Memes @lemmy.ml

1y ago

Surprised Pikachu

163 comments

If I learned one thing, when talking with people about stuff like that: Most people unfortunately don't care. Many don't even have an ad blocker to begin with.
- ah, time for a re-watch I guess
- Look, I was among the glorious warriors who installed Firefox on his parents/grandparents PC and replaced its shortcut’s image with IE’s one (because old people hate changes and won’t accept it easily)
  Oh again! They keep changing my Google internet!
  Yes grandma, it’s Windows… (« It wasn’t Windows » says the narrator in a deep and mysterious voice) Do you want me to install Linux? It’s free and open source and…
  Keep that commie thing away from me, I like that meadow picture…
  You know you can change th…
  Don’t you dare!
  Anyway. We did it. We killed IE hegemony. It’s up to the new generation to take the baton and fight against the tyranny of Google.
  
  The idea of installing Linux on a grandparent's computer is just asking for trouble. I convinced my father in law to give a Chromebook a try since he mostly just uses his computer to get online and boy, was that tricky. The average person has no idea what an Operating System is and will call you the minute they can't install a new program for some reason.
- The people who don't care and don't have an adblocker aren't and weren't ever the target. The people who are being targeted have an adblocker, and they're all moving to FireFox.
  What Google is getting out of this most of all is future compliance as new users coming to Chrome will never know a world in which ad blockers were freely available on Chrome, as well as dog whistling this to other corporate browser vendors.
  
  Don't forget they're pushing chrome on the whole internet. Websites are already telling Firefox users to fuck off if we aren't spoofing chromium and it's only going to get worse after this.
  
  Long term they will move to Firefox also.
  Because people like us will continue to suggest they use Firefox as their "tech person".
  It's just a little slower for the people that don't care.
- And many people also do use an adblocker https://backlinko.com/ad-blockers-users

I doubt most people use an adblocker.
Anyone who's aware of these issues or cares about them really should have been smart enough to switch to Firefox a long time ago.
- A lot of people do use Adblockers. https://backlinko.com/ad-blockers-users
  You can try other sources as well. The statistics say significant numbers on multiple places.
  
  46% global and 27 USA? Damn the us people are even more tech illiterate than I would've guessed. I suppose the 85+% market share of the iPhone among teens has something to do with it.
  
  I wouldn't personally call 42% that high and by definition not most.
- Must be enough to make big companies angry
  
  I think it's more that they know most people won't bother if they make it difficult.
- I use duck duck go. The browser on my phone even auto opts out of cookies
  
  You can also do that with Firefox on your computer.
  It's not in settings, but you can easily google the instructions.
  
  DuckDuckGo is also so much better for search results since Google made theirs shit.
  I can find websites pretty easy on DuckDuckGo which just don't exist on Google.
  
  damn google has really gotten shit then. I used to avoid duckduckgo because of how much better google was.
- Which makes this even more annoying. Like you have good chunk of the world using your browser with ads, but you still want even more and are still taking these types of scummy actions.
  
  I think they're taking aim at people who use an adblocker because it's simple and won't bother if they make it harder than installing an extension.

I've seen this one before.
A ton of people will complain
Firefox will get a bunch of users for a few days
90% will go back to Chrome
That last 10% will be happier but that's just the way it goes. This is based on Netflix, Reddit, Twitter, and Microsoft.
- A browser is not like a social network though. There's barely any difference in practical terms between Chrome and Firefox. Once you've switched there's no reason to go back.
  
  Desktop runs great, but Firefox on Android seems to be noticeably buggy here and there sadly. I still use it, but I can imagine that might drive people out of the ecosystem.
  Many people get used to the synchronization of their passwords / bookmarks cross-channel. More advanced users have a separate password management for this I'd figure, but that's not the default for 90% I'd guess.
  
  This is why I don't understand why anyone tech savvy isn't using Firefox. There's literally no cost. From a user standpoint they're basically the same thing. The one that isn't made by an evil monopoly is just the obvious choice.
  
  You may think so but there's always a bunch of posts about why people can't switch out of chromium in every other Firefox related posts. There are few significant differences and some don't wanna make any compromise for something better.
  
  As long as there is suddenly a new pinned tab with irrelevant info or an unskippable pop up about the new color schemes or data grabbing websites pinned to the top sites or the company firing half their developers even when their CEO gets another pay raise or…
  
  Agreed, I think they're hedging on the amount of people who leave will be less than the increased revenue of those who stay. Considering the ones leaving were never going to allow as revenue anyway what do they really lose?
- The rest will go to some other chrome derivative that includes a built in adblocker.
  
  Until google announces that adblocks will be blanket removed from chromium as well. The truth is the only company big enough to maintain a fork this different, is Microsoft, the question is will they feel like they should, or will they side with Google, since this is by their interests as well..
- There were people back in the day who thought that the internet was that fancy E on the desktop (internet explorer) and would have their brains melt when trying to explain alternatives. I think that people now have this problem with a fancy G.
- And thus, entropy is presented. Even if only 10% go to Firefox, thats still 10% that aren't going back to Chrome. And if this repeats with similar results, as you imply, that 90% going back to Chrome is gonna be a lot smaller a few iterations from now.
  
  Until they use their multiple monopolies to further cripple the experience for competitors, entrenching their dominance, and allowing them to force their proprietary standards on the internet, killing any remaining pretence of Internet freedom.

The description is "Google will disable MV2 extensions in 2024, including ublock origin" and the title is "Google will disable Ublock origin in 2024"
YouTube clickbait title moment.
I use firefox btw
- The target oft mv3 is litterally adblock TF u in securitythéâtre?
  
  No the target is something like 'prevent extensions from doing whatever they want with websites'. Could be to just block Adblocks but not a fact.

The majority of people on Chrome at this point are the same people that only ever used Internet Explorer until like 2015. They aren't even using Ublock, they don't even know what it is. The kind of people who have their nephew set their computers up for them.
- And that's why I set my elders up with uBlock.
- How dare you! I AM the nephew that sets up their computers for them, and I install Firefox.
  
  Good man.

Not sure they understand the flow on effects. Those of us being affected and work in the corporate IT space who have a lot of say in what browsers are used will simply replace chrome with Firefox on our thousands of machines nationwide without a second thought. They are digging their own grave.
- It's a little more complex then that.
  First we need to draft a project to keep the PMs happy. Then test the change...
  Then get it through change management...
  Or just have our friends in secops make it a security call and a priority. Not saying I've done this before - no sir.
  
  Don't forget the six months of complaining and loss of service desk productivity because people still can't figure out how to import their bookmarks.
- Their masterplan is possibly to deactivate certain websites for anything but chrome.
- Sadly, their user base is really every idiot with a cell phone or MacBook and not those of us who do as you suggest.

Back before web browsers had ad-blocking extensions, we had programs like Web Washer. It was a local, ad-blocking proxy program that you ran along side your browser. To use it, you just changed your browser's network settings to point to Web Washer. And the ads would be filtered before they even reached your browser. It would be no problem to implement this again.
- PiHole is the most common way I hear of network-level ad blocking these days.
- blocking YouTube ads can't really be done just with a DNS adblocker tho. if it could then my pihole would be blocking them too
  
  It's a proxy though, so it could inspect the actual content, detect ads and do something about it. Peertube, Grayjay etc bypass ads just fine so I guess it could be done with the webapp?

Google when people don't stop using chrome and just disable ublock:
:)
- They won't make people disable uBlock. They'll just make it stop working, and people will just think the ads have gotten better or uBlock has gotten worse.
  
  Fortunately there's so much chatter on this that maybe it won't be that way.

Google when people stop using chrome
Not so sure about that. I know more than enough persons who still like to use Edge (Internet Explorer).
- The problem isn't Edge in itself. It is good if there are many browsers. But when Javascript became more than just a play thing, all of a sudden browser slowly moved to chromium as an engine. There used to be Opera, IE, Edge, Firefox, Safari and Chrome with each their own browser engine. Now there is only Chromium/Blink, Safari and Firefox left. Google is way too powerful with their marketshare. They constantly try to implement features that are bad for users.
  Please use Firefox if you can!
  
  Now there is only Chromium/Blink, Safari/WebKit and Firefox/Gecko left.
  {browser}/{browser_engine}
  
  New engines are in test stage, servo, ladybird etc.
  
  At least at home and on mobile I absolutely do o7
- I use Edge at work and it's a really decent browser. It's not Internet Explorer it's basically Chrome with different tracking software lol
  Obviously I use Firefox personally. But it's actually decent.
  
  I also use it at work and it really sucks. I also have Chrome on my work computer, but for everything work-related I have to use Edge. Like E-Mails and Sharepoint-Stuff. Edge's startup time is at least 4 times Chrome's startup time. Sites load extremely slow directly compared to Chrome. No Adblockers. I really don't like this.
- Edge isn't IE, it's reskinned Chromium.

I'm sure some people will swap, but nah no way it's a meaningful loss
Ad blockers will still exist too, they just won't be as effective. If the layman installs an ad blocker and gets one less ad, they won't question it further

It won't do anything to their market share. At work my colleagues keep asking me "Why don't you use chrome?" or saying things like "Isn't Firefox slow?". They simply don't know or don't care to know. Also Firefox IS slow or just doesn't work, not because it's a bad browser but I've been seeing a trend of websites being designed to make it appear slow, like YouTube takes 5 extra secs on Firefox to load videos Clipcham and Adobe outright not supporting Firefox on their websites. The internet is a clown show.
- Remember the net neutrality debate? I do.
  This is now a balancing act to see how much they can cripple the internet for their own benefit without affecting market share enough that it hurts long-term profitability.
- I'm sorry, but you work with a bunch of morons of they are harassing you about it.
- we're doing the IE6 thing again...

uBlock Origin has a Manifest V3 version, it's not going anywhere. I swear there are more people not reading anything here than Facebook.
- Nah, there's a big difference between what and how much you're allowed to block in V2 vs V3 - the current status V2 adblock is way outside the range of V3's version.
  I'd say V3 blockers can probably block at best 30% of what V2 can block. Which means it has to be selective. It essentially nuders the extension, making it worthless - an adblocker that only blocks some ads is not an adblocker at all. It's more of an ad restrictor, and in heavily monetized sites it might not even be that.
- It has but i read somewhere its very limited and can be disabled by Google whenever they want.

Sadly, they know damn well that people won't stop using it
- Anecdote, but all of my friends & family members that depend on me for computer support have already stopped using it. IT at my company has also decided to stop loading it with their install images, because "ads are known attack vectors".
- Makes me wonder why they're actually doing it. How much revenue do they think they'll gain from blocking ad blockers? Are they doing this for that revenue, or are they trying to tell advertisers that Google ads are a safer investment?

The vast majority of Chrome users will continue to use Chrome, as the vast majority of internet users do not use adblock software.
- im not sure about it, they wouldn't try to ban ublock if it was a minority
  
  Random article I found said about 26% of people in the US use adblocking services. Working on the assumption that's reasonably accurate, that's a pretty big chunk of ad revenue.
- What platforms does chrome come as default on? I know it's on google products like pixel, but mac and pcs still have safari and edge, right? What kind of people know enough to get a non-default browser and not enough to get adblock?
  
  Chrome is standard on pretty much all Android phones, and Edge is just Chromium with a skin so it will get this too

I wonder what is the thought process here, why wouldn't someone who went the length of installing an adblocker look for other browsers as options?
- I guess the idea is that if a person is giving you zero ad revenue, then them switching to a diff browser instead of removing ad blocker doesn't change your equation.
  But if any of them do just turn off the ad blocker it's a win...
  However I'm not sure if they lose other revenue because they don't use chrome (like data tracking info)
- Ublock is so good at being 'set and forgettable I've gone beyond just suggesting it to friends and family who aren't very tech literate, and just installed it for them. I'm sure I can't be the only one. But these people would likely go straight back to consuming ads rather than try to figure out why their ad blocker stopped working. That's sad but it's true.

And everyone rediscovered Firefox and the world was at ease.

waaah please watch this piss poor ad that we spent 20 million on to get in front of your face only for you to skip it or ignore it entirely we are taking any possibility you will not see this away so you HAVE to you HAVE to buy it
[redacted] yourself you fucking parasites

This will do nothing to stop Google Chrome's market share tbh.
Installing an ad blocker is like the easiest thing in the world to do. Literally takes less time than watching the ad yet even most young people don't use it. It's the reason why Edge has such a high market share despite not being all that great. It's the default for many people so inertia will carry it forward. Google Chrome could literally record your screen at all times and sell it to the highest bidder and it would still dominate the market.

Given how quickly everyone I know took to using Chrome on phones despite no adblock being available, I think sadly it won't have as big an impact as I wish it would.
- Tbf it's not exactly made easy to completely remove chrome + Google from phones.
  Even if you set Firefox as default, even with webview, some Google apps will call chrome anyway using the built in webview.
  
  CFW baybee

Anyone that really cared switched a year ago when they said they were going to do this. They told us they were going to do this publicly.

I remember when Chrome released and it was a hot mess performance wise. I haven't used it since and it doesn't seem like I'm missing anything.
- The last straw for me was about a decade ago when an update completely broke Chrome on my machine. It would open and immediately crash, even after reinstalling. Everything else worked fine, virus scans came back clean and everything, it was only Chrome. I spent the next 2 months playing browser roulette before settling on ol' reliable Firefox once again.

I saw a comment mention something about “power vs authority,” and that seems relevant here.

I stopped using Chrome a while back, but still use Gmail because I'm lazy. Every time I crank open Gmail in another browser, Google whines at me to use Chrome. That grizzling pop-up is now the main reason I don't use Chrome, and it will eventually drive me to migrate away from Gmail. DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!
- Commenting because I'm in the same boat.
  Gmail was so handy because it did a good job at filtering the spam and offered customization. But it's doing a worse job at the spam and not a good enough one at customization. Where should I go?
  Proton mail? Some similar platform?
  I'm terrible at maintaining my email but I check it often enough.
  
  I'm trying both Outlook and Proton. I'll probably go with Proton, but aaaaargh, the thought of all the tedious work involved... I've got better things to do!

We still have maybe two years before they start destrying gmail. I think they're already itching
- The IMAP support has been more or less broken since the very beginning. Their custom labels make folders behave in a non-standard way and the IMAP itself is terribly slow compared to every single other provider I've used. I used to have dedicated workarounds in my email automation scripts for their weird folder semantics, for even such trivial tasks as actually deleting an email as opposed to merely removing a label from it.
  It's already unusable as far as I'm concerned.
- They have done shitty things to Gmail before, such as forced Google+ integration, with backlash as expected. They are shutting down the basic HTML version soon, too.
  
  There was talk of changing gmail into some kind of chat view or something, I expect that will be the start

It didn’t even make sense, because the point of Google was never to make money anyway. The point of Google was to make investors believe it was worth billions of dollars.
- Well, first one then the other. The IPO is the inflection point

In what imaginary world are people ditching chrome over this? You people project so hard lol.
- I already ditched Chrome and Gmail over this kind of garbage. Most, probably not, but the privacy and security minded will find alternatives.
  
  I literally ditched chrome not because of issues I was experiencing, but rather so issues my friend was experiencing and I wanted to protest against Chromium.
  Word of mouth works.

163 comments