Google ramps up its campaign against ad blockers on Chrome.
  • Google is transitioning Chrome’s extension support from the Manifest V2 framework to the V3.
  • This means users won’t be able to use uBlock Origin to block ads on Google Chrome.
  • However, there’s a new iteration of the app — uBlock Origin Lite, which is Manifest V3 compliant but doesn’t boast the original version’s comprehensive ad-blocking features.
  • friend_of_satan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    420·
    4 months ago

    I’d just like to reassure everybody that you can quit using Google Chrome. I switched to Firefox a year ago. You can switch to something else too. Give it a try.

    Wait, I don’t need to nudge anybody. After all the ads start invading their browsing experience I doubt anybody will need much prodding.

    • BobGnarley@lemm.ee
      6·
      4 months ago

      I always wondered about this and how all the ad blocking apps have complete access to every webpage you visit.

      Also to add to this, its made a little weirder considering ad blocking makes you more susceptible to fingerprinting.

      • Hexbatch@lemmy.world
        2·
        4 months ago

        Yea, that is what gets me too, when I look at the blockers to use; Ad blockers have access to all keystrokes, forms and pages. They have access to my banking and other codes when I use them .

        While I am sure the more popular blockers do not abuse this, and the code most likely checked line by line. It’s still possible for a handful of mistakes to allow supply chain attacks or a dozen other things to happen.

        It worries me, so I don’t use them as extension and use security elsewhere

    • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
      107·
      4 months ago

      Yea, I’m just waiting for the bomb to go off when Mozilla inevitably ends up following Google’s example.

      • sheogorath@lemmy.world
        182·
        4 months ago

        Thankfully, Firefox is open-source, so we can just use one of the forks, or perhaps Ladybird will be ready for general release by that time.

      • ngwoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        4 months ago

        Firefox already adopted manifest V3 but specifically kept the features needed for adblockers

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
      22·
      4 months ago

      YouTube isn’t playing on Firefox with Ublock for me either. I’ll need to go through and reinstall my extensions, but I couldn’t find the root cause so far, I’d just been using chrome with ublock for YouTube and Firefox for everything else.

      • Frellwit@lemmy.world
        4·
        4 months ago

        Make sure jnn-pa.googleapis.com isn’t blocked anywhere in your network. It may perhaps be blocked in a filter list you have activated in uBO, DNS, VPN, Firewall, anti-virus, Firefox enhanced tracking protection, etc.

  • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
    901·
    4 months ago

    Susceptible to intrusive ads and viruses.

    My Windows computer was infected more than once by virus spreading ads on legitimate websites. The site owners denied any responsibility for the viruses saying it was the fault and responsibility of the ad companies. Never again.

  • ngwoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    541·
    4 months ago

    Use Firefox. If something you use ABSOLUTELY needs Chromium yell at whoever makes the thing. If that still doesn’t work use Brave. But then go back to Firefox for everything else.

    • Huckledebuck@sh.itjust.works
      61·
      4 months ago

      I’ve switched to Brave. I only use it for general internet use. What am i missing out on if i don’t go back to Firefox?

      • Voltage@sh.itjust.works
        19·
        4 months ago

        I know its everyone’s personal choice and all that but in my opinion people should stop using chromium engine browsers. It was a good engine however the fact that chromium has the majority users is the only thing holding lazy developers from porting websites to work with other browser engines gives google more control.

          • stetech@lemmy.world
            14·
            4 months ago

            Most “browsers” being marketed out there are based off of Google’s Chromium project. They are effectively re-skins of it (simplifying a little). Examples include Brave, Vivaldi, Opera I believe.

            Firefox is completely separate and independent from this ecosystem (which is also why there’s a separate extension store for Firefox).

            The third and last major (>a couple % market share) engine is WebKit, which is the basis of Apple’s Safari.

            There’s tons of cool stuff out there, but it’s either niche (platform/use case), unstable to use, and/or both. Examples: Servo, Ladybird, Orion

            To sum it up, if you’re a normal, average user:

            • If you have exclusively Apple devices, probably try Safari (for the synchronization & battery efficiency)
            • If not, Firefox!
            • If you need it because of some really messed up development/compatibility issues, the last resort is ungoogled/de-googled Chromium

            While on the topic, here’s some cool browser extensions:

            Edit: fixed a link

          • hswolf@lemmy.world
            5·
            4 months ago

            short answer: No

            long answer: Most people just like to shout-out what they like, and don’t want to know your use case. If you need pc/mobile sync, Firefox will be your best choice here.

    • Rob@lemmy.world
      1·
      4 months ago

      What’s the general consensus on Arch? I really like the UX, although I stuck to Firefox on mobile.

    • linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      4 months ago

      Screw that. Use Firefox, but if you need Chrome, use brave, use Vivaldi, use Opera for all it mattwrs. Asanything that still works is fine.

      This brave paranoia is just insane. You don’t want crypto, don’t use it. You don’t trust brave use Vivaldi, but spreading fake fear is BS.

      • CafecitoHippo@lemm.eeEnglish
        7·
        4 months ago

        You don’t want crypto, don’t use it.

        I use Brave as my Chrome based browser when not using Floorp but there were other issues with Brave in the past like injecting their affiliate links unbeknownst to users so they could make money off them. They have reverted that decision but that they thought it was acceptable in the first place leaves some to question, rightly, what other shenanigans they might pull. They’ve also had issues with paying out Creators BAT tokens.

        • linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
          22·
          4 months ago

          Yep company’s not totally trustworthy neither is Google neither is Microsoft. By the way, Firefox still sends all of your websites to Google to get safe traffic prompts.

          Brave also got and slapped by the SEC for the handling of their crypto sales.

          The link issue you’re speaking of was 4 years ago. The CEO issued a formal apology.

          They’re a funded company they are trying to make money to pay the developers to stay solvent.

          On the upside they’re using that money to fight Google’s ad blocking and to keep manifest V3 optional.

          The way they block the ads happens outside of manifest so even if they take the manifest code they still won’t have ads. Of the chromium ancestry browsers they are the most likely to continue running long-term. They’re also the fastest solution for YouTube blocking when YouTube makes changes.

          I main Firefox but still use brave over edge or opera.

          Right now, we need all the boats we have. Not everything works in Firefox you need to have a backup,

  • madcaesar@lemmy.world
    50·
    4 months ago

    FYI TELL YOUR LOVED ONES ABOUT THIS

    If you are on here you’re probably like me “the it guy of the family”

    Mom and dad aren’t going to switch themselves, remove chrome for them as the default install Firefox and tell them to use that unless something absolutely refuses to work. Pick your battles.

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        4 months ago

        Sometimes people just refuse common sense and have to be left to ruin their own lives, no matter how much you love them.

        Cause theres no point drowning yourself, trying to keep idiots that refuse to swim above water.

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
      10·
      4 months ago

      If you are the IT guy just buy a raspberry pi or a cheap mini pc and install pi-hole at your parents place that you can access remotely. That way their entire network is blocked from ads and you can troubleshoot from anywhere.

  • t�m@lemmy.mlEnglish
    501·
    4 months ago

    Even the FBI sent a warning imploring everyone use AdBlockers

  • vanderbilt@lemmy.world
    37·
    4 months ago

    Hopefully the DoJ case against Google includes getting bent over a barrel for abusing their position as a market maker to force their revenue model.

    • Evotech@lemmy.world
      12·
      4 months ago

      To be fair, some add-ons are the worst malware you can have. Google is trying to combat that

      • DudeImMacGyver@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        4 months ago

        Bullshit, they are trying to kneecap ad blocking to protect their bottom line. They could have protected people from sketchy add one without fucking up ublock

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    332·
    4 months ago

    I have said this in other threads about this issue in response to all the “use Firefox” comments.

    Thousands upon thousands of school children are currently using Chromebooks they get from their schools. Now they will be forced to look at ads.

    • CafecitoHippo@lemm.eeEnglish
      14·
      4 months ago

      Now they will be forced to look at ads.

      I’m pretty sure they would’ve been seeing ads anyways. I doubt that school IT administrators had uBlock Origins as an extension that was being installed and I really doubt they didn’t have the chromebooks locked down so students could install whatever extensions they wanted.

      • madcaesar@lemmy.world
        10·
        4 months ago

        Good, smart IT would have installed ublock and locked that shit down. Saves bandwidth and protects the kids.

        But you’re probably right, most IT departments are useless.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        3·
        4 months ago

        The IT department at my daughter’s school allowed me to install the uBlock Origin extension last year. Granted, some extensions (and websites for that matter, no PornHub) were blocked, but not that one.

        • JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
          3·
          4 months ago

          I’m willing to bet you’re the exception and not the rule. I can confirm from my own experience that we couldn’t even alter the system settings of the individual device.

          • Lets_Eat_Grandma@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            4 months ago

            I would personally push adblockers in a professional environment. They eliminate a lot of unwanted threat vectors.

            There is a very rare occasion where it breaks things just one ticket later and a little education and it’s good.

          • atocci@lemmy.world
            1·
            4 months ago

            Altering system settings wasn’t possible when I was in school, but browser settings weren’t so locked down. Extensions were freely available to install on the school computers.

            • JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
              1·
              4 months ago

              That wasn’t the case for us, we couldn’t download anything that didn’t come pre-installed. If the teachers wanted to use a website that was blocked by the cartoonishly restrictive web filter they had to wait upwards of a week because all of the IT was done by one guy who was also a teacher.

              • atocci@lemmy.world
                2·
                4 months ago

                Our IT team was pretty cool I think.

                I had a technology class when I was there that only had 6 students in this little computer lab in the back of the cafeteria. There were way more computers than than students though, so the few of us that were there started unplugging monitors from the unused computers next to us and giving our computers multiple monitors. We couldn’t rearrange the monitors since they were physically attached to the tables, and they couldn’t be reordered in Windows since system settings were locked, so we just had to remember that to get to the left monitor we’d actually have to move the mouse to the right for example.

                Not even a week later, someone from IT showed up to check on things. We thought that would be it for our multi-monitor setups and they’d make us put them back, but not a beat was missed between them noticing what we had done, realizing that the monitors were in the wrong order, and offering to fix it for us in the settings.

                • JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
                  2·
                  4 months ago

                  Yeah our IT guy was cool and always tried to be helpful, it’s just that he was given the job of a whole team on top of being a full time teacher, while also constantly facing criticism from the school board for being unable to keep up. You could tell he was only there for the students, because his bosses treated him like shit.

                  Except he was also a big time trump supporter and ended up losing his job after (from what I heard) bringing a gun on a school trip.

                  So nobody’s perfect I guess.

    • atocci@lemmy.world
      3·
      4 months ago

      I was done with school before giving out computers to students was the norm, but my brother’s school district seems to be issuing Surface Laptops instead of Chromebooks. With Firefox preinstalled.

  • mindlight@lemm.ee
    301·
    4 months ago

    If you want to avoid ads it might be a good idea to not use products from a company which primary goal is to make money on ads…

    But hey, what do I know…

  • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
    29·
    4 months ago

    Next week: Over 30 million users pull the plug on Chrome, leaving Google execs to make the surprised Pikachu face and wonder aloud why millennials hate web browsers.

    • stoly@lemmy.world
      5·
      4 months ago

      The sort of person who would sit through a Youtube ad or is still on Reddit won’t change. They’ll just get angry or perhaps not even notice.

      • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        Even if only a fraction of those kinds of users switch, that’s still millions of users chrome loses, and no longer get to make a buck off of.