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In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default

wired.co.uk

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Re: In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default

#31

Post by onyva »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #22
onyva wrote: post #2

Great news though I do think adblocking should be built into the browser, rather than left to extensions and 3rd party services. The internet should be taken back from AdTech agencies (Google, AdBuddy AKA Brave). Maybe add to the rumored premium version something like Nextdns?

Tracking protection != ad blocking. If browsers would always heuristically filter-out ads, this would make them useless at best, or actually deceptive. See also other comment about incentives of browsers becoming misaligned with users (or indeed Brave which you mentioned yourself).

Ads are not of interest to users. I think their display is a waste of time and resources, as well as the risks associated. How blocking ads make a browser “misaligned” with users? It’s in fact the opposite. Brave is simply, like stated before, a Trojan Horse. Replacing google with another ad broker is not helping anyone.

>> Brave browser (Stage 1) is a Trojan Horse for their actual business which is a blockchain-based advertising platform (Stage 2). https://mobile.twitter.com/aral/status/1013047635253526530

Re: In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default

#32

Post by mattmanser »

throwaway8941 wrote: post #14
Synaesthesia wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t have data to back this up, more just a hunch, but I feel like Firefox uses less resources than Chrome. Less hard drive thrashing and deals with lots of tabs really well.

Yep, this hasn't been my experience at all (quite the opposite). I've been reading this FUD for as long as Chrome has been around (10 years?), and when you ask the person for concrete numbers, all you get back is "I don't know, it just feels like it". I stopped engaging at this point. Edit: not to mention that you can configure the number of webrender processes Firefox uses to render web pages. If you have a fast eno…

They admitted it themselves, put out blog posts about it.

They've been putting out blog posts over the last 2 years specifically talking about the performance fixes they've put in.

Firefox themselves have admitted it's not FUD. They acknowledged it was a real problem.

It is pretty fast now, but a few years ago (at most 4), it was bloody awful.

Re: In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default

#33

Post by JoshMnem »

distant_hat wrote: post #9
shadykiller wrote: post #3

Switched to Firefox a few months back. Havn’t missed Chrome at all

I did that a year back though I do miss a few things. One major one is task manager. Being able to identify rogue tabs is useful. Also, in general Firefox uses a lot more resources compared to Chrome. Another is the ability to smoothly zoom in/out of pages. But overall, the privacy benefits are easily worth it.

One Tab is useful to collect all your tabs in a list instead of leaving them open.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/onetab/

Also, like someone else mentioned, you can visit this in the address bar:

    about:performance

Re: In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default

#34

Post by [deleted] »

iliketosleep wrote: post #15

It's going to be interesting to see where this ends up. Ads are inevitable, and in some ways beneficial to both content providers and consumers (i.e. revenue can be earned from users without any direct payment). But are invasive forms of tracking such as 3rd party cookies really that necessary? Could websites survive using only contextual advertising without the excessive tracking?

[deleted]

Re: In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default

#35

Post by someonenice »

Already lot of sites are not tested on Firefox and many explicitly so [1]. Now the web publishers that rely on ads will have less incentive to support Firefox. They might even actively promote other browsers. Similar to how IE was discouraged by websites explicitly.

"This site works best on Chrome" is only what is needed now to reduce the Firefox userbase further.

Note - This comment was typed on firefox.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17363721

Re: In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default

#37

Post by Fnoord »

someonenice wrote: post #35

Already lot of sites are not tested on Firefox and many explicitly so [1]. Now the web publishers that rely on ads will have less incentive to support Firefox. They might even actively promote other browsers. Similar to how IE was discouraged by websites explicitly. "This site works best on Chrome" is only what is needed now to reduce the Firefox userbase further. Note - This comment was typed on firefox. [1] https:/…

Given Google Chrome's opposition to adblocking, combined with a ~33% of users using an adblocker, it suggests this trend is going to make Mozilla Firefox more popular; not less. Either way, I regard it as playing hardball.

Re: In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default

#38

Post by joeblubaugh »

cmroanirgo wrote: post #27
iliketosleep wrote: post #15

It's going to be interesting to see where this ends up. Ads are inevitable, and in some ways beneficial to both content providers and consumers (i.e. revenue can be earned from users without any direct payment). But are invasive forms of tracking such as 3rd party cookies really that necessary? Could websites survive using only contextual advertising without the excessive tracking?

I always like to compare the 'advertising' that we see on the net vs the ones we see in a store. In the first instance, the website can and does monetise you, whereas in a store it's just that: a suggestion. In a store, the advertiser might have paid for a placement, but an individual's metrics are not harvested. So, the real dysfunction is that advertisers aren't paying a website up front for 'space'. I will always…

This isn’t as true these days as it used to be. Many stores use WiFi hotspots and Bluetooth beacons (and computer vision on security cameras) to track customers in their stores to build advertising and placement strategies. Target’s particularly fond of this approach.

Re: In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default

#39

Post by leggomylibro »

iliketosleep wrote: post #15

It's going to be interesting to see where this ends up. Ads are inevitable, and in some ways beneficial to both content providers and consumers (i.e. revenue can be earned from users without any direct payment). But are invasive forms of tracking such as 3rd party cookies really that necessary? Could websites survive using only contextual advertising without the excessive tracking?

The ads that I find most useful are the ones which mimic olde newspaper/magazine ads by simply showing things relevant to their general readership.

The advertisers don't need to know a thing about me, they just need to know the general demographics and interests of the publication.

For example, the ads on this blog[1] are far more relevant and less invasive/annoying than anything that Google ever showed me before I started aggressively blocking ad networks. I assume that it is because the blog knows what I am interested in better than Google does, simply because I voluntarily go to their website and read their content.

[1]: https://hackaday.com/

Re: In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default

#40

Post by chinathrow »

jjohansson wrote: post #19

Does it block all newish variants of the google analytics snippet?

It does not block Google Analytics per se. It only blocks the cookie being attached to the used tracking pixel.

Source: verified on own site in v69. Page views show up fine in GA but the browser displays the new warning shield.

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