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Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

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Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#211

Post by hooby »

Adverblessly wrote: post #32

It isn't just "make ad-blocking (near) impossible" as the current title of the submission suggests. It is: Make browsing the internet possible only on Chrome, Safari or Edge (with no modifications or extensions). No competition allowed in browsers. Make browsing the internet possible only on macOS, Windows, Android or iOS (no custom Android distributions, definitely no LineageOS or GrapheneOS or whatever). No competi…

Seems more than just a bit ironic to block the web from being used on the very same open source that it actually runs on...

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#212

Post by nfriedly »

kentrado wrote: post #158
nfriedly wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that Mozilla gets the vast majority of their income from Google and has, IMO absolutely squandered most of it. If Mozilla had put most of its income into an endowment fund instead of hiring tons of staff for a miriad of now-mostly-canceled projects, they'd be in a much better position today. (Hindsight is 20-20 and all that.) But I think it's an overstatement to say that Google owns Firefox. I donate monthl…

Why do you donate money when you have acknowledged that the CEO is wasting it?

Because I want Mozilla to be better, and I believe that donating helps that in some small way.

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#214

Post by skydhash »

aziaziazi wrote: post #187
scrollaway wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hate to say it, but if you used Chrome to read this, then you're part of the problem. Victim blaming BS. Let's see who else is the problem. How about all those engineers who decided not to contribute to Firefox? Or all those website developers who didn't test their site in Firefox? Or hell, why not all those Mozilla engineers who didn't fix Firefox hard enough? Let's put the blame where it actually is. Google is…

> an unlimited marketing budget for. I never seen a single chrome add. I'm sure we're in different part of the world and in different add segments, but seems to me chrome marketing in not that widespread, is it ? As a retired FE engineer, the top reason I used chrome and test with it was the powerful yet light devtools.

There was a campaign on Twitch not long ago. Also, I watch F1 and they have a really premium position on the McLaren cars.

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#215

Post by systems_glitch »

liendolucas wrote: post #116

Do you know what puzzles me most? How can software engineers work on something like this? Don't those paid engineers or involved ones have the balls or dignity to walk away? I'm just wondering how they would feel about this (if they feel anything at all). I mean, if I'd be in such a position and asked to push something like this I'd have walked away on the spot, no matter what you offer me. No one at Google is standi…

Yup, we've lost, what, two or three generations of developers to an industry that'd do better work by digging holes and filling them in? It's my guess that this is also why so much programming nowadays looks like it's being done by the bottom 10% of talent.

They do it because the money, though. I turned down a FAANG job partly because I'd have to relocate across the US and partly because I didn't think I could sleep at night working for them. Total compensation package for first year was $250-350K depending on performance, and there was a signing bonus. This was 2015 or so.

I often half regret that decision, because it hurts to know I could've ticked that income box rather than fighting month after month to keep work coming in (self employed/contractor).

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#216

Post by Moldoteck »

papruapap wrote: post #182
dillydogg wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the person you are responding to would say that edge is just another chromium skin. It doesn't exactly relieve Google's monopoly on browser technology

It should fairly simple for MS to block this API (if they wish to).

depends how the api is designed. If it'll be integrated deep into chromium, disabling it would cost too much time

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#217

Post by fallingknife »

hef19898 wrote: post #69
Adverblessly wrote: post #32

It isn't just "make ad-blocking (near) impossible" as the current title of the submission suggests. It is: Make browsing the internet possible only on Chrome, Safari or Edge (with no modifications or extensions). No competition allowed in browsers. Make browsing the internet possible only on macOS, Windows, Android or iOS (no custom Android distributions, definitely no LineageOS or GrapheneOS or whatever). No competi…

If successful, that would make the anti-trust suites against MS seem like childs play.

There won't be an anti-trust suit. The implicit deal will be we will prevent "misinformation" (favor news sources you support and censor anything you request with our algorithm) and you will allow us to monopolize the internet.

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#218

Post by detourdog »

meepmorp wrote: post #203
detourdog wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's important to remember they are only commercial efforts. If you can value something other than money it doesn't matter what the corporate web is doing compared to human ingenuity and the internet. Let them waste their time and money write their specs.

Normal people interact with the “corporate web,” because they feel compelled to do things like banking, buying stuff, etc.

Those normal activities like banking is a corporate service and I'm happy with it's regulation and it makes sense to be regulated.

Buying stuff is on a spectrum and I think a consumer should be able to chose a tightly regulated system for exchanging currency.

Most everything else should be free to choose.

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#219

Post by calgoo »

rvnx wrote: post #156
eis wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The shareholders of Mozilla own Mozilla. And that's not Google. If Google stopped the search deal then Bing would take over in a second.

At a much lower price, because search deals are paid based on number of searches done (so indirectly, the number of active users), and because Google has 90%-ish market share, it means a 90% drop in revenue. Also, Bing has on average twice higher RPMs, so, a 50% of drop in income after rev-share. So, you remove 90% of the revenue, and you divide by 2 what is remaining.

Technically it might even be healthy for Mozilla to loose 90% of the budget as they are spending that on bs projects that has nothing to do with Firefox. Maybe it would force them to spend the money on the Firefox team, and all the money hungry top management would go somewhere else where they can waste money.

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#220

Post by ryukoposting »

px43 wrote: post #121
KnobbleMcKnees wrote: post #11

A good and measured article marred only by a silly, clickbait title. Unless there is a plan to allow attesters that are independent bodies then this is absolutely a threat to the open internet, or what's left of it. The biggest dead canary for me is the lack of calling this out explicitly by Google or Apple. We're left to assume that Google is hand-wavingly saying "don't worry we can take care of that" when the priva…

[flagged]

> assume positive intent

This rule applies to discourse, not perspectives. I also wouldn't call many of these concerns "fantasies," because anyone with a basic understanding of public-key cryptography can tell you exactly how this technology, even its most basic form, could be used to:

- Create an absolute monopoly on browsers.

- Give the holder of the browser monopoly the power to control who can/can't crawl the web.

- Give the holder of the browser monopoly the power to control what OS you use to access the web.

and so much more that it's head-spinning.

Is OP's title clickbaity? Yes. Are the concerns brought up by commenters totally legitimate? Yes.

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