Firefox says it will keep supporting uBlock Origin even as Microsoft Edge and other Chromium browsers phase it out under Manifest V3.
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Alternate headline: Firefox is now the only browser worth using.
And in any case, lumping Firefox as one browser is disingenuous. There are numerous Firefox forks, just like every other major browser is in fact a Google Chromium fork.
Since there are only two major browsers… one of which admittedly wears many disguises.
I.e. it is the last usable browser.
In unrelated news, Firefox is now the dominant browser and nobody knows why.
If only that were true. To many people are addicted to google to ever give up chrome/chromium without a series of catastrophic fuckups from google.
Unfortunate how momentum like that works. I haven’t managed to degoogle myself yet but switching to firefox has created zero issues in my daily usage
Well, it’s better if it’s a slow process, just like detoxing. Good luck by the way.
Doesn’t help that Mozilla leadership is incompetent and doesn’t know what their core audience wants
also dependant on GOOGLe for revenue too.
Dude, the last thing I use Google for is YouTube and the ads are so much now on my tv and when listening to stories in my car that I’m seriously considering either paying for nebula or just snorting whatever I find under the sink for amusement.
uBlock origin works on YouTube and works in Firefox for Android
Yes but I can’t install that on an appleTV or mess with it while driving so there are times I still encounter the bad.
You already made the choice to use appletv
I love nebula. Well worth it. Less content, but all but two of my preferred creators are on it (not including Dropout, which is also worth it). For those two, I use Freetube every month or so to check in, but they’re just Tiny little science channels that do simple experiments, and I can find the experiments they cite on their university webpages once I have the names of their demos.
i forget what its called… pihole? You can set up a small box on your network that can filter out ads on devices that you cant install adblocking on, like on your TV and stuff.
Pihike adblocker doesn’t work for streams, just static content.
Well color me informed.
does not work for youtube. for that, you need either a third party youtube app with builtbin blocking, or a patched official app that adds the blocking.
Or just open the Firefox website in the browser
I guess you meant the youtube website, but on a TV you won’t be able to block youtube ads in the browser either
I don’t use the smart TV functions, I connect a device to the TV to watch stuff on the TV. I certainly don’t use any apps to watch YouTube
I tried browsing the internet without uBlock Origin. I hated it in 5 minutes. I’m not going back to there anytime again. If your browser does not support uBlock Origin, then I am not using it.
Right? I just set up a new phone and had Firefox installed but no extensions yet. Had to search something and the website I ended up on was plastered in ads. Is this how some people actually live? I closed the site and installed uBlock Origin and then went back to the same site. Holy shit, night and day difference.
Happy with Librewolf. I can’t imagine using my browser everyday if I don’t have a good adblocker on it like uBO.
So, I can finally point and laugh at the people who were saying that the manifest V3 thing was a non issue because their ad blocker was still working ?
no, because their ad blocker is still working
At a lower efficiency than before, and a lot of stuff now won’t get blocked because of the limit in definitions.
yeah, my point is that was never the concern of such people
Define “lower efficiency”, please.
only ads on big sites or ads by big providers are blocked. cookie prompts and other annoyances much less, because there is a great variety of them. data mining and hardware fingerprinting cannot even be thwarted anymore.
sure, if you only care about ads, but not at all about your privacy, it does not mean much to you. personally I would rather see ads (topic based) than give up my privacy, and the complete uBlock Origin is very useful for privacy too.
only ads on big sites or ads by big providers are blocked
This is false.
cookie prompts
Not part of any adblocker. Some, like Ghostery, have a separate mechanism to auto-reject these. I switched from uBO to Ghostery because uBO wasn’t doing anything against those.
data mining and hardware fingerprinting cannot even be thwarted anymore.
That’s not an adblock feature and there are hundreds of other extensions that handle that, like PrivacyBadger. Ghostery says it also handles trackers, but I haven’t verified that.
I would rather see ads (topic based) than give up my privacy, and the complete uBlock Origin is very useful for privacy too.
Look up tools made specifically for it, then. Also: privacy related stuff is not affected by Manifest v3, no?
Not part of any adblocker. Some, like Ghostery, have a separate mechanism to auto-reject these. I switched from uBO to Ghostery because uBO wasn’t doing anything against those.
this is false. and instead of just claiming so, here is proof: there are built-in (but disabled by default) blocklists specialized for cookie prompts and such
That’s not an adblock feature
and as I said, uBO is not just an ad blocker, so saying xy ad blocker can replace it well is false.
and there are hundreds of other extensions that handle that, like PrivacyBadger
except that not really. Because again, the required browser APIs were removed, and even before that, privacy badger was not so effective
Also: privacy related stuff is not affected by Manifest v3, no?
everything is effected that:
- needs to block network requests, including loading of certain site scripts
- depends on an up to date list of things to block
this is false. and instead of just claiming so, here is proof: there are built-in (but disabled by default) blocklists specialized for cookie prompts and such
Let me rephrase then: cookie prompt blocking capabilities are not tied to the Manifest version (clearly, as exemplified by things like Ghostery). uBO could easily switch to Mv3 and still do those things.
and as I said, uBO is not just an ad blocker, so saying xy ad blocker can replace it well is false.
But we’re discussing the ad-blocking features, because these are the ones affected by Mv3, no?
All these other features exist and are perfectly fine in other extensions.
except that not really. Because again, the required browser APIs were removed, and even before that, privacy badger was not so effective
Define “not so effective”. What’s “effectiveness” in this case?
everything is effected that:
- needs to block network requests, including loading of certain site scripts
- depends on an up to date list of things to block
OK, but again: what’s the difference for the end-user? Does it impact resources utilisation? Website loading times? Reactivity? I don’t see a difference in how my uBO browser behaves vs how my Ghostery browser behaves, so what am I losing because of the Mv3 switch?
Now I’m curious how anyone could possibly have a non obvious definition of ad blocker efficiency.
Well, considering I’m using a different adblock and I just… Do not see any ads on the web, how do you measure the efficiency of uBlock to be better? Resource consumption?
No, because ad blocks work perfectly fine.
I’m using Ghostery on Vivaldi (Chromium-based) and it works perfectly fine, including blocking ads during YouTube videos.
No idea why uBlock specifically is being blocked, but it’s not like you can’t have an ad-blocker anymore.
Out of curiosity, why do you use Ghostery rather than uBlock Origin? It was quite controversial back in the day, but seems to be open source and stuff now. I still don’t see any advantage over uBO, though, so I wonder what would move you to use it instead.
I started using Ghostery because it had a cookies auto-reject mechanism. The ad-blocking stuff came in later, which I didn’t even realise, but I installed it first on a new device, did some browsing, noticed there’s no ads, and thought “well, good enough”.
I do miss the custom HTML-element cutting, though.
If it goes… I don’t know what I’ll do.
Go out and touch grass probably.
Get a hobby.
Perfect my molotov recipe.
That will totally lead to websites not supporting or even blocking Firefox. Together with uBlock capitulating against Facebook and all those age registration nonsense, I really am scared about the future of the web.
Meh if a site doesnt work on firefox I move on. I dont want all the shit that comes with visiting from chrome. If I cnt buy because of cookies or ads then I wont buy from them.
first it was the news sites, then the shops and venues, but I didn’t speak up because I haven’t used them anyway.
then the utiliies companies did that, but I didn’t speak up, so far as I can pay the invoices personally it’s not a big deal.
then came the government sites, but meh, I can just go in person! sure it takes away many hours but it’s not worth the hassle to complain!
and by that time nothing else was left either, because all the other sites dropped support in the meantime, while I did not have the time anymore to notice it.
Fair point, I am speaking up though, I wont give them my money.
That will totally lead to websites not supporting or even blocking Firefox.
A lot of websites that really should be testing for this don’t work on Firefox.
Absolute worst case Firefox can focus on feature parity(as it already has a lot of), and lie on the UserAgent
Kids today don’t know that’s how life started for Firefox. Except the browser it had to copy was closed source.
When I did a site that didn’t play nice with one of my various Mozilla Gecko/Fusion browser flavors, I try a different one.
When they all are failing, not just WaterFox, I either fire up DuckDuckGo Browser or Safari if on a Mac.
If that were to fail I probably would quit using that service.
My actual Google account isn’t allowed on most of my computers anymore, since I DeGoogled, and only have it operating in very sandboxed environments like one Vivaldi browser that lives inside of a VM.
I jumped to i2p for this reason. I think internet is dead, we will have to have a double identity to avoid brainrotting
and reddit is aggressively try to force thier login popup at everytime, it hasnt rolled out completely. but people already reported.
What are people who were IP banned supposed to do? We can’t sign in because we were banned. I hate ai but at least when I have a question I used to ask reddit it give me an answer at least close to what I’m looking for.
i notice just today, they are hiding comments until you login. seems like a new development, thats not being reported or posted anywhere. i waited a whole year and a different fork to make a new account, i thinks its safe to wait a long time before using reddit again.
I would have to get a new router which is doable if I absolutely needed to but I’m now getting a phone any time soon unfortunately. But honestly? It was just a time suck. All I did was argue with stupid people. I think I’m better off without it.
Yep with the login for old.reddit I’ve officially stopped using it completely. No I will not run their Javascript.
That’s what the user agent string spoofer is for.
Other adblocks still work. I’m using Ghostery on Vivaldi (Chromium-based) and it works perfectly fine, including blocking ads during YouTube videos.
No idea why uBlock specifically is being blocked, but it’s not like you can’t have an ad-blocker anymore.
No idea why uBlock specifically is being blocked, but it’s not like you can’t have an ad-blocker anymore.
because google took away the API for network traffic filtering. all that current filtering addons can do is pass a very brief, rarely updated network filter list to the browser, and insert cosmetic tweaks to the pages you visit. they can’t look anymore at all details of any network request and decide what do to. except on Firefox, where it has not been taken away.
OK, sure, but what are the actual, real-life consequences of that?
I don’t see any ads online. So ad-blocking still works. What doesn’t work?
OK, sure, but what are the actual, real-life consequences of that?
uBlock Origin and any other effective content blocker had that as its most important weapon, without exaggeration. it has many other techniques for specific circumstances, but preventing to load the ad scripts, and preventing network requests that send back data to the advertising company, are universally a powerful tool.
I don’t see any ads online. So ad-blocking still works. What doesn’t work?
you don’t see them because addons can still insert unlimited cosmetic tweaks. CSS snippets that make specific elements hidden. but the ads are still loaded, consuming network and CPU resources, and the ad framework still collects usage, interaction and device data.
also, the addons now can’t regularly update the lists even for what cosmetic tweaks to apply. google has decided it does not allow addons in their addon store that fetch filterlists from the network. this means these addons need to embed the lists in themselves. list updates are released much less frequently, and can have several days delay while google decides whether the updated version contains something malicious or otherwise unacceptable to their policies. compared to that, uBlock Origin on Firefox updates the lists every day by default, with no delay, as it fetches the lists directly from their websites.
uBlock Origin and any other effective content blocker had that as its most important weapon, without exaggeration. it has many other techniques for specific circumstances, but preventing to load the ad scripts, and preventing network requests that send back data to the advertising company, are universally a powerful tool.
You’re just repeating what you already said.
My question is: since there are (and always have been) other privacy-oriented extensions (e.g. Privacy Badger, Ghostery) and they still work just as they always have, what is the advantage of specifically using uBO with Mv2?
you don’t see them because addons can still insert unlimited cosmetic tweaks. CSS snippets that make specific elements hidden. but the ads are still loaded, consuming network and CPU resources, and the ad framework still collects usage, interaction and device data.
I just loaded up YouTube and didn’t see a single call to a known ad server, so this seems to be false.
Also: the CPU usage of loading even a couple MB-worth of ads is negligible compared to the overall resource hungriness of Chromium.
(…) list updates are released much less frequently (…)
I did notice that every now and again YouTube would block me from using it due to detecting the adblocker, but is that an inherent disadvantage of Mv3? And why wouldn’t the extension developers then embed the updated filter lists and just release them as extension updates? Does Google limit the frequency of those?
I just loaded up YouTube and didn’t see a single call to a known ad server, so this seems to be false.
of course you didn’t. on youtube ads are not served from different domains. have you ever heard about pihole not being able to block youtube ads? that’s why. every ad is literally a video uploaded to youtube, it is even possible to watch them as videos, with their own video page.
Also: the CPU usage of loading even a couple MB-worth of ads is negligible compared to the overall resource hungriness of Chromium.
not always the case, differs by ad and ad framework, but the memory savings are still significant. and the difference matters more on weak computers, old computers, battery powered computers and when you are on a metered network.
I did notice that every now and again YouTube would block me from using it due to detecting the adblocker, but is that an inherent disadvantage of Mv3?
I don’t know if that’s what causes that. but not being able to update filterlists independently means that nobody can react quickly to when a website starts detecting a content blocker, or when ads start reappearing. the needs to wait for the next addon update, which may take multiple days.
And why wouldn’t the extension developers then embed the updated filter lists and just release them as extension updates? Does Google limit the frequency of those?
because all addon updates go through a review. the effectiveness of it is largely debatable, but it delays updates significantly.
of course you didn’t. on youtube ads are not served from different domains. have you ever heard about pihole not being able to block youtube ads? that’s why. every ad is literally a video uploaded to youtube, it is even possible to watch them as videos, with their own video page.
So it’s not a privacy issue, it’s an ad issue. Which doesn’t show, it’s blocked.
What does uBO do different here?
or when ads start reappearing. the needs to wait for the next addon update, which may take multiple days.
Just FYI - that only happens to me on YouTube every once in a while. Like, three times this year for a day or two.
Sometimes I think it was a mistake to let the programs we primarily use to view text and images become bloated virtual machines that execute megabytes of arbitrary code with every page load.
All the other major browser has blocked it.
Well, almost all others are basically Chrome.
That’s the joke lol
how do you know?
donated 20 euro right away. HEROES.
Pihole. Doesn’t solve everything, but I’m currently blocking ads from just over a half million domains.
At this point if you’re not already using a DNS filter of some sort, I have no idea how you survive. I use opnsense with zenarmor for ad blocking and it works really well. Had this going for a long time so no need to try pihole yet. I also use uBlock on my browsers for YouTube and the like. And greyjay on my phone. And I use automation on my phone (if not my WiFi, engage wireguard). I don’t know how I’d stay sane without it all.
uBlock Origin on Firefox works fine.
It does. But those devices you can’t control or just need some catchall, a global filter is convenient.
There was also a time you couldn’t use Firefox, and by extension uBlock, on iPhone.
Got a good tutorial or hardware rec for me? I’ve been meaning to pihole for a while…
As for tutorial I think Pi-hole’s own documentation suffice though if you mean starting from server installation, that’s another thing. Definitely not hard but it would be nice if you know Linux to be comfortable in terminal.
As for hardware, this netbook is basically my home server including Pi-hole: https://www.productindetail.com/pn/samsung-n150-plus
Is there something analogous that can be run with bind?
It’s not ready yet but there’s the ladybird project that has a lot of promise. I appreciate FF a lot but their code base is a mess, they need a modern rewrite of their browser engine. That’s why we’re getting all these chromium based browsers, it’s just a better base to build off of.
donated for a new cubical poster. w/e year that was. was new and better for a while.
