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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

#391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VPNs are barely gonna make a dent in their income. What do you think the market is for VPNs? 99% of people don't know what VPN means. Of the remaining 1%, most don't need a VPN for anything personal. It's literally just a handful of geeks who need VPN (mainly for secure piracy, or accessing different regional Netflix catalogs), and maybe a few dozen journalists living in dictatorships. Mozilla needs to gut spending.…

VPN is not only for geeks. VPNs (free ones) are popular in Russia because Instagram is blocked.

But, conveniently, Russians cannot use paid VPNs anyway unless they accept Bitcoin.

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

#392
post #50

The latest, tone-deaf response from a Google engineer: https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/...

The problem with him arguing that it's just an early proposal is they are adding it to Chrome nightly builds

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

#393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you don't care about all that, Firefox is the faster browser. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36770883

Chrome feels faster though. I just switched back to it after using Firefox for the last year. Chrome on my work computer felt snappier than Firefox on my comparable spec personal machine.

My concern is that soon the comparison will be "Chrome without ad block" vs "Firefox with ad block". There's no way Chrome outperforms Firefox in that scenario. Even if Chrome is faster for your unique workflow today, prepare to switch back.

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

#395
post #50

The latest, tone-deaf response from a Google engineer: https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/...

The hold-back feature is so extremely out of touch with reality

"There seems to be something wrong with your request, try reloading this page"

Good luck getting this ad infinitum you are on an environment that Google doesn't approve.

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

#396

I hate to say it, but if you used Chrome to read this, then you're part of the problem. Awful stuff like this wouldn't stand a chance if Google didn't have such a near-monopoly position. For the sake of the open internet, please switch to a different browser. IMO, Firefox is best*, but even something chromium based is probably fine. Just not Google Chrome. * On desktop - Firefox is a bit weaker on Android, with an ex…

I would love to use Firefox, if it wasn't so persistently such an utterly slow piece of shit if you open more than a few tabs or use it much. Across every laptop I've ever owned and across every version of FF I've ever used, this has been the case despite all promises. So unless i'm haunted by some magical digital browser curse, Chrome at least performs rapidly, even for a tab hoarder like me. I barely use anything b…

This has never been the case for me at all. I write this comment in Chrome because I have it for testing and specific purposes, but I believe CPU and memory utilization advantages of Chromium always have been a myth for the most part. And I am someone that holds a lot of tabs open without rebooting my work machine for days or months.

Browsers are still memory hogs, but at some point you have to decide if you want speed or low memory usage. Fast reaction time or nicely rendered pictures. On a decent machine, not even a fast one, there is no difference. That said, I despise notebooks and usually use towers.

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

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would accept ads more easily with if they were not a privacy disaster. I’m watching a video about cars, sure show me the ad about this crappy car brand I will never buy. I’m reading an article about Prometheus, sure show me an ad about your greatest SaaS metrics platform that cost more per monitored machine than my machine. No needs for cookies and tracking.

>I would accept ads more easily with if they were not a privacy disaster. Would you really? I mean I keep hearing this but it doesn't ring true to me. People don't like ads in content because it interrupts what they are trying to consume and tries to leverage them away. This seems like a far greater motive to install an ad-blocker than some hand wavy tracking that probably doesn't even work that well.

I agree that I may not represent the average persona very well.

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

#398
post #206

I hate to say it, but if you used Chrome to read this, then you're part of the problem. Awful stuff like this wouldn't stand a chance if Google didn't have such a near-monopoly position. For the sake of the open internet, please switch to a different browser. IMO, Firefox is best*, but even something chromium based is probably fine. Just not Google Chrome. * On desktop - Firefox is a bit weaker on Android, with an ex…

If you're using Apple products, your first preference should be Safari. I use that all the time, it's faster, leaner and syncs tabs/history/bookmarks greatly between different Apple devices.

I use Apple devices for work, but a combination of Windows, Linux, and Android for personal use, and I like that Firefox can sync between all of them.

I will concede that if you're all-in on Apple, then Safari is certainly more convenient. It's also more power efficient on macOS, so if I know I'm going to be on battery all day, I may switch to Safari for the day.

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

#399

I hate to say it, but if you used Chrome to read this, then you're part of the problem. Awful stuff like this wouldn't stand a chance if Google didn't have such a near-monopoly position. For the sake of the open internet, please switch to a different browser. IMO, Firefox is best*, but even something chromium based is probably fine. Just not Google Chrome. * On desktop - Firefox is a bit weaker on Android, with an ex…

I would love to use Firefox, if it wasn't so persistently such an utterly slow piece of shit if you open more than a few tabs or use it much. Across every laptop I've ever owned and across every version of FF I've ever used, this has been the case despite all promises. So unless i'm haunted by some magical digital browser curse, Chrome at least performs rapidly, even for a tab hoarder like me. I barely use anything b…

Microsoft's Defender was, until recently, drastically slowing down Firefox on many configurations.

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

#400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not Firefox?

A few reasons: 1. Native integration across devices: Safari integrates seamlessly with Apple's ecosystem due to proprietary features like iCloud, Handoff, and universal clipboard, allowing for a consistent user experience across all Apple devices, with seamless transition among them to stay in your flow across devices. 2. iCloud Private Relay: This is a recent security tool from Apple and participating CDNs that encr…

All but #4 make sense.

Apple has a pretty terrible record on security given the Pegasus spyware and 0 clicks. Although most are related to iMessage and hardware exploits.

I still have a hard time believing the Privacy stuff since PRISM and Apple's openness to give data to China and Russia. But if you believe them, don't mind the government's access, and don't want to use other software, I can see where you are coming from.

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