Soon, Google has even more leverage against adblockers

It’s amazing how little leverage they have when you stop using their products.
- More than you think. They are also actively seeking ways to make that leverage effect more people.
  They are defining web standards. They control chrome and chromium. So all of the alternative browsers that aren't safari and Firefox are using Google's web engine. Even Firefox and safari are beholden to Google as they fund both these web browsers through their default search deals.
  Google after many failed messaging apps has taken on RCS messaging. They provide most of the supporting infrastructure through their Jibe servers. They don't allow anyone but themselves and Samsung to make an RCS app on android. They also had a campaign to pressure apple to use RCS. It's likely apple's RCS will be following Google's Jibe service closely, as they've already said their will work with Google on this. Google successfully got most RCS messages going through their servers, with apple on board with RCS itll see most SMS messages defaulting to RCS and most of those going through Google.
  They also have deep hooks into education market with their OneDrive/Google docs products and Chromebooks.
  Most privacy focused android alternatives recommend Google hardware.
  
  I use Safari, Firefox, and DuckDuckGo.
  
  I haven't used sms for half a decade if not more...
  
  They are defining web standards. They control chrome and chromium. So all of the alternative browsers that aren’t safari and Firefox are using Google’s web engine. Even Firefox and safari are beholden to Google as they fund both these web browsers through their default search deals.
  🎶 I think I've seen this film before... 🎶
  
  Agreed we need to quickly move away from this
- Don’t worry. They will find ways to force you using their products.
  
  Meh I think they might be overestimating their market position if that’s the strategy

Firefox is loving every week of this as they head towards launch. Market share is guaranteed to improve.
- You have more faith in people’s giveashit than I do.
  
  Nah, I've seen people who were hard chrome users start to change their tune about it. A few even changed over to Firefox. Now I understand that my sample size is people I know, but even my wife asked me "how can I stop the youtube ads stuff" after noticing that I don't have to deal with that bullshit... and she's not tech literate at all.
  
  It's not really about giving a shit, but when you're used to no ads, then seeing ads is an inconvenience. And that's usually even more potent than people giving a shit or not
- deleted
  
  I switched to FF on mobile a few months back and I finally switched to FF on desktop earlier today.
  I had been a chrome user for maybe 15 or 20 years? I don't actually remember when chrome came out but I started using it shortly after.
- The problem is Firefox is not really an independant organisation; (it's not independant from Google).
  
  If you are talking about Mozilla gets money from Google for default search engine deal, Apple also gets money from Google. That doesn't make Firefox depended on Google.

My 5 years old decided to switch to Firefox after I told him google chrome will not block ads on YouTube anymore.
- That's the iq it takes yeah. :)
  Not saying anything bad about your son, hopefully you understand what I mean.
  
  Don’t talk to my son ever again! /s Yeah most adults are just very tall 4 year olds.
- can you invite 5 year old to fediverse when older
- Kids are more open to change than adults.
  
  I'll never understand why so many people seem to be afraid of change. To me change is exciting, something new to explore, a chance to learn something new.

Firefox isn't an "alternative browser."
I didn't think Google would play the evil card, but don't trust the ad blocking abilities of software made by an advertising company, I guess.
- What do you mean by not an alternative browser?
  Are you trying to say something about the word choice or...?
  Chrome is an alternative browser to Firefox too.
  
  yes, i think he is speaking about the word itself. it is terrible that it is gaining negative connotation... like when people say bullshit like "alternative facts" or "alternative medicine" and the word itself slowly starts to look slightly suspicious just because it is used by morons.
  
  It's not an alternative, it's the browser you should use
- Of course it's the alternative. Has always been, even before it was called Firefox: Netscape Navigator is the alternative to Mosaic. Fun fact: Internet Explorer was a fork of Mosaic. All of Chrome, Edge and Safari are descendants of KHTML.

This website talking trash about Google ads 🤣
- Holy fuck, 3 ads for the same thing that take up half the page?
  Thank developers for ad blockers, I don't even see those anymore.

How is this even legal? So now suddenly every chromium extension has to go through a play store style review? How is Google entitled to do this on their competitor's browsers?
- They can do it if a competitor has forked Chromium but not bothered to provide their own addon store. For example, Edge supports its own store plus Google, Vivaldi only supports Google

Not hard to believe these rumors of super low morale within the industry are true.
- What rumours are those?
  
  From what Bay Area friends told me, just a new really tense non-collaborative or innovative walk on eggshell environment since switching back from WFH to hybrid/in-office.
  
  This essay took a spin around social media last week

I switched to FireFox slightly before all this Adblock-Drama came up. Simply because i realised Chrome was getting ridiculously slow ._.

How is it still a problem for anyone? I haven't used Google in years and I am unexpectedly still alive
- We have prescribed terminals in our classrooms that are wiped between classes and only have chrome included. It's a fuckin' pain to have to load uBlock in each class in each section every day, because for some reason, our uni's IT department only supports chrome.
  
  Are you able to access anything like USB drives? There are portable versions of Firefox you can carry around with you.
  
  only supports chrome
  Nothing auspicious here! /s
- Most people use Google
  
  Well let's say they shouldn't for many reasons, the most obvious being Google's systematic push at harvesting every last data about your life. In my country, many schools ban chrome from their devices for this very reason

What happened to the ad blocker detection thing a month ago. Did Google remove it or does uBlock Origin have a permanent workaround now rather than needing to clear cache and reload?
- It's still an ongoing war, but with Manifest V3, Google will have an advantage over adblockers because they will be in full control over the frequency of extension updates, how many ad blocking rulesets they'll allow, and perhaps when no one is looking, prevents those rulesets from targeting their own domains. The latter is the nuclear option that'll instantly piss off the whole tech world if implemented now, but perhaps slow boiled frogs won't notice it once the heat is high enough.
  
  Setting up a huge privacy lawsuit by trying to force us to allow these horrendous advertising tracking scripts.
- They regularly try to add things to break it, and uBlock's devs update it as fast as possible. They'll probably slow down on these breaking changes as it falls out of the spotlight and people slowly forget about it.
- I had to clear cache and reload yesterday.

yea lucky enough i switched to firefox a year ago

I'm wondering if Chromebooks can run Firefox? I'm guessing not. I know you can install adblockers on them. Not after mid-2024, I guess.
It really sucks that an affordable notebook computer means getting locked into an advertising system. You can get a Chromebook for under $100 and they have a very, very easy-to-use OS. They're great for poor people and elderly people.
So much for putting an adblocker on Grandma's computer now.
- you can have refurbished thinkpad for the same price and you don't have to deal with some chrome-crap.
  honestly, the fact that people have to be reminded there are alternatives to chrome is the most mindblowing fact from the article.
- You can run the android version or use the Linux VM. Neither are great but are workable. Unless they've changed it recently, you can also dual boot them and run Linux off an external drive.
  I'd honestly say skip the Chromebook, get an older used laptop that is known to be fully supported by Linux, install a lightweight distro, and off you go if all Grandma needs is a web browser. Older used laptops are usually far better powered than a cheap Chromebook for the same price anyways. Plus it fights e-waste.
  A further option is to do adblocking at the router or through the computer's own networking system or something like a Pihole. These all come with their own pros and cons.
  
  I’d honestly say skip the Chromebook
  It's not always an option. For example, every computer in my house runs normal desktop GNU, except that I was forced to buy a Chromebook because my university's proctoring software only supported that, MacOS, or Windows.
- If all you need is a cheap laptop, there's thousands of deals on refurbished or used ones. You don't need this year's model to browse the web and send email.
  Throw Ubuntu or something on it and you can go even cheaper hardware wise.
  
  I have 10 year old Laptop that runs fine. It runs even finer on Linux.
- I've installed the Android version of Firefox on my wife's Chromebook via the Google Play store. There's also a way to enable Linux within ChromeOS and install the more full fledged version of FF.
  See: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browsers/chromebook/
- If she'd allow you, you could always put a little pihole ($10-20) on her network (with the bare minimum lists so that it doesn't break things too often). Wouldn't change anything about her computer.
  
  Just started running PiHole with a couple lists (default + more restrictions) and have seen zero negative effects so far. Surprising really.
- The pricing only really works if you factor in the advertising afterwards.
- There are ways to run Linux on Chromebooks
  
  Sure, but do you think Grandma who spent $100 on a Chromebook at Walmart is going to be able to figure out Linux even if their grandson knows how to install it? Chrome OS is the push-here-dummy of OSes. You really can't get much simpler. This is dangling a carrot in front of them so they'll be forced to look at endless advertising.
- A lot of chromebooks run linux pretty well since chromeOS is essentially just linux which is always an option.
- Just get a linux or android tablet instead.
  
  My mother-in-law, who has a Chromebook, doesn't want a tablet because she wants a reliable keyboard. That makes sense to me.
  Also, lots of school systems have opted to give their students Chromebooks and turning educational platforms into advertising platforms is criminal. Currently, my daughter's school Chromebook (thankfully she returns it in a few weeks) is ad-free unless she goes to a third party website. How long is that going to last?
  "Just get a Linux tablet" is not a universal solution. Nor is all of these people saying people should just get older refurbished or used notebooks instead. That will work for some people, sure, but it will not work for all people. Not for school systems and not for people who already own Chromebooks and can't handle a Linux learning curve.
  That said, according to others, you can install FF on them through their Android compatibility, but how long will Google allow that?
  I'm sorry, but "just switch to X" is really not a solution for a lot of people. And they don't deserve this from companies like Google.

"Wow! The future conditional pluperfect subjunctive."

Any article summary?
- Google is disallowing "remote code" in extensions and classifying blocklists (the lists of urls that ad blockers use to know what to block, which are just text files hosted on remote servers like github) as remote code. As a result, any blocklist updates will need to go through the extension review process, which typically takes anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks.
  Google often updates YouTube's ad delivery on a daily basis. Blocklists must also update as frequently to keep ads blocked on YT. If Google requires that blocklists go through the review process, they can drag their feet and essentially render the ad blockers useless even if they have to allow them to stay in the extension store.
- It's a short article...
  
  It's going to open a tab in the browser while closing the app. That's more trouble than I wanted.