Google pulls the plug on uBlock Origin, leaving over 30 million Chrome users susceptible to intrusive ads
Google pulls the plug on uBlock Origin, leaving over 30 million Chrome users susceptible to intrusive ads
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.
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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.
Yep... when ublock quits working for me on Chrome then I will migrate.
Why wait? Migrate now. There's even Firefox for mobile with ublock
There is?
Yes my main mobile browser
Same here. Haven't seen an ad in I don't know how long.
That doesn’t really answer my question. How does one get ublock origin on mobile?
Same as on desktop. You go to the Mozilla extension site or the author's site and click add.
You use Firefox as your mobile browser
And to add to that, set all your programs and links to open in Firefox by default, instead of the YouTube app, etc. then you're blocking ads just like a desktop on every site you visit.
Why stop there? uninstall the youtube app. It's garbage. FreeTube has an Android fork now too.
There's an extensions menu in the firefox app, uBlock is listed as one of the recommend ones, all you have to do is click the plus sign to add it.
Not in mobile
Yes in mobile
Everyone is leaving out that this is Android only.
That's what you get for using an apple product.
It's definitely one of the reasons I left.
On the other hand, Google fucking SUCKS and I expect Apple to be doing way less questionable-to-evil stuff with my data.
That's because "firefox" (or "chrome" too) on apple products is just a reskin of Safari. Apple does not allow 3rd party browser engines in its app store.
That's because 3rd party browser engines might not suck ass, which would allow OWA apps in your browser whcih would circumvent Apple's 30% cut on everything. So they kneecap their own browser and don't allow any other browser on their devices.
Yes there is lol
Yes, in mobile Firefox.
This is Fennec, a fork of Firefox for mobile, though mobile Firefox has this same menu. c: Extensions are very much supported on mobile and it's great.
Though I should add: I'm not an iOS user, so the story is likely to be different there, Apple being Apple and whatnot.
On Android, Firefox for iOS doesn't have addons because Apple.
The Orion browser has rudimentary support for Firefox extensions. UBlock origin seems to work for me. Best I’ve found for iOS
For real the votes here have so much “well it works on my machine so you must be wrong”-energy
It it because apple doesn’t want addons, or because firefox is forced to use webkit?
From what I understand, it's mostly because they're forced to use WebKit, and building a compatibility layer to make the existing addons to work within iOS constraints on top of WebKit would need a significant amount of work.
My guess is that Mozilla is waiting on the engine restrictions to be lifted, but so far that will only happen in the European market with their alt stores.
Only on Firefox Android.
As far as I know, Safari is the only browser with Adblock on iOS.
Also third party browsers on iOS are forced to use a janky slow WebKit WebView instead of the accelerated WebKit on Safari.
In the EU, things are different and third-party rendering engines have been forced upon Apple, so people there may have more options.
This is true, however, Firefox focus has a built in blocker that’s pretty good, and the Orion browser for iOS actually supports Firefox extensions (even though it’s built on top of safari), and is also pretty good. I run bothe Firefox focus and Orion with ublock on my iOS devices.
I just installed Orion thanks to this post and I'm really impressed. I usually stick to safari, but I'm going to sit on this for a week and see how I feel about it.
2 quick questions; Do you know if it's possible to get YouTube videos to run in PiP on iOS/iPadOS? And is there a dark mode for the app's interface?
Yes, you can do pip, you need to first expand the video to full screen, then tap the screen to bring up the on screen controls, and you should see a pip button in the upper left of the video.
Orion doesn’t have a dark mode that I’m aware of, though it mostly respects iOS dark mode (with annoying exceptions). Though with firefox extensions, you can install dark reader, or you can install the dark reader iOS app, to get dark mode on all websites.
Edit: I’m not certain that dark reader iOS app will work with orion. I don’t use the app, I use the firefox extension with orion.
I use Firefox Focus on iOS. It blocks quite a bit without addons.
Blocks ads in YouTube too, and if you add sponsorblock you it'll skip in video ads too
Yes. You can install extensions on firefox mobile just like you can on the desktop version. IIRC it's the only mobile browser that does this.
Mull is a Firefox fork with even more privacy features. There are others that I'm sure people will chime in with.
Firefox mobile allows you to install extensions just like a PC version of the browser.
low key that's why I switched. ads on mobile are so incredibly intrusive
Or better still firefox focus. Ad blocking built in and it drops all the cookies as soon as you close it.
I keep firefox on mobile for when I need to go to a trusted site, firefox focus for everything else.
I just wanted to drop in to say I do the same!! Especially on iOS where regular Firefox is kinda so-so (but better than Safari) Firefox Focus meanwhile is King
I personally enjoy Ecosia. They're the ones who plant trees whenever you use their search engine, and while not the best, at least their mobile app has a built in ad-blocker that imo seems pretty decent.
You can use FireFox and set your default search engine to Ecosia's. Best of both world's.
There is also a FF extension called Search For Trees that defaults to Google's search engine instead of Ecosia/Bing where you don't have to pre-load each search with #g, unlike Ecosia. The Google search in this extension is a little wacky though so not perfect. Search For Trees donates to Trees For the Future btw.
Mostly inertia and other priorities...
It’s ez
yeah, I went ahead and set it up...
Any recommendation for an alternative to Hangouts?
Hopefully it will break badly enough to move people past their inertia so then there can be a more serious competitor to Chrome, or maybe even multiple competitors to Chrome.
I tried but for some reason certain websites can't play any videos on Firefox without buffering every like 5 or 10 seconds for a few seconds. It happens on 100% of videos on YouTube and like 50% of videos on any other website. It's super annoying, so back to chrome I went and I guess I'll stay until ublock bites the dust and I have to move.
Google owns YouTube so there's probably some shenanigans there
Thats Googles fault. Firefox has an user agent switcher -addon. Flip it there to appear as Chrome, and suddenly Youtube bufferring problems drastically lessen.
Also if you are in EU, consider making a complaint about this assholish and anti-competetive behaviour to your country's competition/trade authority. Also EU's, if you feel like being an extra responsible EU citizen. These assholes at Google need to be fined to extinction.
Yup
Rocking Firefox even from my Android phone. It works great!
Firefox with NoScript is better than any adblocker I used. It blocks the 'disable adblocker' popups alongside ads and most sketchy shit in general
It also blocks everything else on the website.
It's definitely more of a hassle than most people will want to deal with. But I still prefer to have it and selectively enable things as needed, because quite frankly I'd rather deal with predictable hassles of my own making than be bombarded with new bullshit every day due to ever worsening trends in enshittification.
Tip: its not better if you know its to much hassle for most people. But dont let that stop you from posting your ideas. The more power to those that such is not a hassle.
People have different tolerances for these kinds of things. Some people never bother to even get an ad blocker. Some won't touch settings no matter how simple. And some want to tweak and modify endlessly.
iirc some hardened firefox configs, including arkenfox, recommend using ublock ONLY. other privacy extensions like noscript aren't worth using because ublock replicates all of their features plus more
Why not both?
look into umatrix, it's a better noscript, made by the same dev as ublock.
Formerly made by the same dev. Not because somebody else took it over, but because he deprecated it entirely.
ah ok, I didn't realize.
Because it can ruin your browsing experience all together. It'd be like installing multiple anti-virus programs on your Windows PC
You can basically use uBlock Origin as NoScript (or I think ScriptSafe? or did they change back?) if you put it into "hard mode."
I personally like "medium mode". I guess I get why they hide it behind several obscure steps, but I feel like they should advertise it more. It's a nice middle ground. Still breaks every website the first time you go there but meh. Small price to pay.
iirc some hardened firefox configs, including arkenfox, recommend using ublock ONLY. other privacy extensions like noscript aren't worth using because ublock replicates all of their features plus more
Firefox reader mode is the champ, especially when combined with uBlock
You can even keep all your bookmarks
I don't understand the inertia if I'm honest.
Easy to understand. People don't like change.
Despite 25 years in IT, and knowing better, I only recently switched back to Firefox. I expected a fair bit of hassle, and I won't say the transition was seamless, but I was astounded.
Those of us in the know aren't doing any good circle jerking ourselves over our superior browser. We need to get our friends, coworkers and relatives engaged. And that should be easy if we contrast our ad-free experience with theirs.
On that note: Anyone wanting the same look and feel of Chrome without ads should try Brave. No add-ons or plugins necessary.
Nobody that cares about seeing ads is still on chrome. I bet they don't lose more than 8-10% market share in a year even that is probably super high
I've always used Firefox on every other device I own, but now I need to do something about my Chromebook.
Do you know if brave browser is better than firefox? they claim to prioritize user privacy more than firefox
I'd use Firefox over brave. The company behind brave will still sell your data.
They're selling the tor feature of brave. You can install tor in FF.
I like brave because it's staffed with developers full-time to block YouTube. I don't love their crypto, but I don't use it, and it does pay their devs.
brave is based on chromium, so it's not 100% safe from google