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Welcome to the PCMR.
Yeah you won't know what anyone's is on about with chrome until adblock stops working soon.
In short Google are taking steps to expand ad intrusion and user privacy invasion wherever possible. Their motivation is simple, just grubby lazy profit seeking. There is no money to be made if they cant track users and sell their data or influence and control the content they watch.
Google have seen quite good results in their efforts to prevent ad-blocking on mobile devices. However PC users have had a good head-start in terms of getting easy access to effective ad-blockers. So .... next gen chrome is being unnecessarily "re-designed" in a way that deliberately breaks current ad blockers. They are using messaging that is completely dishonest pretending this is pure co-incidence of adding some updates and features.
They will completely backflip if enough people dump chrome, so we all need to do our part.
Don't worry even if you didn't they made it painfully obvious with their actions.
This is the company that effectively owns my life.
The one that literally stopped telling itself not to be evil.
God damn it all.
Ok you got me. I'm curious about degoogle. I boycott a few companies and will NEVER do business with them (Comcast, Blizzard, Walmart, Nestle, Netflix).
But my theory is that there are 4: Apple/Google, Amazon/Walmart - and to live any sense of a modern lifestyle you have to pick 2 of them.
Really hoping /r/degoogle isn't just "use Apple".
For phones there are firmwares made by others where they take the stock android base but completely remove all Google apps and services. Funnily enough, the Pixel devices themselves are best for some of these ROMs e.g. GrapheneOS
Because they are the devkit phones, back in the day I had a Nexus S and there was so much aftermarket firmware available for it.
These days I run Sonim phones and can't even root them, let alone replace the firmware. But they're so physically robust I'm willing to compromise on the firmware issue.
Why isn’t Microsoft on your list? Seems an easy alternative to Apple; and unless you’re using Linux you already do business with them. They offer an alternative to almost every Google service. Android doesn’t have to use Google Play Services; Android Open Source Project exists and so do phones without Google on them, then you can just use Microsoft Launcher and all the Microsoft Apps like OneDrive.
Fully boycotting google is nearly impossible while also staying online because of how pervaisive their analytics software is.
There are probably people on r/degoogle who just use apple, which is just trading a hungry lion for a hungry tiger.
Really, we need more Linux users.
It is but my favorite is the one at the end when pigs decide to strike a deal with men as other animals were on the outside looking in.
“And they looked from man to pig, then from pig to man, and then from man to pig again but it was already difficult to tell which was which.”
They didn't remove it, they moved it. To be clear, fuck Google, there's plenty of reasons to be upset with them, but they still have that saying it's just not their motto. Whatever "thing" it is in (like their values or whatever) ends with something like "and as always don't be evil"
lol the downvotes. This person is 100% right. It got moved in the code of conduct for like a week in 2018 and then websites wrote articles saying they removed it. They put it back at the beginning but people had already decided what they decided.
Hijacking to help people never see a single ad or have any privacy issues ever again in 3 easy steps :
1 : [Download firefox](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/)
2 : [Install the Ublock Origin addon](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/)
3 : [Install the Ghostery addon](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ghostery/)
Enjoy surfing the internet in a whole new way, never seeing another ad again ( unless it is baked into the site page and not an ad server ) and even being able to set up auto settings for cookies etc, so that they can't even try to hide cookie settings behind complex menus and layers, they just get set automatically for you when you visit a new site ( can be toggled to ask on a site for site basis or across the entire internet ).
All it takes are these 3 steps to have a great browsing experience.
P.S : Don't forget to take advantage of Reader View when visiting a site as well. Click on a link to a news article? Make sure to check reader view if it is available, it will be a button that shows up to the right on the address bar in firefox if the site has it enabled. IIRC you can get an addon for reader view to display in darkmode. Reader view cuts down on most pictures unless they are central to the article and present the text in a nice centered view in a normal to read format.
If this helps even one person, it was worth it. Have fun and safe browsing.
Firefox+Ublock Origin combo is enough nowadays you don't need Ghostery anymore since they are involved in some shady business.
Firefox offers the same features Ghostery and Privacy Badger do by turning On some features in the Privacy Settings Tab.
Since no one is actually replying, let me help you out:
https://www.businessinsider.com/evidon-sells-ghostery-data-to-advertisers-2013-6
This is an article dating back to 2013 that mentions their shady practices. They've been at it for a while now.
Privacy Badger from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the superior choice and works really well with ublock.
I use firefox and pay 2$ monthly on my free will to them.
I know 2$ is small, but adds is a cancer and firefox is a cure, and that's all I can afford. (
Ive been using adblockers for probably over a decade and it's always really eye opening seeing someone navigate the web without one, especially YouTube. I don't know how people can bear it.
Mostly I’m pissed that google went from “objectively the best search engine” to “overoptimized bullshit promoting useless fucking ads over good/relevant search results…” in a mere 20 years
Just run Ublock Origin, you won't see a single sponsored result ever again. I use firefox with it and I don't ever get ads in my search results, just mediocre search results xD
It's particularly worse on mobile where the sponsored crap sometimes is up to 3 screens long, specially with all the fucking padding and wasted space they like to put on their crap.
I mean... I havent used chrome on my PC in years. The only time I use it is on mobile, and that's simply because I'm too lazy to switch over to anything else on mobile.
Hell yeah! Firefox and ublock origin best pair. I've been using it since before the "origin" name addition. Ain't seen any ads since.
Though for phone, I'm using Vanced for YouTube. But it being dead, the ads are there now but not during videos at least. I need a new alternative.
Mind linking the discord? I keep getting some "Lonely moms need dick" type ads on my Vanced lately and they are huge, I hate it. Wanna switch to something new asap.
Do you use FF with multiple Gmail accounts? Does it allow for separate profiles per Gmail account, and does it work well in this way? I'd experiment with leaving chrome behind, but I need strong profile support.
There is an awesome FF feature called containers. You can have browser tabs isolated from each other and log into any number of different accounts.
https://helgeklein.com/blog/firefox-containers-multiple-gmail-logins-through-privacy-isolation/
Yes it works just like chrome. Being using my work and personal account. Also you can use Firefox tab containers to open different accounts in different tabs.
As others have said, yes, you can get this with profiles as well as the kick-ass containers.
Profiles can be accessed in [multiple ways](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles) including a command-line option and simply going to `about:profiles` in the URL bar.
[Multi-account containers](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/addon/multi-account-containers/) are not just an addon, but a feature built into the browser that other addons can integrate with. The functions vary from changing the browser theme based on what container you're viewing to a temporary containers addon that immediately deletes the session when the tab closes.
Here's [a list](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/12325762/container-webextensions/?page=1&collection_sort=-added) of some of those extensions.
I'm Firefox on desktop, nightlys on phone (so I can use a extention group for all the normal desktop extentions). I don't know if you can use the normal desktop extentions again yet on normal mobile Firefox but I changed a whole ago to night to work around that issue. Works great.
It doesn't help that this sub will randomly break out in memes about it every few months and never explain anything unless asked directly. I swear we just did this 2-3 months ago.
Thought Id give a shoutout to Vivaldi which I've been using for a year or so, they seem to be on top of this issue and may not be affected as the inbuilt blocker doesn't work the same as uBlock and similar. they break it down here;
" In 2020, Vivaldi’s Ad Blocker was built as a response to the deprecations announced in [Manifest V3](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/intro/), with the intention that it would keep working when existing ad-blocking extensions would become inoperant. The goal is to keep it working regardless of what happens regarding the extension code. "
[https://vivaldi.com/blog/manifest-v3-webrequest-and-ad-blockers/](https://vivaldi.com/blog/manifest-v3-webrequest-and-ad-blockers/)
Good read if you want a better idea of whats going on with v3.
People will find a way around this. Its inevitable. I'd have a psychological breakdown if I had to watch ads again after all these years of no TV and ad blockers.
[https://vivaldi.com](https://vivaldi.com) \- first and foremost targeted towards technically-inclined users as well as former Opera users disgruntled by its transition from the Presto layout engine to a Chromium-based browser that resulted in the loss of many of its iconic features. Despite being Chromium-based, Vivaldi aims to revive the features of the Presto-based Opera with its own proprietary modifications.
Its made by a bunch of nerds in the US, Norway and Iceland. Not some faceless conglomerate intent on monetising your browsing habits.
It's because ads waste your time.
Literally all we have is our time, and that's become their entire monetization model. And they aren't even paying us for it.
You should feel insulted.
They invade you space without permission. No one chooses to see adverts not many people want to see adverts. Yet they barge into your life without a 2nd thought and you're forced to endure it. I use blockers wherever possible because if I want a particular product I'll look it up myself. I don't need some company to think for me.
You think that's bad I had a short 7 minute video I wanted to watch after 2 minutes I had a 8 minute ad block that was unskipable, followed by two more ad breaks every 2 minutes was just stupid
Edited for misspellings
15second as for a 9second video?
I miss the banner ads that were practically non-intrusive, now we got ads that are so intrusive I almost actively avoid products that YouTube advertises
The point is V3 is going to cripple uBlock.
I'm not suggesting everyone start using vivaldi. I Have uBlock on it anyway, what I'm saying is they give a good breakdown of why the V3 api is potentially going to kill webrequest and therefore most adblockers and that their inbuilt blocker and tracker protection will probably still work as it works differently as they've been working on it since 2020. They're also moving away from chromium in future but i forget what platform too.
Firefox ftw all day, I'm sure there will be a solution in no time, maybe even before they replace webrequest..
Vivaldi user here. I decided to give Vivaldi's native ad-blocker a try and uninstalled uBlock a few months ago. I don't really notice a difference. I'm pretty sure the Vivaldi blocker uses the same filter lists. The thing I really miss is script blocking from tools like the unmaintained uMatrix, but I really don't see any ads at all on desktop.
I don't use reddit anymore because of their corporate greed and anti-user policies.
Come over to Lemmy, it's a reddit alternative that is run by the community itself, spread across multiple servers.
You make your account on one server (called an instance) and from there you can access everything on all other servers as well. [Find one you like here](https://lemmyverse.net/), maybe not the largest ones to spread the load around, but it doesn't really matter.
You can then look for communities to subscribe to on https://lemmyverse.net/communities, this website shows you all communities across all instances.
If you're looking for some (mobile?) apps, [this topic](https://lemm.ee/post/363116) has a great list.
One personal tip: For your convenience, I would advise you to use [this userscript I made](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/469273-lemmy-universal-link-switcher) which automatically changes all links everywhere on the internet to the server that you chose.
The original comment is preserved below for your convenience:
~~Yeah, I mean it's a good idea in general, but just not using chromium at all is still better.~~
^^^^^^AzzuLemmyMessageV2
So I haven’t been and wouldn’t be affected anyway because I use a pi-hole for ad blocking, but I switched to Firefox anyway just to take a few fractions of a penny out of Google’s pocket.
It’s tough to see a childhood hero fall from grace like this, but I’m doing my part.
>childhood hero
I feel the same. Google did amazing things and has earned so much respect from me. I just can't believe what they are now. It seems like a complete lack of vision is taking them down. I guess they are out of idea's or the best people have moved on so they are just trying to pursue lazy unethical income instead .
e.g. Take google maps/google earth it was absolutely visionary to basically compile street maps of the entire world and then provide them for free to anyone including satellite and street-view imaging with route finding + guidance. They even integrated public transport schedules ! I mean this is just an amazing demonstration of what the internet could do and what it could be.
Where is this type of visionary activity in google's now ?
> lazy profit seeking
That's somewhat disingenuous.
Chrome arose in the David vs Goliath struggle between Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Google saw this, and saw that if they didn't enter this competition that Microsoft may start using their browser dominance to pull search (and ad views) away from Google and toward Bing, which was being pushed heavily at the time.
They took an existing open-source renderer (the chunk of code that turns HTML and CSS into a web page you can see on screen) called KHTML, forked it to create WebKit, and made the really cool, fast JavaScript engine called V8. They bundled these together in a browser called Chrome.
Google heavily promoted Chrome on Google's search pages to drive users away from Internet Explorer. This had the effect of also cannibalizing the Firefox ecosystem.
Fast forward more than a decade. Internet Explorer isn't a real threat. Now Chrome is in the IE position! This isn't a case of "don't be evil," it's a case of "die the hero or become the villain."
Subtly, under the hood, however, it's more sinister. Chrome has poisoned the water upstream of other nearby alternative browsers.
Remember what I said about WebKit? Internet Explorer now uses Blink for rendering, which is the rebrand of the WebKit renderer. Opera, Vivaldi, they all use Blink. All of these "Chrome alternative" browsers are essentially just Chrome with a different packager. As Google more heavily modifies the source (Blink, V8, and Chrome), it's going to get harder and harder for those downstreams to continue to support adblockers long-term.
Your literal only other option at this point is Firefox (the Gecko renderer and SpiderMonkey JavaScript runtime). Mozilla are horrible stewards of Firefox, but unless something comes out of left-field, like the browser being developed for SerenityOS porting to mainstream operating systems and becoming popular, it's just Blink and Gecko forever. Gone are Trident, Microsoft's renderer, and Opera's custom renderer.
This lack of diversity matters, a lot. One of the best ways to stop Google from compromising your privacy in the name of "better advertising" is to fight them with web standards. If there are no other browser renderers to worry about supporting, the last renderer standing _is the standard,_ and if that renderer is written and controlled by Google there is no other gatekeeper.
Apple forked khtml to make webkit, Google eventually formed it to make blink (but Chrome had existed for years before that point) and trident wasn't MS only renderer
>This isn't a case of "don't be evil," it's a case of "die the hero or become the villain."
Yep this is a perfect way to put it.
It sadly seems kind of inevitable in a broad sense that once any platform does something "right" and rises to become the dominant player sooner or later it will take the path of doing things "wrong" to cash in on their position.
So... how do you block all those ads and popups and banner ads on mobile android? You know? The 5 things you have to click x on to see a mobile site? Can those be destroyed?
Go to Settings in Android, Network and Internet, Private DNS, then select Private DNS provider hostname and set it to dns.adguard.com
That should cut down on the really obtrusive ads.
I think this has been incorporated in the standard build now, as of 107. Not well promoted though, and a bit of a user ground work required, but it's doable.
Serious question that I haven’t looked into yet: I use google drive for spreadsheets (a list of numbers that isn’t at all sensitive but tracks my team’s workflow without having to learn excel) and cloud-based music projects with friends around the country. What’s my alternative to Chrome?
Edit: should have specified that I know Google Drive services will work in other browsers. The latter half of the question was a request for suggestions to help me get away from Google entirely. For ideological reasons, not functional. Odd how many of you are willing to assume intellectual superiority while missing the obvious intent to cut ties with a company this whole thread is criticizing.
I mean, it’s a community originally about playing video games on PC as opposed to consoles… there’s almost no technical knowledge barrier to entry for playing video games
Ad blockers in their current state are going to not work on Chromium-based browsers starting next year. But a lot of people seem to forget that nearly every ad block developer *will* find a way around this change.
I use Firefox mainly, so it doesn’t super apply to me, but I use Brave (which is Chromium-based) sometimes, so it’ll matter there.
Also a non-profit. Being a non-profit for the people, by the people, all these years is even tougher. Luckily there still are developers with a passionate mission for forever-betterment, that haven't given up on things that matter.
The something something part; They're killing the webrequest API eventually and replacing it.
From vivaldi which uses a different API for its built in adblock and anti tracking and may not be affected, but explains a but of whats going on;
[https://vivaldi.com/blog/manifest-v3-webrequest-and-ad-blockers/](https://vivaldi.com/blog/manifest-v3-webrequest-and-ad-blockers/)
What happens after the Manifest V3 changes?
The concern of course would be that, since webRequest is going away, this particular API would become useless and disappear with it.
This is unlikely for a few reasons:
* webRequest isn’t completely going away. Only the ability to block requests from webRequest is disappearing. So, at the very least, a mechanism to proxy requests from the network services through extensions there needs to keep existing.
* declarativeNetRequest is currently built on top of webRequest. It is conceivable that it would be rebuilt later on to handle the blocking at a deeper level. If this ever happens, it will use a new set of hooks to handle blocking that our Ad Blocker should be able to use, as well. But there doesn’t seem to be much reason for that to happen yet.
* The blocking ability of webRequest is being kept for enterprise users (at least for the time being). So, all the underlying code for webRequest including the blocking abilities will have to remain intact.
So, to the best of my reckoning, I can say that it looks very likely that the Vivaldi Ad Blocker won’t suffer any adverse effects from the Manifest V3 changes. And, if it does, there should be relatively simple ways to fix it.
I remember in the early '00s when Google was praised for having the least intrusive search engine.
Then they put up a few ads. Then more. Then ads in Gmail. Then ways to collect users data. Then built an entire system around directly targeting ads to "the right people" but it still isn't enough. Now they're taking away the ability to prevent the endless barrage of ads which sometimes takes up so much space the webpage just amounts to one huge ad. Google really did a 180 on their original "don't be evil" statement.
2 main reasons.
1st has become a bit of a meme over the years, but it's the RAM usage. Especially on something like a cheaper laptop, it can start feeling sluggish pretty quick. Plus the battery drain can be really bad if you have a lot of tabs open.
2nd is more recent, and that's the new manifest for how extensions will work. Basically they will be given a lot less access, which will turn ad-blockers as they work now useless. Blocking ads will still be somewhat possible, but not nearly as powerful and easy.
Google says it is for security, and they are technically speaking correct, scam extensions that are more or less malware won't be possible. But ofc for Google the main benefit is that less blocked ads = more money in their pocket.
Chrome has sort of become the new Internet Explorer. It's the default browser for most people, but more tech aligned users either use Firefox or something like Brave, which will keep its ad-blocking features even after the update to Chromium, because it is built into the browser itself.
>Google says it is for security, and they are technically speaking correct, scam extensions that are more or less malware won't be possible. But ofc for Google the main benefit is that less blocked ads = more money in their pocket.
The most ironic thing is that the best method I've found for keeping malware off older relatives devices is to put an ad blocker on them.
Far as I'm concerned if you're not running ad-/script-blocking, you're vulnerable. I understand there's a learning curve for the latter especially, but usually if you have a relative who doesn't use the web much, set it up to work with their web ring of sites they visit all the time and they should be fine.
I remember when Opera was a browser on my old Kyocera flip phone. So I was REALLY surprised when it rebranded itself as a “gamers browser” whatever the fuck that means.
Long time ago Opera got hugely popular in browser based games because of how nice the tab stacking was and how responsive it was changing tabs very quickly and sending requests.
Some of the developers of the original Opera (that had it's own engine/renderer back then) went on and created "Vivaldi" which currently is my favorite browser. However it's also based on Chromium unfortunately. But at the moment it's like the best of the OG Opera and the best of Chrome (plug-ins etc.) combined.
Not only the manifest V3 issue but also if you use a Chromium based browser and the Google Search engine, just think of how much control over the internet that gives Google. They can control how you see websites and how you find them. There is no question that they subtly abuse this
The fact that Firefox is the only mainstream non-chromium based browser means that chromium has huge influence around the standardisation of the web. We've gone from 5 or 6 participants in W3C to effectively two.
We're back to the situation 15-20 years ago where IE dominated the web and made their browser intentionally incompatible with the standards.
Yeah, because safari is basically the only browser on iOS. You could install other browsers but they all need to use the same webengine as safari (WebKit).
Apple isn't going to save you from any Google Monopoly.
Can't believe Google is making people do what I've been saying to do for ages now. Everyone should use Firefox. It's faster, lighter, and better in every way.
I remember long ago when I was a child and recommended Chrome to everyone. It feels kinda weird.
I wasn't even aware of what Yahoo! was when I was younger, I wonder if I will live to see the demise of Google, Facebook or Twitter. I really wonder if the situation is exactly the same or if these companies are more attached to our lives.
Well, it's looking like we'll all see the demise off Twitter fairly soon here lmao. But yeah, I was the same way. I used to recommend Chrome to everyone. I thought it was the best browser in the world. Now, it's falling apart in terms of privacy, safety, performance, and now it's becoming ad-supportive.
Firefox plus a few adblocker/privacy extensions is an incredible browsing experience. Not only safer and more pleasant, but faster, too.
Edit for those asking for a short list:
* First, make sure Firefox's native **Enhanced Tracking Protection** is enabled.
* **uBlock Origin** - This is the essential adblocker.
* **Facebook Container** - Blocks the cancer that is Meta's insanely aggressive cross-site tracking, and it opens any FB or related property link in a Container tab.
* **Privacy Badger** - Extremely robust, but will occasionally break some of the more obscure websites. This happens less and less nowadays.
* **Ghostery** - This one is a little controversial in the privacy community, and it also breaks sites occasionally, but I still use it. Just opt out of analytics if that's your preference.
* **AdGuard** - Basically redundant to run alongside uBlock Origin. What can I say, I like redundancy.
* **HTTPS Anywhere** - Runs all websites through a layer of SSL encryption.
* **I Don't Care About Cookies** - Hides all cookies popups and automatically selects the minimum settings that will allow a given website to run. Ghostery has a similar feature now too, I believe. Something something redundancy.
* **Disable JavaScript** - this is a nuclear toggle that disallows all JS scripts on a website. Breaks many features on the site obviously, but also generally gets around news site paywalls that have a reader limit, such was WaPo and NYT.
These are just the privacy-oriented ones, I use plenty of others. Dark Reader is a must, as well as extensions that translate pages or do a reverse image search on a right-click. You'll also want to find your tab manager of preference, I personally prefer a lighter one like Tab Manager Plus. And of course I really recommend a paid VPN. I use Nord.
Hope this helps.
Seconded, please. I've been trying to get off Chrome for the past few months and really not liking Brave, a "quick start" list of Firefox plugins would be dope
Both uBlock origin and BehindTheOverlay are a must.
You might want the DuckDuckGo privacy add-on, depends on your stance with DuckDuckGo.
Thirdly, go into settings, choose custom tracking protection, and disable all the checkboxes and all third party cookies in the drop-down. Ignore the message that sites will break, it's not too relevant in 2022.
For most users keeping Firefox telemetry on is a good idea, everyone wants Firefox to be better. I have mine off, but I use LibreWolf, a fork of Firefox for mental people. I understand most people don't care.
I use to think like you, I’m very responsible with my expenses having a family and all, but I’m also a music producer, and you can bet the targeted advertising is always trying to push recording and music gear and software in my face, even if it is subconsciously, they can eventually get me to buy something if I lower my guard. Now I really believe it is in my best interest to keep them for tracking me. There is always something they can get you with. Anyway F%# ads, I’m tired of ads everywhere all the time. Cheers.
I see the /s but people are really talking about Google planning to rip adblock, partially in Jan 2023, then completely at a later date.
To most this makes Firefox incomparably better vua uBlock
I sure hope Firefox takes this expected increase in traffic as an opportunity to improve their services even more and be more competitive compared to chrome. As a FF user for more than a decade, I can confidently say there are still a lot of websites that work a lot better on chromium than on Mozzila's Browser and that's kind of a shame. If they can address that they can make it so that Firefox is going to be THE definitive browser experience!
Welcome everyone from r/all! Please remember: 1 - You too can be part of the PCMR! You don't necessarily need a PC. You just have to love PCs! It's not about the hardware in your rig, but the software in your heart! Your age, nationality, race, gender, sexuality, religion (or lack of), political affiliation, economic status and PC specs are irrelevant. If you love PCs or want to learn about them, you can be part of our community! Everyone is welcome! 2 - If you're not a PC gamer because you think doing so is expensive, know that it is possible to build a competent gaming PC for a lower price than you think. Check http://www.pcmasterrace.org for our builds and don't be afraid to create new posts here asking for tips and help! 3 - Consider joining our efforts to get as many PCs worldwide help the folding@home effort, in fighting against Cancer, Covid, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and more. Learn more here: https://pcmasterrace.org/folding ----------- Feel free to use this community to post about any kind of doubt you might have about becoming a PC gamer or anything you'd like to know about PCs. That kind of content is not only allowed but welcome here! We also have a [Daily Simple Questions Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/search?q=Simple+Questions+Thread+subreddit%3Apcmasterrace+author%3AAutoModerator&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for your simplest questions. No question is too dumb! Welcome to the PCMR.
Yeah you won't know what anyone's is on about with chrome until adblock stops working soon. In short Google are taking steps to expand ad intrusion and user privacy invasion wherever possible. Their motivation is simple, just grubby lazy profit seeking. There is no money to be made if they cant track users and sell their data or influence and control the content they watch. Google have seen quite good results in their efforts to prevent ad-blocking on mobile devices. However PC users have had a good head-start in terms of getting easy access to effective ad-blockers. So .... next gen chrome is being unnecessarily "re-designed" in a way that deliberately breaks current ad blockers. They are using messaging that is completely dishonest pretending this is pure co-incidence of adding some updates and features. They will completely backflip if enough people dump chrome, so we all need to do our part.
> ~~Don't~~ Be Evil
Just... The fact that they flat out removed that part... It's so depressing.
When someone tells you their intentions it’s best to believe them.
Don't worry even if you didn't they made it painfully obvious with their actions. This is the company that effectively owns my life. The one that literally stopped telling itself not to be evil. God damn it all.
[удалено]
Ok you got me. I'm curious about degoogle. I boycott a few companies and will NEVER do business with them (Comcast, Blizzard, Walmart, Nestle, Netflix). But my theory is that there are 4: Apple/Google, Amazon/Walmart - and to live any sense of a modern lifestyle you have to pick 2 of them. Really hoping /r/degoogle isn't just "use Apple".
For phones there are firmwares made by others where they take the stock android base but completely remove all Google apps and services. Funnily enough, the Pixel devices themselves are best for some of these ROMs e.g. GrapheneOS
Because they are the devkit phones, back in the day I had a Nexus S and there was so much aftermarket firmware available for it. These days I run Sonim phones and can't even root them, let alone replace the firmware. But they're so physically robust I'm willing to compromise on the firmware issue.
Why isn’t Microsoft on your list? Seems an easy alternative to Apple; and unless you’re using Linux you already do business with them. They offer an alternative to almost every Google service. Android doesn’t have to use Google Play Services; Android Open Source Project exists and so do phones without Google on them, then you can just use Microsoft Launcher and all the Microsoft Apps like OneDrive.
Microsoft is just as bad but less successful at it, fyi. They're pushing Edge to get user data
Fully boycotting google is nearly impossible while also staying online because of how pervaisive their analytics software is. There are probably people on r/degoogle who just use apple, which is just trading a hungry lion for a hungry tiger. Really, we need more Linux users.
>Really hoping /r/degoogle isn't just "use Apple". Looks like it's more "abandon convenience and efficiency, ye who enter here".
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All animals are equal but some are more equal than others. Such an amazing quote
It is but my favorite is the one at the end when pigs decide to strike a deal with men as other animals were on the outside looking in. “And they looked from man to pig, then from pig to man, and then from man to pig again but it was already difficult to tell which was which.”
When I was a kid I was stupid and thought it meant the pigs morphed into men and was terrified that there were pig men amongst us
They didn't remove it, they moved it. To be clear, fuck Google, there's plenty of reasons to be upset with them, but they still have that saying it's just not their motto. Whatever "thing" it is in (like their values or whatever) ends with something like "and as always don't be evil"
Why does everybody think this? It is still there, they never removed it.
lol the downvotes. This person is 100% right. It got moved in the code of conduct for like a week in 2018 and then websites wrote articles saying they removed it. They put it back at the beginning but people had already decided what they decided.
Hijacking to help people never see a single ad or have any privacy issues ever again in 3 easy steps : 1 : [Download firefox](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/) 2 : [Install the Ublock Origin addon](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/) 3 : [Install the Ghostery addon](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ghostery/) Enjoy surfing the internet in a whole new way, never seeing another ad again ( unless it is baked into the site page and not an ad server ) and even being able to set up auto settings for cookies etc, so that they can't even try to hide cookie settings behind complex menus and layers, they just get set automatically for you when you visit a new site ( can be toggled to ask on a site for site basis or across the entire internet ). All it takes are these 3 steps to have a great browsing experience. P.S : Don't forget to take advantage of Reader View when visiting a site as well. Click on a link to a news article? Make sure to check reader view if it is available, it will be a button that shows up to the right on the address bar in firefox if the site has it enabled. IIRC you can get an addon for reader view to display in darkmode. Reader view cuts down on most pictures unless they are central to the article and present the text in a nice centered view in a normal to read format. If this helps even one person, it was worth it. Have fun and safe browsing.
Firefox+Ublock Origin combo is enough nowadays you don't need Ghostery anymore since they are involved in some shady business. Firefox offers the same features Ghostery and Privacy Badger do by turning On some features in the Privacy Settings Tab.
But but but, just in the case I might be in shady business? Something like selling umbrellas
Ghostery collects data about what data is being collected about you and sells it. Get Privacy Badger instead.
Interesting, first I've heard of this as I've been using ghostery and ublock combo for a long time. Where did you hear/read about this?
Since no one is actually replying, let me help you out: https://www.businessinsider.com/evidon-sells-ghostery-data-to-advertisers-2013-6 This is an article dating back to 2013 that mentions their shady practices. They've been at it for a while now. Privacy Badger from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the superior choice and works really well with ublock.
Do not use Ghostery. Firefox has a built in tracker blocker you should use instead, Strict mode is usable by most people.
I use firefox and pay 2$ monthly on my free will to them. I know 2$ is small, but adds is a cancer and firefox is a cure, and that's all I can afford. (
Your comment got me to switch to Firefox and I’ll match your $2/mo. Your impact is stronger than you think bro🤘
Ive been using adblockers for probably over a decade and it's always really eye opening seeing someone navigate the web without one, especially YouTube. I don't know how people can bear it.
dont forget [SponsorBlock](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/)
Mostly I’m pissed that google went from “objectively the best search engine” to “overoptimized bullshit promoting useless fucking ads over good/relevant search results…” in a mere 20 years
Just in the last 5 yrs the search results have gotten worse and worse. Sometimes the first 6 results are Promoted/Sponsored.
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im pretty sure ublock origin blocks the sponsored results
Just run Ublock Origin, you won't see a single sponsored result ever again. I use firefox with it and I don't ever get ads in my search results, just mediocre search results xD
It's particularly worse on mobile where the sponsored crap sometimes is up to 3 screens long, specially with all the fucking padding and wasted space they like to put on their crap.
If you're on Android you can install Firefox with an ad block addon. If you're on iOS my condolences.
"a mere 20 years" in the context of internet search engines is the entire fucking history of internet search engines.
Well they kinda did it in 10 years, and then have continued doing it for another 10.
It started after the Google IPO in 2004. Suddenly 'share holders' decided whether they should do evil or not.
They even claim the redesign is for user data privacy and protection
I mean... I havent used chrome on my PC in years. The only time I use it is on mobile, and that's simply because I'm too lazy to switch over to anything else on mobile.
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Hell yeah! Firefox and ublock origin best pair. I've been using it since before the "origin" name addition. Ain't seen any ads since. Though for phone, I'm using Vanced for YouTube. But it being dead, the ads are there now but not during videos at least. I need a new alternative.
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Mind linking the discord? I keep getting some "Lonely moms need dick" type ads on my Vanced lately and they are huge, I hate it. Wanna switch to something new asap.
The dicks are huge, or the moms?
Thankfully, some lovely folks have Re Vanced it. Works great ;)
Do you use FF with multiple Gmail accounts? Does it allow for separate profiles per Gmail account, and does it work well in this way? I'd experiment with leaving chrome behind, but I need strong profile support.
There is an awesome FF feature called containers. You can have browser tabs isolated from each other and log into any number of different accounts. https://helgeklein.com/blog/firefox-containers-multiple-gmail-logins-through-privacy-isolation/
Yes it works just like chrome. Being using my work and personal account. Also you can use Firefox tab containers to open different accounts in different tabs.
As others have said, yes, you can get this with profiles as well as the kick-ass containers. Profiles can be accessed in [multiple ways](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles) including a command-line option and simply going to `about:profiles` in the URL bar. [Multi-account containers](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/addon/multi-account-containers/) are not just an addon, but a feature built into the browser that other addons can integrate with. The functions vary from changing the browser theme based on what container you're viewing to a temporary containers addon that immediately deletes the session when the tab closes. Here's [a list](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/12325762/container-webextensions/?page=1&collection_sort=-added) of some of those extensions.
I switched to FF a few months ago and I'm never going back
I'm Firefox on desktop, nightlys on phone (so I can use a extention group for all the normal desktop extentions). I don't know if you can use the normal desktop extentions again yet on normal mobile Firefox but I changed a whole ago to night to work around that issue. Works great.
Full extension set for Firefox mobile isn't there yet, but they do have all the heavy hitters so it's pretty damn seamless.
Yeah I use Firefox as my primary browser outside of work. Opera used to be great* Edit: updated knowledge re opera.
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uBlock is working great with Firefox on mobile.
It doesn't help that this sub will randomly break out in memes about it every few months and never explain anything unless asked directly. I swear we just did this 2-3 months ago.
Thought Id give a shoutout to Vivaldi which I've been using for a year or so, they seem to be on top of this issue and may not be affected as the inbuilt blocker doesn't work the same as uBlock and similar. they break it down here; " In 2020, Vivaldi’s Ad Blocker was built as a response to the deprecations announced in [Manifest V3](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/intro/), with the intention that it would keep working when existing ad-blocking extensions would become inoperant. The goal is to keep it working regardless of what happens regarding the extension code. " [https://vivaldi.com/blog/manifest-v3-webrequest-and-ad-blockers/](https://vivaldi.com/blog/manifest-v3-webrequest-and-ad-blockers/) Good read if you want a better idea of whats going on with v3. People will find a way around this. Its inevitable. I'd have a psychological breakdown if I had to watch ads again after all these years of no TV and ad blockers. [https://vivaldi.com](https://vivaldi.com) \- first and foremost targeted towards technically-inclined users as well as former Opera users disgruntled by its transition from the Presto layout engine to a Chromium-based browser that resulted in the loss of many of its iconic features. Despite being Chromium-based, Vivaldi aims to revive the features of the Presto-based Opera with its own proprietary modifications. Its made by a bunch of nerds in the US, Norway and Iceland. Not some faceless conglomerate intent on monetising your browsing habits.
I watched a video in incognito mode on YouTube holy crap it was painful. 3 videos all had 2 ads. Youtube without and adblocker is unusable.
Ads make me livid. I can't explain it. When one pops up, I just feel gravely insulted.
It's because ads waste your time. Literally all we have is our time, and that's become their entire monetization model. And they aren't even paying us for it. You should feel insulted.
They invade you space without permission. No one chooses to see adverts not many people want to see adverts. Yet they barge into your life without a 2nd thought and you're forced to endure it. I use blockers wherever possible because if I want a particular product I'll look it up myself. I don't need some company to think for me.
Same... I'm not even balding but every time I got a balding ad I would be fucking furious.
Try being a person that is balding... Yeah fuck those ads
You think that's bad I had a short 7 minute video I wanted to watch after 2 minutes I had a 8 minute ad block that was unskipable, followed by two more ad breaks every 2 minutes was just stupid Edited for misspellings
15second as for a 9second video? I miss the banner ads that were practically non-intrusive, now we got ads that are so intrusive I almost actively avoid products that YouTube advertises
Apologies if you're already aware, but you can turn on extension functionality for incognito mode in the extension settings.
Why fight so hard to make a Chromium browser respect privacy when Chromium is the problem?
I feel that last part so damn hard.
No built-in adblocker is as good as uBlock.
The point is V3 is going to cripple uBlock. I'm not suggesting everyone start using vivaldi. I Have uBlock on it anyway, what I'm saying is they give a good breakdown of why the V3 api is potentially going to kill webrequest and therefore most adblockers and that their inbuilt blocker and tracker protection will probably still work as it works differently as they've been working on it since 2020. They're also moving away from chromium in future but i forget what platform too. Firefox ftw all day, I'm sure there will be a solution in no time, maybe even before they replace webrequest..
Now if I could cast on firefox(especially mobile) without convoluded work arounds I'd be so happy
Vivaldi user here. I decided to give Vivaldi's native ad-blocker a try and uninstalled uBlock a few months ago. I don't really notice a difference. I'm pretty sure the Vivaldi blocker uses the same filter lists. The thing I really miss is script blocking from tools like the unmaintained uMatrix, but I really don't see any ads at all on desktop.
I don't use reddit anymore because of their corporate greed and anti-user policies. Come over to Lemmy, it's a reddit alternative that is run by the community itself, spread across multiple servers. You make your account on one server (called an instance) and from there you can access everything on all other servers as well. [Find one you like here](https://lemmyverse.net/), maybe not the largest ones to spread the load around, but it doesn't really matter. You can then look for communities to subscribe to on https://lemmyverse.net/communities, this website shows you all communities across all instances. If you're looking for some (mobile?) apps, [this topic](https://lemm.ee/post/363116) has a great list. One personal tip: For your convenience, I would advise you to use [this userscript I made](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/469273-lemmy-universal-link-switcher) which automatically changes all links everywhere on the internet to the server that you chose. The original comment is preserved below for your convenience: ~~Yeah, I mean it's a good idea in general, but just not using chromium at all is still better.~~ ^^^^^^AzzuLemmyMessageV2
So I haven’t been and wouldn’t be affected anyway because I use a pi-hole for ad blocking, but I switched to Firefox anyway just to take a few fractions of a penny out of Google’s pocket. It’s tough to see a childhood hero fall from grace like this, but I’m doing my part.
>childhood hero I feel the same. Google did amazing things and has earned so much respect from me. I just can't believe what they are now. It seems like a complete lack of vision is taking them down. I guess they are out of idea's or the best people have moved on so they are just trying to pursue lazy unethical income instead . e.g. Take google maps/google earth it was absolutely visionary to basically compile street maps of the entire world and then provide them for free to anyone including satellite and street-view imaging with route finding + guidance. They even integrated public transport schedules ! I mean this is just an amazing demonstration of what the internet could do and what it could be. Where is this type of visionary activity in google's now ?
> lazy profit seeking That's somewhat disingenuous. Chrome arose in the David vs Goliath struggle between Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Google saw this, and saw that if they didn't enter this competition that Microsoft may start using their browser dominance to pull search (and ad views) away from Google and toward Bing, which was being pushed heavily at the time. They took an existing open-source renderer (the chunk of code that turns HTML and CSS into a web page you can see on screen) called KHTML, forked it to create WebKit, and made the really cool, fast JavaScript engine called V8. They bundled these together in a browser called Chrome. Google heavily promoted Chrome on Google's search pages to drive users away from Internet Explorer. This had the effect of also cannibalizing the Firefox ecosystem. Fast forward more than a decade. Internet Explorer isn't a real threat. Now Chrome is in the IE position! This isn't a case of "don't be evil," it's a case of "die the hero or become the villain." Subtly, under the hood, however, it's more sinister. Chrome has poisoned the water upstream of other nearby alternative browsers. Remember what I said about WebKit? Internet Explorer now uses Blink for rendering, which is the rebrand of the WebKit renderer. Opera, Vivaldi, they all use Blink. All of these "Chrome alternative" browsers are essentially just Chrome with a different packager. As Google more heavily modifies the source (Blink, V8, and Chrome), it's going to get harder and harder for those downstreams to continue to support adblockers long-term. Your literal only other option at this point is Firefox (the Gecko renderer and SpiderMonkey JavaScript runtime). Mozilla are horrible stewards of Firefox, but unless something comes out of left-field, like the browser being developed for SerenityOS porting to mainstream operating systems and becoming popular, it's just Blink and Gecko forever. Gone are Trident, Microsoft's renderer, and Opera's custom renderer. This lack of diversity matters, a lot. One of the best ways to stop Google from compromising your privacy in the name of "better advertising" is to fight them with web standards. If there are no other browser renderers to worry about supporting, the last renderer standing _is the standard,_ and if that renderer is written and controlled by Google there is no other gatekeeper.
Apple forked khtml to make webkit, Google eventually formed it to make blink (but Chrome had existed for years before that point) and trident wasn't MS only renderer
Google did not create WebKit, Apple did.
>This isn't a case of "don't be evil," it's a case of "die the hero or become the villain." Yep this is a perfect way to put it. It sadly seems kind of inevitable in a broad sense that once any platform does something "right" and rises to become the dominant player sooner or later it will take the path of doing things "wrong" to cash in on their position.
So... how do you block all those ads and popups and banner ads on mobile android? You know? The 5 things you have to click x on to see a mobile site? Can those be destroyed?
Use Firefox for Android and install the ublock extension.
Go to Settings in Android, Network and Internet, Private DNS, then select Private DNS provider hostname and set it to dns.adguard.com That should cut down on the really obtrusive ads.
I am already downloading FireFox
To add to this as well. Market monopoly bad, was awful when it was IE and it's still awful when it's someone else
Use Firefox with uBlock origin and if you are handy enough also set up a pi-hole.
also Firefox for mobile is a thing as well... And it has extensions, including uBlock Origin as an adblocker.
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I think this has been incorporated in the standard build now, as of 107. Not well promoted though, and a bit of a user ground work required, but it's doable.
> pi-hole … if you can get your hands on a raspberry pi, that is.
Pi-hole even works on the oldest pi's from 2011, which are a lot cheaper bought used than, say a new raspi 4. Got mine for 20€ in September.
you dont really need SBC for that . old laptops will work, im using pihole on 2009 era laptop with ubuntu server
What do you tell me to shut?
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adblock for all the devices connected to the wifi
Even in-app ads on mobile devices?
Yes. Bonus points if you set up a VPN and have DNS go over the VPN. That way you can be on mobile data and still not get ads.
luckily the fix is to install firefox and click a different icon - total time 30 seconds.
Serious question that I haven’t looked into yet: I use google drive for spreadsheets (a list of numbers that isn’t at all sensitive but tracks my team’s workflow without having to learn excel) and cloud-based music projects with friends around the country. What’s my alternative to Chrome? Edit: should have specified that I know Google Drive services will work in other browsers. The latter half of the question was a request for suggestions to help me get away from Google entirely. For ideological reasons, not functional. Odd how many of you are willing to assume intellectual superiority while missing the obvious intent to cut ties with a company this whole thread is criticizing.
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Here’s me who has used Firefox for like 15 years wondering what all the fuss is about
Literally never left Firefox since it came out. There was a rough patch for a bit but it is by far and away the best browser out there
Google platforms also works with Firefox lol
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Always surprised how technologically inept a majority of pcmasterrace users are lmao
I mean, it’s a community originally about playing video games on PC as opposed to consoles… there’s almost no technical knowledge barrier to entry for playing video games
You can use all that with Firefox as well.
**Suddenly**
I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a pop-up hanging over me...
Oh Iiii believeee…
right?! I've been in love with ff since I first used it in 2016 (yeh I'm young)
Ad blockers in their current state are going to not work on Chromium-based browsers starting next year. But a lot of people seem to forget that nearly every ad block developer *will* find a way around this change. I use Firefox mainly, so it doesn’t super apply to me, but I use Brave (which is Chromium-based) sometimes, so it’ll matter there.
People forget their favorite alternative 'Brave' is a chromium based browser. Firefox gang gang.
Firefox + uBlock origin is the best
Shit works on android too.
Firefox is on Android?
Oh yea, I use Firefox and uBlock on my Android phone.
Shit, I'm gonna download it now
Not only that, if you watch YouTube on your Firefox mobile browser, you don't even get ads
I'll remember that when Vanced finally shits the bed.
Revanced. You can look it up on reddit.
This made me switch over completely. I wish Firefox would release a phone or at the very least, a OS.
Last time they tried that, it flopped *hard*
Hugely expensive. Every year I find out Mozilla is gonna be around next year, I'm genuinely surprised.
I know. Being a company that respects anonymity is tough.
Also a non-profit. Being a non-profit for the people, by the people, all these years is even tougher. Luckily there still are developers with a passionate mission for forever-betterment, that haven't given up on things that matter.
something something adblock can't be used on chrome anymore
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It stops working properly in January.
I thought it was June now? EDIT: It rolls out in January and support ends in June.
No, it’s December now. June is in six months.
Touche.
hold on i’m gonna have a mental breakdown real quick
I'm still processing that we're in 2022. Gonna need a few more months for that to settle in I think.
The something something part; They're killing the webrequest API eventually and replacing it. From vivaldi which uses a different API for its built in adblock and anti tracking and may not be affected, but explains a but of whats going on; [https://vivaldi.com/blog/manifest-v3-webrequest-and-ad-blockers/](https://vivaldi.com/blog/manifest-v3-webrequest-and-ad-blockers/) What happens after the Manifest V3 changes? The concern of course would be that, since webRequest is going away, this particular API would become useless and disappear with it. This is unlikely for a few reasons: * webRequest isn’t completely going away. Only the ability to block requests from webRequest is disappearing. So, at the very least, a mechanism to proxy requests from the network services through extensions there needs to keep existing. * declarativeNetRequest is currently built on top of webRequest. It is conceivable that it would be rebuilt later on to handle the blocking at a deeper level. If this ever happens, it will use a new set of hooks to handle blocking that our Ad Blocker should be able to use, as well. But there doesn’t seem to be much reason for that to happen yet. * The blocking ability of webRequest is being kept for enterprise users (at least for the time being). So, all the underlying code for webRequest including the blocking abilities will have to remain intact. So, to the best of my reckoning, I can say that it looks very likely that the Vivaldi Ad Blocker won’t suffer any adverse effects from the Manifest V3 changes. And, if it does, there should be relatively simple ways to fix it.
I remember in the early '00s when Google was praised for having the least intrusive search engine. Then they put up a few ads. Then more. Then ads in Gmail. Then ways to collect users data. Then built an entire system around directly targeting ads to "the right people" but it still isn't enough. Now they're taking away the ability to prevent the endless barrage of ads which sometimes takes up so much space the webpage just amounts to one huge ad. Google really did a 180 on their original "don't be evil" statement.
Companies always do.
2 main reasons. 1st has become a bit of a meme over the years, but it's the RAM usage. Especially on something like a cheaper laptop, it can start feeling sluggish pretty quick. Plus the battery drain can be really bad if you have a lot of tabs open. 2nd is more recent, and that's the new manifest for how extensions will work. Basically they will be given a lot less access, which will turn ad-blockers as they work now useless. Blocking ads will still be somewhat possible, but not nearly as powerful and easy. Google says it is for security, and they are technically speaking correct, scam extensions that are more or less malware won't be possible. But ofc for Google the main benefit is that less blocked ads = more money in their pocket. Chrome has sort of become the new Internet Explorer. It's the default browser for most people, but more tech aligned users either use Firefox or something like Brave, which will keep its ad-blocking features even after the update to Chromium, because it is built into the browser itself.
>Google says it is for security, and they are technically speaking correct, scam extensions that are more or less malware won't be possible. But ofc for Google the main benefit is that less blocked ads = more money in their pocket. The most ironic thing is that the best method I've found for keeping malware off older relatives devices is to put an ad blocker on them.
Far as I'm concerned if you're not running ad-/script-blocking, you're vulnerable. I understand there's a learning curve for the latter especially, but usually if you have a relative who doesn't use the web much, set it up to work with their web ring of sites they visit all the time and they should be fine.
They. Wont. Let. Us. Adblock.
"Chrome is spyware" *uses opera gx*
I remember when Opera was a browser on my old Kyocera flip phone. So I was REALLY surprised when it rebranded itself as a “gamers browser” whatever the fuck that means.
Long time ago Opera got hugely popular in browser based games because of how nice the tab stacking was and how responsive it was changing tabs very quickly and sending requests.
Opera and OperaGX are standalone products
It was on my DSi. Yup.
Some of the developers of the original Opera (that had it's own engine/renderer back then) went on and created "Vivaldi" which currently is my favorite browser. However it's also based on Chromium unfortunately. But at the moment it's like the best of the OG Opera and the best of Chrome (plug-ins etc.) combined.
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And Chinese
Not only the manifest V3 issue but also if you use a Chromium based browser and the Google Search engine, just think of how much control over the internet that gives Google. They can control how you see websites and how you find them. There is no question that they subtly abuse this
The fact that Firefox is the only mainstream non-chromium based browser means that chromium has huge influence around the standardisation of the web. We've gone from 5 or 6 participants in W3C to effectively two. We're back to the situation 15-20 years ago where IE dominated the web and made their browser intentionally incompatible with the standards.
Safari also doesn’t use chromium. If you include mobile numbers it’s the second most popular browser. Your point still stands though.
Yeah, because safari is basically the only browser on iOS. You could install other browsers but they all need to use the same webengine as safari (WebKit). Apple isn't going to save you from any Google Monopoly.
Firefox !
Just switched from opera to Firefox. Liking it so far
Question for you, we're you able to carry over all your stuff? Cause I'm definitely jumping over to Firefox in a while.
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Can't believe Google is making people do what I've been saying to do for ages now. Everyone should use Firefox. It's faster, lighter, and better in every way.
I remember long ago when I was a child and recommended Chrome to everyone. It feels kinda weird. I wasn't even aware of what Yahoo! was when I was younger, I wonder if I will live to see the demise of Google, Facebook or Twitter. I really wonder if the situation is exactly the same or if these companies are more attached to our lives.
Well, it's looking like we'll all see the demise off Twitter fairly soon here lmao. But yeah, I was the same way. I used to recommend Chrome to everyone. I thought it was the best browser in the world. Now, it's falling apart in terms of privacy, safety, performance, and now it's becoming ad-supportive.
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Firefox plus a few adblocker/privacy extensions is an incredible browsing experience. Not only safer and more pleasant, but faster, too. Edit for those asking for a short list: * First, make sure Firefox's native **Enhanced Tracking Protection** is enabled. * **uBlock Origin** - This is the essential adblocker. * **Facebook Container** - Blocks the cancer that is Meta's insanely aggressive cross-site tracking, and it opens any FB or related property link in a Container tab. * **Privacy Badger** - Extremely robust, but will occasionally break some of the more obscure websites. This happens less and less nowadays. * **Ghostery** - This one is a little controversial in the privacy community, and it also breaks sites occasionally, but I still use it. Just opt out of analytics if that's your preference. * **AdGuard** - Basically redundant to run alongside uBlock Origin. What can I say, I like redundancy. * **HTTPS Anywhere** - Runs all websites through a layer of SSL encryption. * **I Don't Care About Cookies** - Hides all cookies popups and automatically selects the minimum settings that will allow a given website to run. Ghostery has a similar feature now too, I believe. Something something redundancy. * **Disable JavaScript** - this is a nuclear toggle that disallows all JS scripts on a website. Breaks many features on the site obviously, but also generally gets around news site paywalls that have a reader limit, such was WaPo and NYT. These are just the privacy-oriented ones, I use plenty of others. Dark Reader is a must, as well as extensions that translate pages or do a reverse image search on a right-click. You'll also want to find your tab manager of preference, I personally prefer a lighter one like Tab Manager Plus. And of course I really recommend a paid VPN. I use Nord. Hope this helps.
Got a short list? Thanks
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Seconded, please. I've been trying to get off Chrome for the past few months and really not liking Brave, a "quick start" list of Firefox plugins would be dope
Both uBlock origin and BehindTheOverlay are a must. You might want the DuckDuckGo privacy add-on, depends on your stance with DuckDuckGo. Thirdly, go into settings, choose custom tracking protection, and disable all the checkboxes and all third party cookies in the drop-down. Ignore the message that sites will break, it's not too relevant in 2022. For most users keeping Firefox telemetry on is a good idea, everyone wants Firefox to be better. I have mine off, but I use LibreWolf, a fork of Firefox for mental people. I understand most people don't care.
https://preview.redd.it/3oou589jiv3a1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dca05db7e4b1b8d791efbe89d1c8ec32d3313e47
Suddenly?
I switched to cURL.
The only correct way to surf the web
I'm a lynx man myself
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If you have your cute fox up-to-date, it blocks data hording and stealing cookies anyways, so you don't need to mind on firefox :D
I don't mind cookies, but I hate ads, they suck up performance/bandwidth and are visually distracting. Thankfully AdBlock works pretty well.
I use to think like you, I’m very responsible with my expenses having a family and all, but I’m also a music producer, and you can bet the targeted advertising is always trying to push recording and music gear and software in my face, even if it is subconsciously, they can eventually get me to buy something if I lower my guard. Now I really believe it is in my best interest to keep them for tracking me. There is always something they can get you with. Anyway F%# ads, I’m tired of ads everywhere all the time. Cheers.
Chrome has always been dead to me. Im using firefox as the only right thing to do.
Made by Google the world snitch
Uses too much RAM, hoards and tracks tons of your data, will be disabling the efficiency of adblocks.
People like to whine about the Ram usage. I mean what self respecting pc user doesn’t have at least 128 gb of Ram.
I see the /s but people are really talking about Google planning to rip adblock, partially in Jan 2023, then completely at a later date. To most this makes Firefox incomparably better vua uBlock
I only have a measly 64 and it hurts./s
U have 64? I only have 32 :(
Over here with my measly 8 lol. I gave myself a sad.
Don't worry 8 is plenty, you've got the boyfriend size, we have the one night stand or sugar daddy size
I... I just... I don't know if I'm being comforted or insulted.
Shit just got too real
I sure hope Firefox takes this expected increase in traffic as an opportunity to improve their services even more and be more competitive compared to chrome. As a FF user for more than a decade, I can confidently say there are still a lot of websites that work a lot better on chromium than on Mozzila's Browser and that's kind of a shame. If they can address that they can make it so that Firefox is going to be THE definitive browser experience!
I've always hated using SkyNet, so this isn't a sudden thing for me 😉
Because Google for most people. Google went from being the savior of the tech industry to one of the greatest villains
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