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A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store

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Re: A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store

#271

I wonder if it's been on purpose or just, as always, their automatic algorithms being imposible to contest when they're wrong. Honestly, Google's (and general tech giants') willingness to let people's lives be caught in the cracks of their algorithms in their pursue for scalability scares me more than any ideology they could push. More and more, we're seeing developers and content creators being banned or demonetised…

Judge, jury, executioner, central bank, and oxygen dispensary.

These closed markets need to become open markets. Apply fair and impartial courts, jury trials, system of appeals, tort, etc.

Re: A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store

#272
post #229

Is anyone really surprised? Google makes all its revenue from ads. A couple months ago there was an incident where if I recall correctly, someone published a browser on the play store which allowed users to install desktop browser extensions, one of which was an adblocker for YouTube, and it was removed with vague reasons? Google has been taking steps for a long time to make it harder for adblockers to work on Chrome…

>someone published a browser on the play store which allowed users to install desktop browser extensions, one of which was an adblocker for YouTube Firefox lets you do that on Android and obviously it hasn't been removed from the Play Store. Do you remember any specifics?

Parent comment might be referring to Kiwi Browser, a closed source fork of Chromium for Android that allows desktop extensions.

Though it's currently available on the Android app store, and the reason it was briefly removed was because it included built-in background YouTube video playback, not ad-blocking.

Of course, you could always get the app from another store.

- Kiwi Browser (Play Store): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kiwibrowse...

- Kiwi Browser (XDA): https://labs.xda-developers.com/store/app/com.kiwibrowser.br...

Re: A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The internet wasn't made for Google. And if you think it serves users very well too then I suggest you read TFA, it is clear that what is good for Google and what is good for users are not aligned.

I'm not talking from an idealist/paternalist point of view about what I think is good for users. I'm talking about letting users decide. And they seem to have decided, according to market share, that they like Chrome. Yes, users could be clueless and be trading personal privacy unwittingly but that's not what I mean about "serves users very well". I meant users look at Chrome, Firefox and others and stick to Chrome.…

Users have not 'decided', they've had something rammed down their throats that they might not have picked if not for some pretty obvious anti-competitive behavior by Google.

By your book might makes right, because Google was able to push users to convert in various ways - some of which should be or even are illegal - and it worked for them they must be delivering something that people need. But it wasn't a free choice.

Re: A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, the comment wasn't speaking in a generalization, just why they themselves don't use Firefox on Android while also indicating the exact device. It doesn't seem there was any argument being made, just that they seem a little disappointed that it doesn't work well on their specific device and they wanted to add that to the conversation. Honestly, every bug/glitch/criticism is important, even if it doesn't affect a…

The feedback of "Android version of Firefox is unusably crashy on my phone" is not something any developer can take action on. There are no example sites, no steps to recreate. I agree it should be in the bug tracker, but adding anecdotes without specifics does not add much to the conversation nor does it help to move FF forward. Are we arguing all users of this specific device experience the same issues as this user…

All points I generally agree on, except that this isn't a discussion with Mozilla about improving Firefox. This is a discussion about Chrome that diverged into a discussion about Firefox in a very general manner. You may not be stifling feedback, but you're riding on the assumption that feedback is the purpose of the discussion going on, which it is not.

You keep bringing up this point about feedback that is irrelevant to the actual conversation at hand. Nitpicking feedback is kind of useless and pedantic when the purpose isn't to be feedback.

Re: A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store

#275

It's time to switch to Firefox as my main web browser. It's faster and generally more efficient than Chrome plus it has the most important extensions. The most surprising thing is that the Android version of Firefox is excellent. So good that I switched from Chrome a few months ago when this expected news first dropped. No ads on mobile is awesome.

> switch to Firefox as my main web browser. It's faster

What platform are you referring to? Is it faster on macs too?

Re: A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store

#276

I wonder if it's been on purpose or just, as always, their automatic algorithms being imposible to contest when they're wrong. Honestly, Google's (and general tech giants') willingness to let people's lives be caught in the cracks of their algorithms in their pursue for scalability scares me more than any ideology they could push. More and more, we're seeing developers and content creators being banned or demonetised…

> on purpose or just, as always, their automatic algorithms being imposible to contest when they're wrong

given how often this happens, and the money google makes off and puts into these systems, this is "not either or" but rather two flavors of "on purpose"

Re: A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store

#277
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even simple stuff like finding text on a page... I use the highlighting of occurrences in the scrollbar WAY more than I ever realized. The breaking point for me to go back to Chrome a few months back was Mapbox was chewing up SO MUCH MORE resources in FF. As someone who does a lot of GIS dev in Mapbox that was a no-go =/

So, if you had piece of software that worked fine on Windows and ran like crap on Linux, you would blame Linux?

I mean... in some ways yeah?

I have to run a dedicated Win10 box because native Office automation is a huge part of what I do. I've had to go to lengths to get the LTSB (and am working on the LTSC) license because it's the only version of Win10 that's controllable + secure. I also have a 2015 MBP for my Adobe Creative Suite workflow. All of my dev infra is Debian 10. Best tool for the job yo.

I'm not going to bury my head in the sand and use tools that are only 20% performant because "ideals". I'll do my best to switch over (which I did for over a month) and if it's not working out I'm gonna ditch. I have to use Chrome until FF gets on the same level. I'm a startup engineer - I can't afford to neuter my productivity, I have to use the best tool for the job.

Time is money. Period.

Re: A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store

#278

I wonder if it's been on purpose or just, as always, their automatic algorithms being imposible to contest when they're wrong. Honestly, Google's (and general tech giants') willingness to let people's lives be caught in the cracks of their algorithms in their pursue for scalability scares me more than any ideology they could push. More and more, we're seeing developers and content creators being banned or demonetised…

Article 22 of the GDPR provides protection to individuals against purely automated decision making https://gdpr-info.eu/art-22-gdpr/

Re: A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Odd - my experience is the opposite. FF is noticeably slower than Chrome, and my Chrome installation is loaded with extensions, unlike Firefox. Phoronix's tests seem to back my experience as well. From 4 days ago: "As for the Firefox vs. Chrome performance, Google's web browser continues generally delivering better performance." https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox6...

I don't know why people choose their browser based on resource usage. You can have a browser run by a company looking to loot the public good for their own gain, or a non-profit looking to keep the web open and free. Hold on I'm going to pick the one that's marginally faster and more ram efficient...

> Hold on I'm going to pick the one that's marginally faster and more ram efficient...

It's about immediate pain vs future gain. People are susceptible to temporal discounting.

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