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Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

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Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#341

Post by lacker »

userbinator wrote: post #266
dessant wrote: post #37

I'd love to use ClearURLs, though last I checked it had a major flaw: it allows arbitrary code execution by the provider of the filter list. Among other things, it can redirect script URLs to arbitrary sources, and the filter list is periodically updated from a GitLab page, which enables the filter list provider to perform a targeted attack by serving a malicious filter list to a specific device. The only filter list…

Security paranoia is ruining the independent Internet and putting more power in the hands of companies like Google.

It's not paranoia if the internet really is full of hackers out to get you

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#342

Post by godshatter »

ppf wrote: post #271
ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #45

What I don't get is why Google is allowed to provide a browser and be a major content provider at the same time. If this is allowed to continue then it seems inevitable than an unhealthy monopoly will form where Chrome and its derivatives are the only browsers that can consume the modern web, and where opting out of tracking is not a possibility for anyone but the most technically inclined (although that's almost alr…

It wasn't popular on here last time I said it, but Google has won the web. Time to move on. Also - Google is the natural result of the Silicon Valley business model. You got what you wanted!

I have moved on. To duckduckgo, firefox, fastmail...

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#343

Post by nybble41 »

dspillett wrote: post #238
Hendrikto wrote: post #8

> The reasons for this are ridiculous and probably only pretended because ClearURLs damages Google's business model. […] > Among other things, it was claimed that the description of the addon is too detailed and thus violates the Chrome Web Store rules. The mention of all the people who helped to develop and translate ClearURLs is against Google's rules because it could "confuse" the user. Ridiculous. > Also, Google…

> Among other things, it was claimed that the description of the addon is too detailed ... > Also, Google has criticized that the description of the addon did not mention ... So it was simultaneously too detailed, but needed more details.

It needed different details. In the reviewer's opinion the description included irrelevant details while omitting information which would be relevant to someone trying to decide whether or not to install the addon. Which is a perfectly reasonable assessment IMHO. A small amount of "flavor text" is fine, but the main purpose of the description is to ensure that prospective users can make an informed decision. Anything else can go in the app's "about" page or on a separate website.

Now if we could just get app stores to mandate useful changelogs… No, Google, "Bug fixes and performance improvements" doesn't cut it. Describe the bugs that were fixed and where and by how much the performance was improved. Justify spending the effort and risk of updating the software to the new version. There is no point in a changelog message that could be applied equally well to every release of every software product ever made.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#344

Post by jonas21 »

fbelzile wrote: post #313
SamBam wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with this stance. Pulling extensions that have a large potential for abuse is absolutely in Google's prerogative, in my opinion. Suppose our single maintainer decided to finally sell the extension, and the person who bought it made it so that all those links hijacked information or exposed you to malware. This would happen in one day without warning. How many people would be saying that was Google's fault…

I agree, maybe removing the extension from the public facing web store is a better solution. But at the very least, allow the extension to be installed if you have the "hard to guess" URL. I do this with my app that requires a desktop app to be installed since it requires native app messaging.

If you really want to use the extension, you can clone the extension's repo, enable Developer Mode on the extensions page in Chrome, and then load the extension.

You can probably do this in under 30 seconds, but it's enough of a barrier to keep naive users from doing it.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#345

Post by nybble41 »

echelon wrote: post #328
wepple wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At Starbucks I can inject arbitrary content into the browser of anyone who visits your site over HTTP and take control of their browser. Furthermore, congrats on your site but you’re 0.01% of sites like that. Should we keep an insecure web because your hosting provider is ripping you off? TLS is easy and free in 2021.

> Furthermore, congrats on your site but you’re 0.01% of sites like that. Thanks to the rise of the almighty platforms we've lost the will and know-how to do it ourselves. > TLS is easy and free in 2021. Only if you're relying on complicated cloud infra or (non-free) managed providers that do everything for you. It's a lot of work to set this up on your own. It's impossible to be simple at this point. It's like the a…

It's actually very easy to set up a TLS server using certificates from Let's Encrypt or any other ACME-compliant certificate provider. If you're using Apache, mod_md[0] will manage all the details for you. After enabling mod_md and mod_ssl, a simple TLS server only requires a few lines of extra configuration compared to a basic non-TLS site:

  MDCertificateAgreement accepted
  MDomain example.org
  
    ServerName example.org
    ServerAdmin admin@example.org
    ServerAlias www.example.org    # optional
    DocumentRoot htdocs/root
    SSLEngine on
If you're using Nginx rather than Apache I believe it still requires an external script to handle certificate renewal, but the process remains fairly simple. The same scripts will also work with Apache if you don't want to use mod_md.

[0] https://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/mod/mod_md.html

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#346

Post by lurtbancaster »

bb101 wrote: post #166
elktea wrote: post #2

anyone using this site that still uses chrome, why?

Firefox's default scrolling behaviour didn't feel as responsive as Chrome. I changed a few settings below in about:config and now Firefox is a pleasure to use again. With the uBlock Origin, Cookie Autodelete and ClearURLs add-ons, it's better for privacy too. general.smoothScroll: false mousewheel.default.delta_multiplier_y: 300

For almost 6 years, I've been using

    general.smoothScroll: false
    mousewheel.min_line_scroll_amount: 60
I'd never given mousewheel.default.delta_multiplier_y a try. But now with both

    mousewheel.min_line_scroll_amount: 60
and your

    mousewheel.default.delta_multiplier_y: 300
it's a little too much for me. But ymmv.

mousewheel.default.delta_multiplier_y and mousewheel.min_line_scroll_amount seem identical in function.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#348

Post by cjg »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #236
ColinHayhurst wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self-disclosure: Mojeek CEO. On your points: - Our search engine works and has been doing so for >15 years. Our search quality needs improving but does so gradually. And it's independent; our own crawler, index and infrastructure - We just introduced non-tracking search ads: https://www.mojeek.com/support/ads/ - We use "No Tracking , Just Search" and "Search without Surveillance" We've been building for 15 years; her…

Here's the first test search I did. "github ruby hanami" looking for the hanami github repo. Seems like a relatively simple query. On Google, it's the first result. https://www.google.com/search?q=github+ruby+hanami On mojeek, it's not even on the first page. https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=github+ruby+hanami It's possible that at this point I (and others) have trained ourselves to know/do the kind of queries that wo…

I had a similar experience searching for "rust hashmap" - expecting to get some links to the standard docs.

Re: Google Removed ClearURLs Extension from Chrome Web Store

#349

Post by godshatter »

lurtbancaster wrote: post #346
bb101 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox's default scrolling behaviour didn't feel as responsive as Chrome. I changed a few settings below in about:config and now Firefox is a pleasure to use again. With the uBlock Origin, Cookie Autodelete and ClearURLs add-ons, it's better for privacy too. general.smoothScroll: false mousewheel.default.delta_multiplier_y: 300

For almost 6 years, I've been using general.smoothScroll: false mousewheel.min_line_scroll_amount: 60 I'd never given mousewheel.default.delta_multiplier_y a try. But now with both mousewheel.min_line_scroll_amount: 60 and your mousewheel.default.delta_multiplier_y: 300 it's a little too much for me. But ymmv. mousewheel.default.delta_multiplier_y and mousewheel.min_line_scroll_amount seem identical in function.

This also helps on Pale Moon, if anyone other than me is still using it.
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