Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 369 posts

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#71

Post by llampx »

sneak wrote: post #40
teekert wrote: post #35

Why are people still on Chrome? Just use a browser whose interests align with yours, like Firefox.

Chrome (aside from the ad company spying) has better security than any other browser, Firefox included, by a substantial margin.

Could you elaborate on how Chrome has better security?

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#72

Post by neilv »

This reminded me of a library I released in January 2005. Part of the embedded docs from the 2011 release:

    ;;; The @b{urlskip} Racket library provides a function that translates some of
    ;;; the Web URLs that might be used to track a user across sites, by removing
    ;;; intermediate HTTP redirectors or information that might identify the user.
    ;;; Such a function might be used as part of a privacy-enhancing Web browser,
    ;;; or to canonicalize or un-obfuscate URLs for Web analysis projects.
    ;;;
    ;;; Note that @b{urlskip} is not intended to remove information used by
    ;;; ``affiliate'' referral programs to identify site operators that have sent
    ;;; users to a site.  However, in some cases this affiliate ID information
    ;;; might be lost in the process of removing a intermediary URL that is used by
    ;;; a third party to track and profile users.
It had special-case handlers for various URL server authorities and the paths under them. So, for

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=AAA&creative=111&camp=222\
    &link_code=bn1&path=asin/b333
it was coded to preserve only certain query parameters, like:

     http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=AAA&path=asin/b333
A lot of the cases it handled were redirectors, which usually meant only the target URL, which was usually in a query parameter, but might be in the path, and might or might not be URL-escaped. So, for example,

    http://www.google.com/url?sa=l&q=http://www.shopping.com/xGS-AAA_BBB~NS\
    -1~linkin_id-111&ai=REALLYLONGNONSENSESTRING&num=3
would skip the redirector, to be simply:

     http://www.shopping.com/xGS-AAA_BBB~NS-1~linkin_id-111
I was going to link here to the code of `urlskip`, but it's no longer in the package repository where it used to be. (I added a lot of libraries to that repository, and don't recall whether there was some reason to remove this particular library.) It was a pretty niche library, and in a fringe language, so its impact might've only been as an example, pointing out that this could be done, and some rules for it.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#73

Post by gnicholas »

antman wrote: post #52

Pretty bad and ofcourse private company etc etc, but unfortunately since I mostly browse on mobile and: Safari no addons, Chrome no addons, FirefoxAndroid killed almost all addons. I had found here on HN that by using Kiwi browser I could import Chrome Desktop addons but now even this is adding more friction for my own good, apparently because obscure, legitimate looking, dark pattern coloured, reasons. All those bro…

Insight Browser supports addons on iOS, btw. I believe they’re coming to Android at some point in the future.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#74

Post by commoner »

antman wrote: post #52

Pretty bad and ofcourse private company etc etc, but unfortunately since I mostly browse on mobile and: Safari no addons, Chrome no addons, FirefoxAndroid killed almost all addons. I had found here on HN that by using Kiwi browser I could import Chrome Desktop addons but now even this is adding more friction for my own good, apparently because obscure, legitimate looking, dark pattern coloured, reasons. All those bro…

You can install any add-ons (including ClearURLs) from addons.mozilla.org onto Firefox Nightly for Android or Fennec F-Droid (a fork of the stable version of Firefox for Android) by following these instructions:

https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...

Firefox Nightly for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fe...

Fennec F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/

ClearURLs works with no issues.

Not all WebExtension APIs are supported in the Android version of Firefox at this time, but the developers are working on the missing features.

Tracker: https://github.com/orgs/mozilla-mobile/projects/44

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#75

Post by ccmcarey »

elktea wrote: post #2

anyone using this site that still uses chrome, why?

I used Firefox for years.

I recently moved back to a Chromium based browser (Edge). Even on a fairly powerful system (16 logi cores/4GHz) it's just noticeably faster. SPAs are actually usable again. Video decoding is hardware accelerated and I can now play 4k videos without every interaction with the browser lagging like crazy.

Firefox is great, theoretically. But even then, Mozilla keep making inane decisions - lately their plans to remove compact mode [0] were in the news. Why?!

[0] https://www.ghacks.net/2021/03/14/mozilla-plans-to-remove-th...

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#76

Post by qwerty456127 »

franga2000 wrote: post #65
qwerty456127 wrote: post #12

No problem as long as it's available elsewhere, is it? As to popularity - this mere news will probably bring more new users than Google store did in quite a period of time.

Discoverability, trust, security, plus what the sibling comment says.

Google store contains a lot of bullshit and spyware extensions. The facts an extension is there doesn't add a dime to trust.

Discoverability also isn't a thing such extensions should seek. As soon as too many people discover it Google and others will invent a smarter way to spy.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#77

Post by input_sh »

sneak wrote: post #40
teekert wrote: post #35

Why are people still on Chrome? Just use a browser whose interests align with yours, like Firefox.

Chrome (aside from the ad company spying) has better security than any other browser, Firefox included, by a substantial margin.

Care to back that up?

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#79

Post by dannyw »

commoner wrote: post #49
brnt wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some websites, I've discovered that setting utm_medium let me read their paywalled articles. So, they're not always useless ;)

Combine ClearURLs with Bypass Paywalls Clean, and you get the best of both worlds: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywal... https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea...

What's the difference between the normal version and the Clean version? The project doesn't say.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#80

Post by blunte »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #61
iSnow wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried, but I find each and every Google Search alternative lacking. I frequently have to hunt down some bug descriptions or other stuff related to coding and Google Search is really hard to beat. Even tried Bing, lol

I'm using ddg on all my devices for ~2 or 3 years now, and it is fine by my standards. YMMV, of course.

Ddg is usually adequate for my needs, but especially with code related searches, I often have to fall back to google.

I’m glad ddg exists, and it’s nice to see them improving over time.

Post reply on HN