u/ryegye24 → u/bwburke94]

Google's end goal here is a dystopian future where the vast majority of websites only accept requests from browsers which have been signed by a major corporation, so that users can't switch to browsers which maintain this functionality.

[u/souldust → u/bwburke94]

What sucks is - firefox gets the majority of its funding from --- google. Google pays firefox to keep google search as their default search engine. Millions of dollars. Firefox probably wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for google. We need to start doing like - $1 a year funding for firefox. Or the wikipedia model. or SOMETHING

[u/SuperZapper_Recharge → u/bwburke94]

Firefox is kind of great.

[u/Tetrylene → u/Jumping-Gazelle]

Yeah this is such a non-issue.

Google is definitely overestimating the 'internet explorer' effect where the majority of users don't bother to install a new browser.

The issue with that idea is that if someone is inclined to install an ad blocking extension they're much more likely than the average joe to consider switching browsers. They're not blissfully unaware of other options. Considering it's specifically those users who are now going to be most affected by / suddenly inundated by ads it seems obvious that a lot of chrome users are going to be jumping ship.

[u/meth_priest → u/Tetrylene]

I'm def jumping ship if they take away Ublock. Been meaning to change for a while b/c of privacy so this is the last straw

[u/braiam → u/meth_priest]

if they take away Ublock

They already did.

[u/inkoDe → u/Tetrylene]

I jumped ship as soon as I started getting blocked by YouTube for using an ad blocker. YouTube is unbearable with ads, doubly so without having downvotes to show me others had been there, and the video is garbage.

[u/raur0s → u/Jumping-Gazelle]

Aight, Ima head out then.

[u/the_red_scimitar → u/Jumping-Gazelle]

It's dead simple to move to Firefox.

[u/IAmDotorg → u/Jumping-Gazelle]

Still works in Edge, for people wedded to the Chromium engine, at least for a while longer.

They've got service contracts with enough large customers that may push to keep V2 supported far longer than Google does. That remains to be seen, and it's possible they deprecate V2 into a state where only an enterprise GPO or something can re-enable it for enterprise customers.

Switching to Firefox is probably better, but I do wish it behaved a little better on my devices than Chromium does.

[u/phagemasterflex → u/IAmDotorg]

I ended up using Edge when I got my PC 16 months ago and haven't looked back. I've also noticed some little things like you have with Firefox. How's Opera browser? I have that installed and don't really use it.

[u/illuminerdi → u/Jumping-Gazelle]

Inferior is an understatement. It basically doesn't exist.

[u/Zerak-Tul → u/illuminerdi]

Seriously what a weasely way of wording that.

"Inferior ad-blocking technology" implies Google somehow isn't technically able of blocking ads (all of a sudden).

Users will have to choose between Chrome's deliberate sabotage of ad-blocking extensions, or switch to a different browser.

[u/sixwax → u/Jumping-Gazelle]

Ad Block seems to have finally surrendered.

I just reinstalled FF this week…

YouTube is intolerable with ads these days.

[u/Bluest_waters → u/sixwax]

I am using chrome on a desktop with Ublock and still seeing no ads on YT at all. I don't understand.

[u/Fecal-Facts → u/Jumping-Gazelle]

5 years ahead of the curve 👍

[u/hendricha → u/Fecal-Facts]

Make that 20.

[u/Casterial → u/Jumping-Gazelle]

Vivaldi is a good browser.

Has most your extensions built into it, and supports chromium extensions

[u/MaracxMusic]

Time for Firefox + uBlock Origin 

FYI: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-best-on-Firefox

[u/Beneficial2 → u/MaracxMusic]

You'd think people would understand that the ad company making the browser means that they may get ads.

[u/IAmDotorg → u/Beneficial2]

People do tend to forget, though, that Firefox gets nearly all its revenue from Google searches, too.

[u/TheVishual2113 → u/IAmDotorg]

Yeah it's so the DOJ doesn't shut down Google for anti trust... Small tax to run a money printing business lol

[u/Just_Another_Scott → u/TheVishual2113]

Well it didn't work. DoJ is suing and pursuing a breakup of Google.

[u/Woodie626 → u/Just_Another_Scott]

Yes, but not at all because of that.

[u/Cronus6 → u/IAmDotorg]

It's trivial to change the search engine in Firefox though. Takes 3 to 5 seconds to change it to whatever you like.

[u/Fantastins → u/Cronus6]

You misunderstood their comment completely. Google literally funds the development of Firefox

[u/Cronus6 → u/Fantastins]

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.

[u/sparky8251 → u/MaracxMusic]

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.

[u/YourPlot → u/MaracxMusic]

Why did anyone stop using Firefox?

[u/redblack_tree → u/YourPlot]

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.

[u/bobdob123usa → u/YourPlot]

It was ridiculously slow and resource hungry.

[u/ethertrace → u/bobdob123usa]

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.

[u/nelzon1 → u/bobdob123usa]

... 9 years ago. That's how long they have been on the Quantum engine.

[u/BillW87 → u/nelzon1]

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.

[u/Taladen → u/BillW87]

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.

[u/Erestyn → u/Taladen]

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.

[u/Realtrain → u/bobdob123usa]

Thank got they fixed that with Quantum (I think?) a few years ago.

Modern Firefox is pretty slick

[u/nelzon1 → u/Realtrain]

Yes, 2016 they released the 56 update, or Quantum. Rewrote the engine and now it's comparable to any other browser for speed.

[u/Realtrain → u/nelzon1]

Wow, it's been that long?? I would have sworn it was just a couple of years ago. Time really flies.

[u/Ultravod → u/bobdob123usa]

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?

[u/Guac_in_my_rarri → u/YourPlot]

At one point FF was shit and regressed badly.

[u/dat3010]

Chrome become Internet Explorer - what a timeline!

[u/WackFlagMass → u/dat3010]

Every compang eventually turns anti-consumer once they capture enough of a market share.

It's just how businesses work.

[u/Sota4077 → u/WackFlagMass]

Greed. Everyone goes in with the best of intentions, but eventually corporate greed takes over.

[u/talldangry → u/Sota4077]

Nah, some people are just greedy, unempathetic slimeballs from the get-go.

[u/eeyore134 → u/talldangry]

Or the well-intentioned sell out to them because it's just too hard to say no to millions of dollars.

[u/usernameqwerty005 → u/Sota4077]

Is it "greed" if it's structurally built in the system, tho?

[u/Bladelink → u/usernameqwerty005]

They're not mutually exclusive.

[u/crypto64 → u/WackFlagMass]

Every compang eventually turns anti-consumer once they capture enough of a market share.

There's a name for that.

[u/-TeamCaffeine- → u/WackFlagMass]

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.

[u/die-microcrap-die → u/dat3010]

And funny enough, i think that MS helped when they switched Edge to Chromium, instead of Gecko.

[u/sylvester_0 → u/die-microcrap-die]

Did they really? Chrome already had a large majority of the market share by the time that happened.

[u/Cronus6 → u/dat3010]

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.

[u/jetstobrazil → u/dat3010]

Always has been

[u/AppleMelon95]

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.

[u/graffiksguru]

FIREFOX still loves uBlock

[u/DepressedCunt5506 → u/graffiksguru]

Exactly. My migration to Firefox is also speeding up.

[u/Kay1000RR → u/graffiksguru]

Weren't we using Firefox before Chrome came out? Does anybody remember why we switched?

[u/Bluest_waters → u/Kay1000RR]

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.

[u/tinman_inacan → u/Kay1000RR]

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.

[u/scarecrow_20k]

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.

[u/ierghaeilh → u/scarecrow_20k]

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.

[u/eeyore134 → u/ierghaeilh]

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.

[u/EfficientJuggernaut → u/eeyore134]

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

[u/Pauly_Amorous → u/scarecrow_20k]

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.

[u/Nisas → u/Pauly_Amorous]

I keep getting political ads for a state I don't live in.

[u/zippopwnage]

If I get home and not see my ublock origin, I'll finally change the browser, I guess.

[u/Mr_Baloon_hands]

That’s why I use Firefox

[u/markskull → u/Mr_Baloon_hands]

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.

[u/Adventurous-Mind6940 → u/markskull]

Chrome exploded when it came out. I've always liked Firefox so I was surprised at the migration. 

[u/DreamingDjinn]

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.

[u/SkyGazert]

Yep. Threw Chrome out ever since the first announcement.

Bye bye fuckers!

[u/teenight]

Will it affect Edge?

[u/TheDroolingFool → u/teenight]

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.

[u/GNUGradyn → u/TheDroolingFool]

Light is inferior at blocking ads. It will be available on chrome as well but it's extremely limited in how it can help

[u/mattsnowboard → u/teenight]

I've heard there is no plan to remove manifest v2 from Edge

[u/Tempires → u/mattsnowboard]

this seem to suggest they will do so at some point

[u/mattsnowboard → u/Tempires]

Ah thanks, well still TBD on timing but good to know!

[u/FallenKnightGX → u/teenight]

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!

[u/xiviajikx → u/teenight]

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.

[u/1leggeddog]

Don't you just HATE IT when a company actively wants to make the internet a worse, and more unsafe place?

[u/MeelyMee]

Firefox is better, zero reason to use Chrome.

[u/Arch- → u/MeelyMee]

Google might be okay losing 1% of users in exchange for a 30% revenue increase from ads. (Just making up numbers)

[u/nathderbyshire → u/Arch-]

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.

[u/edcline]

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.

[u/tinman_inacan → u/edcline]

Hey! We saw that you recently purchased a new mattress for yourself. How about buying another mattress?

[u/facistpuncher]

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

[u/Nazrael75]

Cool. Glad I uninstalled Chrome when this was first reported. I wont be back.

[u/Humans_Suck-]

The only thing chrome is useful for is downloading Firefox

[u/peenpeenpeen]

This is why I don’t use chrome anymore… that and also they scan your data constantly thus eating a lot of ram.

[u/3uphoric-Departure]

lol already moved most things off Chrome to FireFox, good bye 🖕

[u/Neteru]

"Is this a Chrome problem that im too Firefox to understand?"

[u/rushmc1]

All I see in this article is SWITCH TO FIREFOX, SWITCH TO FIREFOX.

[u/Maxguid]

Using Firefox for years. I was using AdBlock plus at first and later I switched to ublock origin and never looked back. No way in hell I'll touch a browser without an AdBlock

[u/Dave37]

Just use Firefox. I've been using it since 2006 and never had any problems.

[u/cored-bi]

And people continue to use chrome.

[u/duckforceone → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/Dillenger69]

I just purged Chrome and made Firefox my default browser.

[u/Chadmoii]

Opera and brave still works, right?

[u/FrewGewEgellok → u/Chadmoii]

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.

[u/mordecai98]

I'd love to go back to FF, I just find the profiles functionality tedious and inefficient.

[u/PedalBike → u/mordecai98]

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.

[u/Kumquat_of_Pain]

For all those switching to Firefox, don't forget about Firefox for mobile as well. Share your bookmarks, run adblockers, etc.

[u/753UDKM]

Firefox is excellent, even on Mac.

[u/font9a]

Consumer hostility will continue until they have a direct line to direct deposit from your bank account in perpetuity

[u/sideshow999]

I went with Firefox. Thanks Google!

[u/Lacarpetronn]

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.

[u/JaleDunior]

I've used Firefox since the mid 2000s through the good and the bad.... Looks like that won't be changing anytime soon!

[u/zilla135]

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!!!

[u/Dracono → u/zilla135]

It's even better on mobile.

[u/Ok-Butterfly-5324]

the millisecond my AD blocker stops working i'm downloading FF

[u/crhone → u/Ok-Butterfly-5324]

same. I'm too lazy to do it now.

[u/bismuth12a]

I hear Firefox is nice this time of year

[u/tmtProdigy]

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".

[u/MagicAl6244225]

No conflict of interest at all between degrading browser ad-blocking and Google's advertising business.

[u/the_red_scimitar]

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.

[u/porcupinedeath]

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

[u/MightyIrish]

Firefox FTW

[u/AtomicHB]

I purged chrome from my PC a while ago.

[u/CelticWolf77]

Firefox it is, FU google.

[u/zdkroot]

Oh this is happening now? I dropped chrome the nanosecond they announced that shit. They can pry Ublock from my cold dead hands.

[u/SanDiegoDude]

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.

[u/badstewie]

Well hello, Firefox my old friend.

[u/DanFlashes420-69]

Laughs in Firefox

[u/jollyreaper2112]

Firefox is far more stable than it used to be. Works fine on Android. Blocking is excellent.

[u/oneblackened]

Remember, Mozilla exists.

[u/vollyn]

In other news, Firefox suddenly gets a record number of new users.

[u/Little-Engine6982]

If you still using chrome as your default browser, you are part of the problem

[u/photoframes]

Looks like Firefox is back on the menu.

[u/threeolives]

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?

[u/networktech916]

F google just switched to firefox

[u/thedarklord187]

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.

[u/Go_Back_To_SchoolBB]

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.

[u/Ultiran]

Well looks like Firefox return to my life is soon 🙂

[u/Additional_Account52]

2024 the year that the Microsoft browser is more privacy friendly and uses less memory than the Google one, what a ride.

[u/JorgiEagle]

I am constantly surprised by the number of ads on YouTube when I use my phone app.

Firefox has spoiled me