Google’s campaign against ad blockers across its services just got more aggressive. According to a report by PC World, the company has made some alterations to its extension support on Google Chrome.
Google Chrome recently changed its extension support from the Manifest V2 framework to the new Manifest V3 framework. The browser policy changes will impact one of the most popular adblockers (arguably), uBlock Origin.
The transition to the Manifest V3 framework means extensions like uBlock Origin can’t use remotely hosted code. According to Google, it “presents security risks by allowing unreviewed code to be executed in extensions.” The new policy changes will only allow an extension to execute JavaScript as part of its package.
Over 30 million Google Chrome users use uBlock Origin, but the tool will be automatically disabled soon via an update. Google will let users enable the feature via the settings for a limited period before it’s completely scrapped. From this point, users will be forced to switch to another browser or choose another ad blocker.
In their eyes they just made 30 million more customers.
Fucking parasites.
They made Firefox a good number of new customers.
Firefox isn’t exactly “the good guys” either
I prefer flawed but trying guys to guys with zero morals that farm every ounce of data they can.
Firefox has telemetry too
And it can be turned off.
100% of it? Nope.
What are you stating cannot be turned off?
This sounds baseless without any evidence.
Between two evils, Firefox is the comparative good guy. There’s not a chance in hell I’m using anything based on Chromium, I’ve been using FF for close to two decades now and I’ve experienced very few dealbreaker issues.
You expect good guys?
No
I agree but isn’t the choice between “the terrible guys” and “the okayish guys”?
If you don’t know the good guys, then yes that’s your choice
So who are the good guys, mind you telling? As far as I’m aware, currently it’s a choice between Chromium based browsers and Firefox and its forks. So really just 2 options in the grand scheme of things.
Tell me you’re poor without telling me you’re poor
I‘m really anxious for firefox as google is the main financier afaik.
IIRC, only like 2% of Mozilla spending goes towards FF (I may be misinterpreting something, but I remember 2% being thrown around), so funding FF without rest of Mozilla bullshit shouldn’t be that hard. Of course, since Mozilla did spend so little on FF, it’s a question how much they actually care about FF and what would happen if they lost access to their golden goose. They shouldn’t have problem funding FF, but they probably have other bullshit they don’t want to let go and that has more priority for them.
A list of Mozilla’s “other bullshit”:
You are right, it was unfairly harsh wording, I apologize for that. Most of those products are super cool and important, I’ve kind of extrapolated it from what I’ve read in other posts about them spending too much on stuff like events and other, non-developemnt, related stuff that I actually never checked, while also not realizing that they also have a ton of other projects, which mixed with the dissapointment with the recent development about the Meta partnership led to me choosing that wording unfairly.
It is a worry. I think we might end up needing to pay for Firefox ourselves.
I will happily donate.
If, of course, money won’t go to the CEO.A CEO is a needed possition, I know in the past the Brendan Eich was controversial in his political views, but Laura Chambers seems ok so far
A CEO is a needed possition
Ha! Good one…
oh wait. You’re serious…
How is a ceo needed? They do no work. Their entire job is to rake in cash from workers.
All a ceo needs is a guillotine.
Ok, granted that the CEO concept is not the only way to lead a company.
But you do need a leader, someone who can make decisions for the company, someone to make everyday decisions that are not fun, but needed to make the company work.
We can absolutely argue about their compensation, but thst is another argument alltogether.
Right.
And a football team doesn’t need a quarterback.
🤦🏼♂️
Yes, many of them are assholes, doesn’t change the need for the leadership.
At least Brendan Eich was a developer, good on him for being Christian.
it is lol, have you seen how much the ceo is paying herself?
its kind of a reddit situaton, where money wouldnt be that much of an issue if it werent for the ceo.
Not sure firefox will be on our side after the recent ad tracking debacle. If they implement one more anti consumer feature I‘m jumping ship.
Jump ship to what? Not like there’s s lot of choices out there. You could always try LibreWolf.
Netscape Navigator and Opera raise their hand
Well, Opera is also based on Chromium.
Wait, Navigator still exists?
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They plan a release for 2028. It’s going to be a while before it can be used for everyday browsing.
Librewolf is just a reskinned Firefox.
Purged of unwanted and intrusive features, UBO pre installed, and is pre configured for increased privacy.
Plenty of Firefox forks out there.
That would be my first address, assuming the librewolf folks will never accept anti community code, hopefully.
If everything fails i‘m fine to join a small project and help with it. I have some skills and can contribute financially.
For now. They could default to yahoo and make money. Maybe not as much, but they could sustain browser development.
Firefox is still far superior to chromium.
I agree. That could work. We‘ll see.
look up ladybird. we may soon have a 3rd browser!
2026 isn’t soon.
using a novel engine based on web standards.
Now, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time…
Looks promising. Lets see where it goes. https://github.com/LadybirdBrowser/ladybird
It’s hard to take a project seriously for championing our privacy if the only communication options are Discord & Microsoft Github
Feel free to offer hosting something else for them. Be the change you want to see.
There are free (both kinds) options to these problems if they can’t afford it—and that still isn’t an excuse to require all coms go thru US-based proprietary services with big privacy implications.
I am hopeful they will get some more corporate backing. We can donate all day but that is a drop in the bucket compared to a few million from some large companies
In 2026
That’s supoosed to be the preview release date on Linux and MacOS…
If they can stay funded I believe them
All 10 of us
Does this affect edge as well? Pushing out ublock via policy to both edge and chrome has saved me a lot of headaches at work, this is gonna be a pain in the dick.
Yup, it affects all chromium browsers AFAIK
In future news: Work efficiency drops dramatically because all workers have to fight with ads while researching solutions 😮
Microsoft still hasn’t made a stance. However, Edge isn’t private and is an advertising platform.
You can get a pass till July 2025 by creating/setting a registry key that they made for businesses.
Paste this in a .reg file and double click it.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome] "ExtensionManifestV2Availability"=dword:00000002At this rate people should just cut the cord with google. Modifying reg files is almost as annoying as moving bookmarks over. Firefox + uBlock + pihole (if you’re feeling ambitious/want to block other crap that’s non-browser related) and you’re chillin.
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Yea that’s why say, just as annoying. Which I guess for the PC illiterate registry edits are more dangerous?
I personally moved off google about 2 years ago (started using start page as well) and haven’t looked back.
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you could instead just download firefox, which isnt perfect either but still a huge improvement over any chromium browser
Friends don’t let friends run Chrome.
Switched to Firefox in 2023 and it’s wild how much shit just works now.
Totally agree. Many people who keep using Chrome have a VERY outdated view of what Firefox can do. That’s a shame, but it’s unfortunately an aspect of human nature that negative impressions are SUPER hard to change.
Couldn’t have said it better.
Screw you Google. Enjoy your antitrust.
Bust this trust.
And thus, this day will be remembered as the great browser migration.
Lots of firefox mentions, no mention of Vivaldi tho…?
Vivaldi is still chromium-based, which is also getting Manifest V2 support cut. And its default ad blocker sucks, if we’re being honest.
Oh fuck, looks like I gotta switch again…
Vivaldi, Opera, Safari, Edge. It’s all Chromium.
Really? I thought Safari wasnt chromium based
I’m not sure if it’s related, but I’ve been getting popups that prevent navigation away from pages on the Google Android browsers
Its a good thing I’ve been using Firefox for almost 2 decades then.
Firefox supremacy validated once again
We need more options
Yes, but until we have them, Firefox is the best option.
*librewolf
The title should be “Google pulls plug out of Chromium”
Too bad that even when people start switching, people writing drafts for the W3 spec are mostly Google employees. I’m sure that’ll be their next battleground.
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Don’t forget stupid DRM bullshit.
https://www.w3.org/TR/2024/WD-encrypted-media-2-20240718/
Editors: Joey Parrish (Google Inc.) Greg Freedman (Netflix Inc.) Former editors: Mark Watson (Netflix Inc.) (Until September 2019) David Dorwin (Google Inc.) (Until September 2017) Jerry Smith (Microsoft Corporation) (Until September 2017) Adrian Bateman (Microsoft Corporation) (Until May 2014)
Not only intrusive ads, intrusive trackers too
Using the internet without an adblocker is genuinely dangerous. Everyone really should be using uBlock Origin. Using a web browser that prevents uBlock Origin puts you in danger
Stop using chrome and move to Firefox, also stop using Windows and more to Linux.
Google is Mozilla’s dad so I’m not sure how long we will be able to use FF with v2.
Even a short-lived chance to cling to Fx is worth something. Hopefully they will team up with others to port the missing parts to v3.
Or the Mullvad browser, Mullvad’s fork of FF with zero ads with help from the Tor project.
Librewolf is also good if you prefer flatpaks
Firefox is now owned by ads company. By default there are enabled telemetrics and moreover companies starts to ignore compability of their web services with browser which market share is lower than 2% even goverments stops considering that browser. Mozzila instead of optimization of their browser spend time introduceing features like AI. I was trying to like that browser but mozzila effectively does not allow me. Now btw. I use just vivaldi. I know this is not fully open source.
Which “ads company”? No offense, just curious.
Says Mozilla owns the ad company. Not sure where it says the ad company owns mozilla
So you use Chromium…
Were Firefox to go bad, we would use a non-bad fork off Firefox. It’s open source.
They are not independent. It all soft fork. Everything depends on firefox. If firefox die all the forks will die with too.
