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Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

bugs.chromium.org

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Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#231

Post by AaronFriel »

Another reason why it was an enormous mistake for Microsoft to adopt Chromium as the engine.

Now Microsoft has a choice for Edge:

A. Fork here and pay the maintenance price and extension compat issues, with potentially unlimited downside of technical debt in reconciling the two.

B. Adopt these changes and kill ad blocking in Edge, preventing them from differentiating themselves from Chrome and reinforcing Google's position as an advertising giant.

Both are bad. What would have been less bad is if Microsoft switched Edge to say, Gecko, or maintained EdgeHTML and continued to support a multi-platform, multi-implementation web.

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#232

Post by IdiocyInAction »

kevindqc wrote: post #98
LeoPanthera wrote: post #40

I don't understand the technical details of this - could someone explain it to an idiot? - Is the change specifically to block ad blockers, or uBlock specifically? Or is it just a new extension API? - Could ad blockers adapt to the new version to work again? I am reminded of the new version of (Mac) Safari, which features a new extensions API. It took a while for them to appear but there are now good ad blocking exte…

From what I understand, there are currently events which gave you the ability to inspect, and also cancel a request if you want. This allows you to do things like cancel a request if it's trying to download a big video file. But Google wants to remove the ability to cancel a request through the events, and they want to replace that with declarativeNetRequest[1]. If you look at the link, in the Rules section, it seems…

Given Google's core business, I don't think it's irrational to assume that this might target ad blockers.

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#233

Post by scrollaway »

iaw wrote: post #220
scrollaway wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've explained the logic in the post you're replying to. I'll rephrase it: There is no evidence the change is being made with the intent of getting rid of adblockers; it is so far only a side-effect. We should demand such evidence before implying that this is the intended outcome. If such is the goal, have at it with the headlines. They write themselves. "Advertising Giant Google Forcefully Breaks Ad-blockers in Chro…

> There is no evidence the change is being made with the intent of getting rid of adblockers So far there is only one rationale that could describe the motivation to make this change. Can you propose another possible motive? I am personally struggling.

My understanding of the changes is that they make sense for most extensions, but gorhill's addons are being negatively impacted by them because of the way they were implemented. You'll note it's still possible to implement content blocking in the new system.

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#234

Post by sergiosgc »

mark-r wrote: post #196
lettergram wrote: post #8

Well, highly recommend Firefox. Works great after the updates last year and even use it on mobile. It bothers me that iOS doesn’t support addons to Firefox mobile. But on Android you can even install ublock origin

There's still a feature of Chrome that keeps me from switching - Chrome will show a lot more tabs open. I tend to leave a lot of inactive tabs to come back to later, but that means I need to see them all.

Install Tree Style Tab on Firefox. Moves tabs to a tree on the left. You can see a lot more, and better organized too. In the era of landscape screens, I think it's a must.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta...

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#236

Post by thecrumb »

sixothree wrote: post #33
metalliqaz wrote: post #4

Another reason to be glad that Firefox is still standing.

I really just don't understand the obsession with Chrome, especially in hacker communities. Sorry Google, I feel "icky & gross" when I use you.

Icky, gross and violated.

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#237

Post by moosingin3space »

Memosyne wrote: post #96
sixothree wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really just don't understand the obsession with Chrome, especially in hacker communities. Sorry Google, I feel "icky & gross" when I use you.

I use Chromium on linux because Firefox doesn't have touch-screen support and smooth-scrolling feels a little rough. I wont hesitate to switch over if these changes are made though.

I find the touchscreen support to be pretty good with Fedora's patches running on Wayland. I think these patches are slated for upstreaming, so get excited!

Disclaimer: I contribute to Firefox and enjoy it quite a bit.

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#238

Post by ohithereyou »

dominotw wrote: post #229
darkpuma wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's tempting to fall into the trap of feeling smug that you've made the right decision so no action should be taken against a company abusing their market position in a manner that's harmful to the public. Try to resist that temptation, like I have. I too have been using Firefox this entire time, but I don't let that tempt me into apathy towards the state of the industry. You may as well question the purpose of the…

> harmful to the public. How do you measure this? Does the public include content creators who rely on ads for their livelihood?

Won't someone think of the buggy-whip makers!

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#239

Post by unethical_ban »

criddell wrote: post #189
QML wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox just doesn’t have enough advantages yet that would convince someone comfortable with Chrome to switch over. While privacy is an ever growing concern, it isn’t a strong enough feature for most people.

Plus Chrome just works better for a lot of sites. That might be because the site isn't properly coded, but users don't care. They just want something that works and more often than not, that's Chrome. My main browser is Firefox, but I have to switch over to Chrome more often than I would like. Electron is also based on Chromium, isn't it? IMHO, the rise of Electron just reinforces Chromium's status and I think Micros…

What sites?

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#240

Post by kauffj »

darkpuma wrote: post #26

So we have a browser with nearly 70% market share, made by an advertising company that's arguably the most powerful business on the internet, interfering with ad blocking. And of course there is no regulatory body that is able or willing to step in. Great.

Indeed it is! We have a wonderful mechanism that handles this situation: a free market.

We've already seen far greater market share from a browser. That browser lost it's market share when it stopped serving consumers. It lost it so thoroughly that decades and billions later it still can't recoup it.

Why would you want the government to hurt Firefox and the other competitors who would be happy to compete with Google on this front?

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