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uBlock Origin is no longer available on the Chrome Store

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Re: uBlock Origin is no longer available on the Chrome Store

#121
post #4

Nobody could have possibly seen it coming that Google would abuse its market position to their own benefit... I migrated off Chrome as soon as this BS story about improving privacy, a joke coming from Google. Then the excuse was "well it improves performance", which they could easily do by marking extensions as low performance. If Google wanted to improve this they have an entire search engine where they could re-ran…

They had the market position and option to do that for years now. "Told you so" whenever a patterns matches, and ignoring the times when it does not instead of providing a good model that encompasses both, is a fairly lame way to reason about the world.

The position is always, Google's position is so strong they can do whatever they want even if it isn't beneficial to users, this confirms that. I'm not sure the "they could have abused this sooner" defense is a good one.

Re: uBlock Origin is no longer available on the Chrome Store

#122
post #4

Nobody could have possibly seen it coming that Google would abuse its market position to their own benefit... I migrated off Chrome as soon as this BS story about improving privacy, a joke coming from Google. Then the excuse was "well it improves performance", which they could easily do by marking extensions as low performance. If Google wanted to improve this they have an entire search engine where they could re-ran…

"Where there's a will, there's a way."

Re: uBlock Origin is no longer available on the Chrome Store

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why Mozilla are getting desperate to diversify their revenue.

Mozilla diversifies by increasing the CEO's salary for nothing. Wiki: In 2020, after returning to the position of CEO, Baker's salary was more than $3 million. In 2021, her salary rose again to more than $5 million, and again to nearly $7 million in 2022. The new CEO brings computing for AI money bleed that almost no one wants.

I don't agree with Mozilla paying that huge CEO salary, but…

Do you know Firefox's handy new offline translation feature? That's AI a well. And Firefox is the only browser that doesn't leak your web page when translating it.

There are plenty of other uses for AI, such as describing images without alt-text for the blind, or summarization. I, for one, want AI in my browser, you can't really say that “nobody wants it”, when many people clearly do.

Re: uBlock Origin is no longer available on the Chrome Store

#124
After 10+ years as a primary browser, I've been 100% off of Chrome for about 1.5 years now as part of a broader effort to de-Google my life, and things have been going well.

It's interesting to notice how much my internal feelings have shifted over the years. There have been a few rare occasions where I had to use a Chromium-based browser, and I felt the same "ick" I used to feel when forced to use Internet Explorer for some reason.

Come to the Firefox (and variant) side. The water is warm.

Re: uBlock Origin is no longer available on the Chrome Store

#125
post #51

I hear so many people IRL complaining about this. I tell them to switch to firefox, that the adblockers still work there, and they still won't switch to it because they are "used to chrome". I really feel like google won this battle. People will through a lot of abuse just to maintain their habits.

I use Firefox as my main browser and it's not a viable alternative to Chrome if you have the very common usage pattern of keeping tens of tabs open.

[deleted]

Re: uBlock Origin is no longer available on the Chrome Store

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% agree with you. Unfortunately Chrome is damn near a requirement if you are interacting with the Google Cloud console. Try to use BigQuery studio in any other browser and you are in for a world of hurt. Have we seen this movie before?

I use BigQuery studio often in Firefox and haven’t noticed anything being worse than Chrome. What problems do you see?

I use it all the time on multiple platforms and it is a DOG on anything but Chrome/Chromium. We have 30+ datasets each with many tables/views/functions etc tho so that could be part of the issue.

Same thing will happen in the billing portal or really any experience but I notice it the most in BQ.

Re: uBlock Origin is no longer available on the Chrome Store

#127
post #91
post #4

Nobody could have possibly seen it coming that Google would abuse its market position to their own benefit... I migrated off Chrome as soon as this BS story about improving privacy, a joke coming from Google. Then the excuse was "well it improves performance", which they could easily do by marking extensions as low performance. If Google wanted to improve this they have an entire search engine where they could re-ran…

The issue I have is not that they did it; it’s that they lied about why. Chrome is their project, they should be free to do whatever they want with it. People can use a different browser if they wish (I do). This whole “better for users” bullshit is why I don’t respect Google as a company. Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining.

And I don't understand what is the benefit of lying as well - everyone on the internet knows what this is about, at least if they used ad blockers. A lot of people don't, but they will not be affected anyway.

Re: uBlock Origin is no longer available on the Chrome Store

#130

Is there any justification for this beyond increasing Google's ad revenue?

Funny thing is: It’s to prepare for when Chrome is spun off from Google, due to increasing US government pressure.

See: https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/08/new-doj-proposal-still-cal...

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