11 mo. ago • 96%

Google Chrome will limit ad blockers starting June 2024

arstechnica.com Google Chrome will limit ad blockers starting June 2024

The "Manifest V3" rollout is back after letting tensions cool for a year.

71 comments

Firefox is calling all of you.

We just added a “copy link without trackers” context menu option too ;)

132
- Big cocks at Firefox doing the lord's work once again
  
  37
  
  So that's what people mean when they say Firefox works with BSD
  
  10
- thank you billy
  
  11
  
  BILLY MAZE HERE WITH A HOT NEW BROWSER PRODUCT
  
  12
- Well at this period of time one of the interns will have removed Firefox's user agent from the whitelist most Google services by mistake again.
  
  If so, I just hope antitrust lawsuits will be fast enough so that it doesn't build up a bad reputation for Firefox ...
  
  8
- Cool, you gonna help me swap over the more than 100 online accounts from various website that I set up with using my Google email account to a different email account? Because if I am switching to firefox I will also be getting rid of my google email account.
  
  -7
  
  I’m confused are you mad at Firefox because you put all your eggs into one basket?
  
  Single point of failure too… if someone for whatever magic reason got access to your account you’d be capital Fucked
  
  6
  
  Only 100? That's rookie numbers.
  
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Ad Blockers will limit Chrome usage starting June 2024.

116
- The long awaited Firefox domination of the market !
  
  53
  
  Right in time for the year of Linux on the desktop!
  
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  deleted
  
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Users will limit Google Chrome starting June 2024.

33
- I already did.
  
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I’d be very curious how they are going to try and fuck over Firefox, or similar browsers.

It’s not “just business “, it’s personal. It’s all personal, Mike. You know who I learned that from? Your Father, the Godfather.

30
- Google's proposed "Web Integrity API" browser-DRM was probably the biggest attack on the open web since its conception. I don't think they have fully given up on that idea and they'll likely sneak it in more gradually and slowly. Manifest v3 is just a small baby step in this direction of taking away user control.
  
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- The various websites will just say Firefox is "not supported". I just wrote this in another comment, but Twitch doesn't let you log in on FF because it has some kind of advanced tracking protection. I guess YouTube and the rest will just join the fuckery and block you from using their content if you're on FF. I mean, I really hope they won't do that, but knowing what degree of assholery these companies can pull off, I think it's the next step.
  
  8
  
  Presumably the FTC will have something to say about blatant anticompetitive actions such at these. Then again, that's why corporations buy themselves representatives, senators and judges.
  
  Edit: such not suck
  
  8
  
  This is news to me. I log into twitch on FF all the time.
  
  8
  
  I used to have that issue with Twitch and FF, the fix was to create a new Firefox profile :)
  
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I've been limiting Google Chrome for about 5 years now.

30
Oh ffs. FINE! I will switch away from Chrome!

26
what a bunch of cunts

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Congratulations, you are being tailored a "personal experience"! Please do not resist.

14
Not surprising since Google is an ad company. I

Meanwhile I have been using Firefox on my various computers for a few years now.

13
Oh no! There are literally zero other options but to use Chrome!

12
- I know you are being sarcastic, but it's not sarcasm at all, and therefore no laughing matter, when more and more websites drop support for none-chromium browsers, or actively block them. Netizens tend to have some missguided belief that every problem can be solved with software alone. This is a trap.
  
  3
  
  What about Brave their whole sales pitch is ad blocking?
  
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- This impacts all Chromium based browsers. Unless support is maintained separately by browser vendor, only other option is Firefox or any of its forks.
  
  This is kind of a time for Mozilla to shine, but I worry they will mess up and maybe even follow later.
  
  2
I limited google chrome a long time ago when i switched back to firefox for good

8
I wonder if there ever will be a point where the mayor populous actually goes "screw this" and starts finding out how to change their browser via "how to change internet" or "how to change google"

will there ever be a point where this even happens i wonder, like at all

7
Firefox's decision to move to WebExtensions is starting to look even more questionable, IMO.

6
- Questionable in what way?
  
  7
  
  It was originally questionable because it completely hobbled extensions, and now Chrome is seeking to hobble the standard even more
  
  3
- Yeah, perhaps not their greatest move ever. I miss how customizable Firefox used to be. For a long time I used Waterfox Classic to postpone the switch, but it got harder and harder. Now you have to use stuff like paxmod to get back some of the old features.
  
  I don't know the internal technical issues too well, though, and they have made a lot of headway in the speed department since switching. I do recall discussion around when they dropped them about being held back by the addon architecture.
  
  4
  
  It definitely was their gratest move ever. So many improvements was blocked by supporting the old extensions. Firefox would be completely useless and dead by now if they was still supporting them. Their loss in market share to chrome is largely due to not killing them 5 years earlier.
  
  1
- Yeah and it'll be very interesting as to what the Firefox fanboys will think then when that continues gaining traction.
  
  I'll go back to what I said - all browsers are generally shit in one way or another. And they influence one and another. Very few browsers keep up the fight but browser hopping will be entirely meaningless when these people are out to redesign the web in their visage.
  
  1
  
  You can consider me a Firefox fanboy if you like - I certainly prefer it to the alternatives. Firefox made a bad decision to follow Chrome, and then Chrome made it event worse, so I don't think the fanboys will be moved from their support when the alternatives are worse.
  
  1
On mobile I'm using DDG as primary browser. Firefox as secondary.

On my personal machine it's Firefox and Chromium.

For my job I use Thorium as main (switched coming from Brave), Chrome, Firefox and Edge.

Could do without Chrome any day.

5
- On mobile I'm using DDG as primary browser.
  
  Don't get me wrong, DDG's app is a massive step up in privacy, but it's hardly a browser, it's simply a WebView frontend. You're pretty much still using Chrome.
  
  6
- Why do you use 8 browsers?
  
  1
I'm only using Chrome for work because the profile switching & syncing is so much smoother and our company is split into two primary brands - my brain handles it better with an individual browser profile for each.

We're consolidating everything into one next year, meaning I can ditch the second browser!

I've tried setting up a second profile but it was just too much effort to get it working and bring everything across from both, then do the same on my laptop for travel, so I'll just wait for now.

4
- I really don't understand why Mozilla doesn't add a profile switch icon in Firefox.
  
  Most people probably have no idea that Firefox can do profiles or some of the stuff it can do with them (sync online, send tabs between devices etc.)
  
  2
- Multi account containers. Check it out.
  
  2
This is the best summary I could come up with:

A year later, Google is restarting the phase-out schedule, and while it has changed some things, Chrome will eventually be home to inferior filtering extensions.

Google's blog post says the plan to kill Manifest V2, the current format for Chrome extensions, is back on starting June 2024.

The company says: "We expect it will take at least a month to observe and stabilize the changes in pre-stable before expanding the rollout to stable channel Chrome, where it will also gradually roll out over time.

On the high end now for me, Slack is drinking 500MB, while a single Google Chat tab, created by this company that is so concerned about performance, is at 1.5GB of memory usage.

Google is adding a completely arbitrary limit on how many "rules" content filtering add-ons can include, which are needed to keep up with the nearly infinite ad-serving sites that are out there (by the way, Ars Technica subscriptions give you an ad-free reading experience and make a great holiday gift!).

Mozilla's blog post on the subject promises "Firefox’s implementation of Manifest V3 ensures users can access the most effective privacy tools available like uBlock Origin and other content-blocking and privacy-preserving extensions."

The original article contains 714 words, the summary contains 197 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

4
I know Firefox is the popular option here, but do we have any serious non-google managed Chromium based browser options out there that don't have some weird gimmick?

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- Vivaldi
  
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  +1 for Vivaldi. If you remember old, Presto-era Opera you'll feel right at home with it. I know there are some people who moved from Firefox to it, too.
  
  Only thing is, their integrated adblocker doesn't support cosmetic filtering right now, but it's in the works.
  
  3
  
  Vivaldi adblocker is weak and ublock origin is needed
  
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- Brave leads chrome-based browsers in terms of privacy and security, as long as you don't mind its endless controversies.
  
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of seeings patturn

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That's okay. Literally the only thing I use chrome for is gmail.

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- Try Thunderbird (desktop) and/or FairEmail (mobile).
  
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  Thanks, I probably should. I use Thunderbird already but only for my own/website email.
  
  1
- Chrome has some special method / offline client built-in to access Gmail? Do not know anyone who just does not use Gmail web client https://gmail.com
  
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"Limit"

2
I've switched from reddit to Lemmy, from windows to Linux and just as easy as my devices are running Firefox. I was balls deep in Google, they keep on pushing me away

1
- Same here, man, same here. EndeavourOS + Firefox + Privacy Badger + uBlock origin + User agent switcher/manager + VPN is my favorite recipe so far.
  
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I thought this had already been implemented. How many times have they already delayed it?

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- If you mean Manifest V3 (MV3) then yeah it's been on the table for a while, they had to make additional APIs for other extension developers because of how restrictive it was to begin with. The question is how many APIs are they going to develop without inadvertently allowing more adblock extensions? It's a tough problem for them it seems.
  
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