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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

#381
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be a good thing. If Firefox is funded by donations, rather than by Google, it ensures there is no enshittification in the future. And yes, donations can fund a big project, as evidenced by Thunderbird and Ladybird.

Nobody uses Ladybird, at this point it's vaporware. And Thunderbird is still based on Firefox. The development of Firefox costs around $200 million per year. That's more than what Wikimedia can get from donations, and Wikipedia is a website that everyone uses. And you want to rely on donations from people that ad-block YouTube instead of paying for Premium. And let's say that it manages to bring those costs down to $…

If it costs $200 million a year to develop Firefox, then their management team is guilty of gross incompetence.

I am betting this is really paying for the crappy side projects and HUGE pay for the Mozilla Foundation people (just like all the BS spending the Wikimedia foundation does) and has nothing to do with Firefox itself.

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

#382
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.

What's in Chrome that they are so used to? I use Vivaldi, Chrome, Firefox on every day basis, and can barely see a difference.

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

#383
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been telling my IRL non-technical friends to use Brave. By far the easiest migration path, literally is Chrome, but with with a good built-in ad blocker and uBlock Origin. I've long since understood that any browser that I would use should be treated as an anti-recommendation for normal folks. I can already see the "but the crypto thing" and yeah, I don't love it but it's so out of the way that I don't even know…

> But in two days I have 4 new Brave users. What happens when adtech decides this is a problem because the hoi polloi have arrived? Have you thought about that as you're cluing in normies?

My only motivation is to help my friends who got the "uBlock Origin is no longer supported" notification get their ad blocking back in a way that sticks. To me that's the most important thing. Any what ifs about the future can be addressed then.

The browser that is a literal drop-in replacement is the best way to do this. I think it's cool that other browsers are trying new things but now isn't the time. People have to be be in a place where they want something different in order to accept change. All of them got the notification while trying to something else and "install Brave, import, move Brave to where the Chrome icon used to be, and continue with what you were doing" is alarmingly effective.

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

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, I'll retract my remarks when the new formation of the FTC actually goes after a tech giant. And frankly, I have doubt any DOJ filings of this type won't get repealed by force from above in short order. This is a case that was mostly handled by the prior DOJ, which is gone now, replaced by new management.

> replaced by new management. New management is aligned with breaking up big tech. Founders Fund (Thiel), A16Z (Andressen [0], Horowitz), and YC (Gary Tan) have all been lobbying for some form of big tech breakup because it sucks up capital+oxygen needed for startups they funded to exit at respectable valuations. Also, Andressen's Netscape was screwed over by Microsoft, so he has a grudge against large players. [0] -…

Breaking up big tech would oxygenate the entire tech sector.

Startups would be able to grow larger. There would be less threat from big tech coming in to eat your market, and M&A wouldn't be the preferred exit strategy.

Tech talent would be able to get paid more without big tech setting wages and orchestrating coordinated layoffs. More successful startups = more money for venture and labor capital. Right now that money just goes to institutional shareholders which are not the innovation drivers of the economy.

Startups will actually get to compete for markets rather than having them won and subsidized by unrelated business units at the big tech titans. The solutions delivered will fit the market needs much better.

Even big tech itself might fetch a higher valuation and be greater than the sum of its parts. So much of big tech is inefficient, untethered from market realities (eg. Alexa), and a waste of talent and human capital on dead end projects. Having Jeff Bezos "pay whatever it takes" to acquire the rights to "007" is a sign of how bloated these market distorting companies have become.

This needs to happen and is long overdue.

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

#385

Abandoned Chrome years ago. Am using Firefox and never looked back. Same with other Google products: Replaced Gmail with Fastmail, Google Docs with Office365 (yeah, I know, Microsoft).

The hardest thing to replace was always search to me, because the usually alternatives (DuckDuckGo, Ecosia etc) always suck. But Kagi made that part so easy it's unbelievable.

Wow, Kagi is just extremely good. Found old friends I couldn’t reach, found product infos where Google would pollute me with ads and garbage. This is awesome. Thanks for mentioning.

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

#386
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This conspiracy theory doesn't make sense because safari's content blockers (ie. the nerfed version of adblock) block most ads just fine, especially from google ads. The only ads that get through are first party ads (eg. youtube), but as of a few years ago adblockers could block those as well, so it's a moot point.

Safari content blockers are not enabled in embedded Web Views.

Neither is uBlock Origin.

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

#387

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.

What's the news on them getting into AI?

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

#388
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…

It's funny how this behavior resembles the Chinese Party.

The CCP is much better organized with its “Do nothing. Win.” strategy. If Trump did nothing as well as they do, America would still be a superpower.

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

#389

I hope Mozilla realizes (and still cares) that they have a huge opportunity here to be the power-browser where you can get awesome extensions, unlike the locked-down and hobbled Chromium ecosystem. I suspect they do realize this because they've been really leaning into extensions recently, but over the years I've worried that Mozilla's committment to Firefox isn't as serious as I would like. Regardless, I'd love to s…

I hope Mozilla realizes (and still cares) that they have a huge opportunity here to be the power-browser where you can get awesome extensions

Don't worry, they won't. They have more important endeavors like funding some new bullshit virtue signalling campaign and paying huge CEO bonuses.

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

#390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still install uBlock Origin in Brave, assuming you don't mind the crypto stuff and how they pay it out (or, rather don't) to site owners. Even Firefox feels a little weird now with the advent of Mozilla Advertising. Very much a lesser of all evils situation.

> install uBlock Origin in Brave There's no need to do it, their built-in adblocker supports the same rule lists. https://github.com/brave/adblock-rust

But does it support blocking JavaScript, large media elements, social widgets, and fonts?
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