1mo ago

Google Chrome’s uBlock Origin phaseout has begun

www.theverge.com Google Chrome’s uBlock Origin phaseout has begun

Time to switch to uBlock Lite or another ad blocker.

News @lemmy.world

www.theverge.com /2024/10/15/24270981/google-chrome-ublock-origin-phaseout-manifest-v3-ad-blocker

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186 comments

"Time to switch to uBlock Lite or another ad blocker"
No. Time to switch to Firefox or derivative such as Librewolf.
- Unfortunately I'm stuck with Chrome at work so having something like Ublock Lite available is somewhat helpful. I just hope it still blocks youtube ads because they're the worst.
  
  I strongly suspect that is exactly what they're trying to stop.
  
  You can't run firefox --profile /somewhere or (Windows) Firefox portable?
  
  I am running a portable LibreWolf on my work issued, locked-down-with-a-chastity-belt-and-thrown-the-keys-into-the-fires-of-Mount-Doom-in-Mordor laptop with uBlock extension installed.
  Try that and see if it works.
  
  Contact the admin
  
  ah you too work for a company that will let you install firefox but no extensions or addons??
  fml
  
  it seems to work on youtube so far, but that could also be due to the previous custom filters I installed months ago when yt ramped up their "no adblocker" campaign. UBO still works in the sense that all of the filters and lists you've installed are still there and functioning, you just can't update the extension. I'm still running UBO alongside UBO lite and it's working fine for now (knock on wood) until I can afford a new Windows machine.
- when I swapped my laptops, I already had chrome on the newer ones which I'm still using, but when I heard about this ublock origin saga, I started putting all my passwords in protonpass, and customised my Firefox install to my liking, CSS and everything. All ready to switch now, and I'm gonna be thanking my past self profusely for actually choosing to switch instead of vegetating.
- Lynx
- Brave is actually very good and seems to have a great blocker
  ps. their mobile browser has also been great on older phones
  
  Is Brave the one with the built-in crypto scheme and its own ads?
  
  No. Brave has a history of modifying links you click on to add affiliate information. The only time to use Brave is if user agent spoofing for "chrome only" websites doesn't make it work.
  
  To add: the CEO got kicked out of Mozilla and switched to crypto after he was caught donating to outlaw gay marriage.

Chrome only exists to download Firefox.
- Just like how Micro$oft Windows is advertsiting Linux, Google Chrome advertsites Firefox!
  
  LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX
- winget install firefox
  No chrome (or edge) needed
  
  You mean ’apt'.
- Microsoft Edge: “Thank you, Chrome, for sharing the load.”
- Sad saga, but here we are. I remember when Chrome was new and brought much needed speed and low resource usage to the browsing experience of the day. I even got email from a Chrome engineer once about a bug I mentioned in a forum, asking me for more information.
  Google was already an ad company by then so anyone could have looked forward to this inevitability. Some did. Most of us did not.
  Chrome has just always been there for some younger people but it will now live in my memory as a fully encapsulated end-to-end enshittification experience that I really should have always expected.
  And just like it used to be with Internet Explorer, I am forced to use Chrome at work all day because thats the IT & security approved / enterprise-managed browser.
  
  I, too, switched to Chrome around when they launched due to drastically better performance. But shortly after (a couple years?), I found out Opera had similar performance and had cool other features, so I switched to that. Opera then converted to a Chrome-clone, so I switched to Firefox, which had largely caught up w/ performance by that time.
  If you have the option, request that Firefox be added to the supported app list or whatever by your IT team. Tell them you need some Firefox-specific extensions or something for your job.
  
  Made me feel better when I said I wish I knew what would come, back in the day when I was installing Chrome for people - and someone here replied “hey we all wish we knew when we did that” 🫂
- Imagine having an OS that doesn't come with a proper package manager (and Firefox installed by default, for that matter).
- Tell that to the unwashed masses.

Google Chrome's ~~uBlock Origin~~ phaseout has begun

My phaseout of Chrome was complete a long time ago.
- I never phased into Chrome
  
  I used it for a while. It honestly was a really good browser for a long time but since everything started going this shit it quickly fell from my good graces.
  The only time I even think of missing it is when I have to open a page that is optimized against Firefox on purpose because the developers decided to use some janky Javascript plugin and didn't test.

I'm glad I don't use that piece of shit.
Firefox or nothing.
- Been using Firefox for as long as I can remember now. Never had a reason to switch away, and I'm feeling rather vindicated.
  
  There was a period some years ago where Firefox and Chrome were leapfrogging each other: Firefox would get slow and crap so I'd switch, then Chrome would get slow and crap and I'd switch back to FF, and so on. I've been on Chrome for quite a while it seems, until this development with uBO, well for me the internet is unusable without a shitblocker, so that's the end of Chrome. Thankfully FF is up to the job.
  
  I switched to Chrome probably a decade ago, because at the time it was significantly faster. I switched to chromium at some point and ended up back on Firefox when Google's password manager stopped working on every browser except Chrome. Firefox is noticeably faster these days and doesn't crash as often.

Switch to firefox.
- Just wait, there will be "features" that are mandatory on most sites, only supported in chrome.
  
  I've dropped websites over less.
  
  then I won't be visiting those sites I guess
  
  I usually use a useragent switcher to bypass.
  But the teams website for example opens a Microsoft specific browser api so its annoyingly locked to Edge specifically on mobile.
  
  So download a user agent switcher and set it to show you as using chrome. This is what i do with firefox and i haven’t run across a site that thinks i’m using firefox.

I feel like I have seen this news since forever, I am happily living my life with Firefox... Although the android mobile really needs some love.
- Oh man. Once Firefox on Android got extension support, I hopped on that train so hard. No ads on mobile browser? Heck yeah.
  
  It has extensions support for like 6 years at this point. Unless you got some extreme obscure extensions
  
  Well, if my memory serves well, Ublock Origin has been in Firefox mobile for a long time already but I get you.
  Although even before I did the switch I rarely saw ads on Google because I have always used DNS ad blocking (whether using my pi-hole or AdAway root version) but yeah Ublock Origin is just so much better.
  
  One thing I would like is to selectively enable extensions in the "custom tab" modal for Firefox.
  When I open an article, and it's riddled with js and auto play video, I have to hit "Open in Firefox" to get uBlock to engage.
  It would be nice to have the reader mode button in this view as well.
- Eh, Firefox on Android works pretty well for me (I actually use Mull). There are a handful of websites that have issues, but many of them also have issues on Vanadium (Chromium on GrapheneOS), so I just use my desktop for those.
  What issues are you running into?
  
  What issues are you running into?
  Tab management is plain bad, and the UI doesn't feel snappy as, let's say, Cromite or Chrome.
  All those are paid off because of the extension ability in Firefox.
- i like it, tbh I barely use the phone. I need more RAM on it for it to be more useful. It's crazy that even 8GB is not good enough. Dam Samsung bloat. I wish I had a stylus option for Google pixel or something that can take a privacy respecting OS.
  
  The Samsung bloat is real. I have two identical Galaxy Tabs, one with Lineage and one stock, and the software on the stock one is so annoying to go back to after using the Lineage one.
  
  Have you tried to debloat your phone?

Between Manifest V3 and the Play Integrity API, Google is really trying hard to kill the open internet and android.
- but android is google and google is chrome 😶‍🌫️
- But thankfully Manifest V3 is only relevant to Chromium browsers, and there are other options. The proposed web environment integrity API would be much worse, as they could simply blacklist any browsers they don't like, and deny them access to the most popular websites.

And my phaseout of Chrome is complete. My two browsers are now Firefox and Edge. Bit surprised at the latter tbh but it seems reasonably adequate as a secondary browser.
- My understanding is that Edge is Chromium and will also eventually be impacted by this.
  
  Opera is also Chromium but they said they are not going to do what Chrome is. So there must still be some flexibility.
- Edge isn't really better in any way. It's both Google and Microsoft, like the marriage of awful
- Yup same here Firefox for personal use and Edge for work since it deals better with all the MS sites

I have always used Firefox on all my devices, except for one: the Chromebook I was forced to buy because of compatibility with my college's test proctoring spyware.
On that device, not only did uBlock Origin quit working the other day, but today Chrome even kept disabling uBlock Lite with the error message that "This extension reloaded itself too frequently". It could be some kind of legitimate bug, but it sure feels a lot like foul play on Google's part.

Stopped using that garbage browser a couple of weeks ago. Hardened Firefox ftw. Just using stock Firefox isn't enough if you're concerned about your privacy on the internet btw. If all you're looking for is an ad free experience tho, then stock Firefox should be enough.
- Firefox's future isn't looking good with all that layoffs and lost money. I am very scared that it might go the way of Opera, and then we will trully have nothing left.
  
  There's a crucial difference:
  Firefox is open source, Opera isn't.
  
  Librefox, Tor, Mullvad browser... etc. I can never have nothing left.
- LibreWolf is great btw, if you're to lazy to manually harden Firefox. It also comes with uBlock Origin pre-installed. Also check out their community: !librewolf@lemmy.ml
  
  Yeah, I know.

Chrome is the adblock-block? You might have outblocked me today, but I'll firefox you away!
- 🎶 I want to see your adblock-block-block
  🎶 Your adblock-block

I don't understand why all these chrome derivatives and firefox don't just band together and extend manifest v3 with some vendored standardised extension that addresses the limitations.
Browsers do that for CSS and JavaScript features already. An extension could just check if the browser supports the "unlimited filters" option and use it if its available.
I have never researched it but heard that the permissions of manifest v3 are much better for privacy.
I am in favor of removing manifest v2 if the vendored extension becomes a reality.
Browsers already have too much complexity, lines of code and feature creep.
- Firefox implements v3 without the restrictions.
  
  From what I understand, the limit on the lists is not the only problem with it - my main concerns are a) lists only being able to update together with the extension itself and b) some features apparently being fundamentally disallowed, like the element picker I am dependent on.

Firefox with uBlock Origin add-on will sort many chrome issues.

Firefox is the solution people, make the switch.
- Brave browser is the solution.
  
  Brave is chromium.

the company said it would start turning off Manifest V2 extensions
...in time for Black Friday & the holiday sales?

It's totally ok. I've phased Chrome out in the beginning of the year already.

This was published last month btw (Oct 15, 2024)

I frequently forget that chrome is installed on my phone. The only time I'm forced to use it is about once a year when I order Papa John's Pizza takeout. Their checkout page doesn't seem to work in any other browser.
- It’s so Papa John’s to support only one browser.

I've been dual welding browsers since chrome came out. The second they started talking about deprecating manifest 2, I test drove Vivaldi and Brave. Now they're set up as my second.
I tried to convert over to Libwolf, But it absolutely massacres my passkeys.
I plan to main Firefox until they do something stupid which I think is inevitable with their recent statements.
I'm just hoping that by the time The other Firefox shoe drops there will be something else viable on the market. I don't know how long Brave and Vivaldi can hold out with chromium changing underneath them
- I wouldn’t trust Brave as it has a poor track record for privacy and is often used as a crypto miner behind the scenes.
  
  That's a fairly long time ago now and the crypto token crap is off by default. As far as I know they are the only browser with a paid development team that is trying to combat YouTube ads. And they're blocking technique is unique amongst the options we have. If it comes down to using Brave for YouTube, I have no problem with doing that.
- Oof I was considering LW but now am worried about the passkeys. Was that from an import or a remove and recreate?
  Been meaning to try Zen but maybe I should test more before trying either
  
  It won't trigger or accept my Bitwarden passkeys, and on google, if I do the use other device, it pops on my phone for bio auth, but the browser just never accepts the credentials.
  I'd try it if I were you, I do a lot of strange things. just check to make sure they work for you first.

We got here by using their softslop... only way to kill them is now to move on to different merchants. deny parasite the profits.
Gaming 101
- pro gamer move

Time to switch to ~~uBlock Lite or~~ another ~~ad blocker~~ browser. Firefox fully supports ad blockers like uBlock Origin. LibreWolf removes all the Mozilla nonsense like Pocket, their new advertising crap, sponsored sites, etc. and comes with uBO preinstalled. There's also an official Lemmy community for it: !librewolf@lemmy.ml
- I switched two years ago.
- I really wish I could stop using shit google stuff for work...

I stopped using adblockers and simply set the entire operating system to use Mullvad's DNS over HTTPS/TLS, specifically the adblock.dns.mullvad.net option. It doesn't have all the other uBlock features, but all ads are blocked in all browsers.
- The big problem with DNS-based ad-blocking is that it doesn't prevent redirects. Sure, you'll get redirected to a harmless blank page, but then you need to go back to the previous page. You don't have that issue with uBlock.
  
  It also doesn't prevent advertisements carried through the website's own domain. For example, lots of video platforms send their advertisements through the same domain as the content's domain, so if you block that domain, you'll also block the possibility of watching any content there. That's why you need to have ad-blocking within the browser.
  
  Yes, that happens when I click affiliate links. Blank page and then I go back.
- I like nextdns.io

Is it just me, or have I seen like 6-7 of these posts at this point?

Oct 15, 2024
https://www.pokemon.com/static-assets/content-assets/cms2/img/pokedex/full/079.png

Welcome all you shiny new Firefox users. Get a cup of a hot beverage and enjoy your freedom.

Is duck duck go browser safe?
- I bet it is chromium too.

It'd be great if Cloudflare sites supported Firefox. No matter what I do, it always gives me the "prove you're a human" checkbox loop.
- Interesting. I use Firefox on everything at home, usually windows or android, and I rarely get those. Could it be one of your extensions? Proxy?
  
  You likely have a "better" IP address than OP. I have old DSL and new LTE, on the LTE I get captchas all the time, on DSL my experience was the same AS yours.
  
  No proxy. I've tried disabling the likely extensions with no change. It's not the builtin anti-tracking stuff, either.

Check out Vivaldi. Yes it's still Chromium. Consider reading the link.
- Vivaldi is my backup browser, but I don't want to contribute to Chromium's market share so Firefox it is 99% of the time.
  
  My backup browser is cromite I was using ungoogled chromium but I found cromite a chromium browser with more privacy features.
  Cachy browser ftw(librewolf based browser its a great main browser i use).
- Vivaldi is nice, but some people may not like it due to it being closed source(some of vivaldi is open source with a closed source ui) , personally I think its a little bit sluggish.
  
  That’s all valid.

I recently started using Brave Browser as I noticed YouTube ads were starting to seep through randomly. Seems alright no far.
- Chromium fork. Chromium code, Google defining compatibility standards. Firefox (or it's forks) is the only real alternative.
- Brave is like Chrome with spyware
  
  Chrome is already spyware on its own. That's basically the reason Chrome exists.
- Not sure why you are being downvoted just for not realizing about Brave using Chromium. That seems a bit harsh.
  Here's a list of non-Chromium web browsers from August for you or anyone else who might find it helpful.
  
  Brave was astro-turfed by crypto-scammers for way too long to give people suggesting it now the benefit of the doubt.

Once this starts affecting me is lonely what will push me to other Crowder's I've never felt the need to leave chrome. I have a lot of Google related services and products so it would be hypocritical of me to draw an arbitrary line at browsers but not the rest, because personally i don't care about tracking and whatnot cause it's mostly just to serve targeted ads and I don't see them for the most part so I don't care, gimme all your cookies. But if I stay seeing ads again more prominently and there's no workaround, then I'm out. Moving on.
- And you think US government and 5 eyes countries won't have access? What happens when that elaborate detailed profile data of yours gets hacked?
  You are free to choose at any point where you draw the line.
  
  I live in the UK. I'm already watched by cctv in public almost at all times, I'm not bothered by people seeing what I do.

186 comments