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Google Chrome’s plan to limit ad blocking extensions kicks off next week

Reminder to switch browsers if you haven’t already!

  • Google Chrome is starting to phase out older, more capable ad blocking extensions in favor of the more limited Manifest V3 system.
  • The Manifest V3 system has been criticized by groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation for restricting the capabilities of web extensions.
  • Google has made concessions to Manifest V3, but limitations on content filtering remain a source of skepticism and concern.
Phegan ,

Firefox is a good option.

But I will raise people one more. Waterfox. Been using it for over a year now and enjoy it.

tal , (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Firefox’s marketshare is small enough relative to Chrome’s that some websites might just block it at this point, if Chrome users mean ad revenue and Firefox users don’t.

gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share

Firefox has 2.88% marketshare.

Chrome has 65.34% marketshare.

It’s gonna be interesting to see what happens…

taiyang ,

It doesn’t necessary cost a meaningful amount to a site to allow Firefox users to view it; it does however cost to make it compatible with non-chromium browsers. For most viewing that’s a non issue (I mean, most crms are going to work) but specific sites might stop working (YouTube already got caught throttling firefox, and tbf, streaming would cost more than reading an article or something).

AWittyUsername ,

User agent switcher

Rai ,

Based and incognito private mode pilled

Spotlight7573 ,

My worry is what the EU changes might mean for the mobile web and beyond. With iOS’s market share and only the same rendering engine Apple used in Safari being available, sites/apps had to support more than just Chrome. If forcing iOS users to Chrome is an option (either through pointing them to the browser or an app built with that rendering engine), then there’s even less of an incentive to test with anything else. It’s great that users get more choice but if providers use it as an opportunity to reduce support for other browsers then it might not be a great benefit after all.

Rai ,

Firefox and WebKit for all!

GregorGizeh ,

The numbers may be indicative of the general trend, but every single privacy oriented browser and so forth is spoofing the user agent, pretending to be the most widespread and popular os and browser.

Which is why privacy checks on my Linux+librewolf PC return win10 with chrome.

gila ,

Firefox blocks statcounter tracking by default. It’s an inherently flawed metric, though Firefox is definitely in the minority still vs Chrome

illi ,

I did have some issues on firefox om some sites.

tooLikeTheNope , (edited )

But I will raise people one more. Waterfox

Never heard of it, I prefer LibreWolf
librewolf.net/-is-librewolf

but I’m gonna list some other popular forks

TOR Browser (anti-censorship enhanced fork, bundled with TOR network)
www.torproject.org

GNUzilla IceCat (GNU version)
www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/

Pale Moon (able to use old XUL based extensions)
www.palemoon.org

Mullvad Browser (a security hardened fork, IIRC based on TOR, made by Mullvad VPN company)
mullvad.net/en/browser

ANDROID (Fennec/Fenix)

Fennec F-Droid (Fennec version available on F-Droid, clean of propietary blobs)
f-droid.org/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/
gitlab.com/relan/fennecbuild

Mull (hardened fork of Fenix)
gitlab.com/divested-mobile/mull-fenix

IceRaven (yet another hardened fork of Fenix, able to install an extended list of extensions)
github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser

werefreeatlast ,

Last fuck up I installed Firefox. I left chrome in place. It’s finally time to remove chrome.

snownyte ,

Can’t care, I’m on Firefox and LibreWolf. Google Chrome is only used when I need to go on some sites that don’t somehow operate correctly on Firefox to pay bills with.

FiniteBanjo ,

They already don’t let you add ublock origin to chrome on mobile. I had to teach my elderly mother to use Waterfox with the extension, but as a plus side she can now turn on desktop-site and and turn the screen off without interrupting her hokey crystal meditation flute music [3 hours].

tvbusy ,

I use Firefox everywhere which means I have ads blocking everywhere, including and especially on Android. All my tabs are synced and are easily transferred between devices.

Scrollone ,

If we want to be honest, Firefox on Android has way worse performance than Chrome.

(But I still use it instead of Chrome)

Appoxo ,
@Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I use both on a Pixel 7 Pro.
Can’t confirm that.

Macros ,

I use it on a Pixel 5 and even there it is fluid while browsing. Only on Youtube there is the slightest stutter for HD Videos. Heavy sites like Discourse fora or Cryptpad or such work flawlessly.

brbposting ,

TIL Cryptpad.fr is just one instance apparently

Yeah wow nice that’s fantastic

sheogorath ,

I use both on a Galaxy Fold 5 and can confirm Chromium based browsers are smoother. Although I still use Waterfox on my phone. I just keep a Chromium based browsers in case a website doesn’t work when I visited it using Waterfox.

tvbusy ,

It depends I think. I found Chrome to be a tiny bit faster but then ads bogged the page down so most of the time, Firefox is faster for me.

In some very rare cases when I need to disable ads blocking, Chrome is indeed faster but I’d rather abandon websites rather than disable ads blocking.

So if you love ads, Chrome is better. If you hate ads like I do, Firefox is miles ahead.

JWBananas ,
@JWBananas@lemmy.world avatar

There are other ways to block ads. Adguard does a great job on Android. It establishes a local VPN, so it can do HTTP[S] content filtering in addition to DNS blocking.

ArcaneSlime ,

Can’t use my VPN and adguard at the same time iirc, unless android has two active VPN “slots” now. Can’t bring a pihole with me 24/7 either as much as I would like to.

Cyberpunk3000 ,

There’s always nextdns.io that can be configured to use ad blocking filters on the dns level. You can set it up on your phone as well

ArcaneSlime ,

Can I use it in conjunction with my normal VPN? AFAIK android has only one active VPN slot available at a time.

Cyberpunk3000 ,

Yes because there is no need to setup another VPN. You only configure the DNS settings (Private DNS). I know that Mullvad on PC has an option to use custom DNS server

ArcaneSlime ,

Ok cool thanks, I’ll check it out!

foggenbooty ,

Ive been using Firefox on Android for years but it really needs some TLC. It doesn’t support scaling to a tablet/desktop UI at all so it doesn’t work well in DeX or anything larger than a phone. I also recently had to swap to Brave because I noticed Firefox was draining a lot of battery all of a sudden. There’s some kind of leak or running process that isn’t sleeping properly. In a few months I’ll re-install and try again.

GregorGizeh ,

While I dont use Firefox itself any more I am using librewolf on my PC, which sadly doesnt exist for phones yet. Also, GOS comes with its own privacy oriented chromium fork called vanadium, so I’m using that in the mean time.

Nelots , (edited )

I’ve found the Mull browser (which can be found through the DivestOS repository on F-Droid) works great as a privacy-focused firefox fork, similar to LibreWolf. I hear Fennic F-Droid is also a pretty good but less extreme alternative, but I’d imagine you don’t care much about that if you use LibreWolf.

a_wild_mimic_appears ,

I also use librewolf and have settled for iceraven on my phone. the list of installable extensions is much longer (even if not everything is working yet, depending on how far mozilla has come along) and it has about:config support, which gives me a pretty close approximation of my desktop browser.

asteriskeverything ,

I’m sorry. I’ve seen this so many times today and I can’t stand it anymore.

I hate this article photo. What the fuck is that shit?? Gloveless fingers? Digit warmer? Turtlefinger sweater?

JackFrostNCola ,

Finger sweatbands for epic googling activities

OutlierBlue ,

The 80s are back! Sweatbands for everyone!

Rai ,

Agreed, but also

How can you not kinda love it

machineLearner ,

i’m with you it’s really camp

iAvicenna ,
@iAvicenna@lemmy.world avatar

what chrome? haven’t used that in ages

TheBlue22 ,

Thank fuck I switched to mozilla

nore ,

Can’t wait for nothing to change 'cause 90% of chrome users don’t use add-ons.

LainTrain ,

How horrifying

eddanja ,

Chrome is the new Internet Explorer.

huquad ,

You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

MacNCheezus ,
@MacNCheezus@lemmy.today avatar

Always has been.

a_wild_mimic_appears ,

google chrome will go the way of netscape navigator and internet explorer. might take a while and a antitrust case or two, but we will get there… again.

jol ,

At least the EU is trying to cut its tentacles a bit.

pyre ,

since people here are more tech savvy than i could ever be if like to ask what you guys think of Vivaldi, because i like it a lot. super customizable, has quick command search, side panel lets me use some websites like extensions, and workspaces help me organize especially with work… has anyone used it and can anyone tell me if waterfox or other forks are better and how?

PlexSheep ,
  • another chromium
  • GUI looks good
  • Cross platform
  • Highdpi kind of sucks on plasma 5
  • Fast
  • Not Firefox

I tried it for a week, but eventually left back for Firefox.

MonkderDritte ,

Vivaldi is the new Opera, right?

Murdoc ,

If by Opera you mean as it was back in version 12 before it got sold to some chinese company and completely changed, then yes. Nothing to do with what opera is now.

m_hrstv ,

Vivaldi is cool af and I used it for a few years but ditched it for firefox the minute i read about manifest v3(2 years ago? don’t remember). Not the devs’ fault but I’ll be damned if i allow ads on my devices.

pyre ,

is that guaranteed to force all chromium browsers regardless? like, does that ban the ublock origin extension (or something to the effect of rendering it useless)?

NatoBoram ,
@NatoBoram@mastodon.social avatar

It does! However, uBlock Origin has a "Lite" version that works with Manifest v3.

https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home

pyre ,

wow. ok. time to experiment with Firefox forks.

m_hrstv ,

Yeah, all chromium-based browsers will be affected, sadly.

airglow ,

If Vivaldi were free and open source, it would make an interesting alternative to Ungoogled Chromium. But it’s not, so I’ll stick with extensions on Firefox (and Ungoogled Chromium as a backup).

Murdoc ,

It is source-available though, so that’s a plus.

airglow ,

According to Vivaldi’s blog post “Why isn’t Vivaldi’s browser open-source?”, all of Vivaldi’s UI is closed source and not source-available:

Note that, of the three layers above, only the UI layer is closed-source. Roughly 92% of the browser’s code is open source coming from Chromium, 3% is open source coming from us, which leaves only 5% for our UI closed-source code.

Keeping Vivaldi’s UI layer closed-source and obfuscated allows us to set these worries aside, so we can focus on the job at hand. It may not be a perfect solution, but as a business, we have to make decisions that minimize uncertainty, if only for our self respect as employees – and employee-owners.

The UI is the main thing that differentiates Vivaldi from Chromium, and Vivaldi chose to keep it closed source and obfuscated for business reasons. That’s a negative compared to Firefox and Ungoogled Chromium.

Murdoc ,

Huh, hadn’t seen that bit before, thanks for that. Ok, well that is disappointing. I did notice this bit in there too though:

What about security benefits? Even though most of the security-relevant code for Vivaldi browser is in Chromium, there is also some security-relevant code in the UI. If you think that specific security-relevant parts of the UI should be open-sourced to make Vivaldi more trustworthy, let us know, and we’ll consider putting it out as part of our code bundles, so you can check it for yourselves.

It not much consolation, but it’s better than nothing. As it stands though, FF still has too many problems for me. I’ll have to see how this ad blocking thing shakes out though, might have to revisit my decision then.

kamen ,

As a long time user of Opera (from before they went with Chromium), I’ve been using Vivaldi as my primary browser since they first released a public preview. It has its downsides (i.e. the UI is slightly slower than that of Chrome), but at the same time it’s the thing that feels most “at home” for me after migrating away from the joke Opera has become. The developers seem to hold a strong anti-manifest-v3 stance, but unfortunately at one point they might have to comply. I just tried the built-in blocker instead of uBlock Origin I normally use and it seems to do a pretty good job.

I get the whole “switch to Firefox” thing; for me the major blocker is that it doesn’t have global mouse gestures and this messes up with my muscle memory. If they add that, I might give Firefox another chance.

seth ,

F I R E F O X already

resetbypeer ,

Well I will sound like an old bore but throughout the nearly 20 years Firefox is out I never looked at anything else. Seen the rise and fall of Internet Explorer seeing the rise and fall of chrome.

Even Firefox in its dreadfully slow era (2010-2016) it did not made me change. And let me be clear Firefox is far from perfect. But for my use cases (privacy and security balance over certain conveniences) I would not change for any commercially backed Browser.

Moral of the story. It’s better to donate to Mozilla and enjoy the freedom of your browser than giving yourself in on the erratic behavior of the big tech companies.

gwen ,

dont donate to moz lmfao if you look at the source code they collect absolutely everything, just use librewolf + betterfox.js/arkenfox.js

SynopsisTantilize ,

They collect everything? I’m on mint. I want extensions, and not have to run my browser like I need to tweak an OS. I just want it to work. What do I use?

gwen , (edited )

spyware.neocities.org/articles/firefox

if user.js editing is too much of a pain then get plain librewolf, go to settings and enable history-saving:

search bar ‘history’ > scroll to ‘history’ > disable ‘clear history when librewolf closes’.

supports extensions just fine too! :)

librewolf.net/installation/linux/installation for mint

edit: why the downvotes? i cited a good source for my claims.

edit 2: hackernews post about plain firefox being spyware, mental outlaw’s video on the topic and eric murphy’s video on this.

KLISHDFSDF ,
@KLISHDFSDF@lemmy.ml avatar
  1. Firefox doesn’t “collect absolutely everything”.
  2. DO donate to Mozilla as without them the Firefox, Tor, Mullvad, Floorp, Mull, Waterfox AND Librewolf browsers wouldn’t exist.
  3. Librewolf disables SafeBrowsing, which is a security must-have for anyone installing a browser for friends/family - and in many cases even for yourself.
  4. Even the Librewolf developers say "Safe Browsing is still a good security tool and Mozilla’s implementation is privacy respecting."
  5. Yes, if you know what you’re doing use Librewolf. For everyone else, Firefox is a great move.
gwen ,

oh, thanks for the information! it appears i was mistaken :}

jaschen ,

Are they going to do this on Edge? Please don’t judge me. I love the “Continue on Mobile” feature.

semitones ,

Firefox has this feature too, just saying

asexualchangeling , (edited )

Firefox not only let’s you view tabs from your PC on your phone, it let’s you install extensions (like ublock origin) on the mobile browser

machineLearner ,

not the ios app unfortunately, due to webkit

asexualchangeling ,

I don’t think of apple browsers as anything other than flavored safari, so I forget to count that as firefox

Demdaru ,

I overall love Edge. But when the ads come running, I’ll have to switch :/

boatsnhos931 ,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/c6f9e222-afa5-4e69-b64b-5eb033ed2031.gif

OfficerBribe ,

Looks like they will follow Chromium so as with Chrome you have till 2025 June if you use ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy

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