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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

#271
post #50

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

> I’m not sure my personal repository is the best place to do that - we are looking for a better forum and will update when we have found one.

I'm curious what "better forum," if any, Google will actually engage with on this matter. I too wouldn't this sort of overwhelming reaction to happen in a personal repository. But the conversation needs to happen somewhere!

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

#272

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…

Fascists code too!

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

#274
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, I use Firefox everywhere. But we must not forget the following: In 2011 Mozilla income was 85% derrived from Google, through the primary search engine deal. Around a billion was paid over three years as part of this deal at some point. Appearantly there was bidding by Microsoft for making Bing the default, which pushed up the pricing. So every time Mozilla speaks out against Google, it is a bit awkward, sinc…

Mozilla should really double down on Mozilla VPN. Judging by all the NordVPN ads on every major youtuber's video, the profit margins must be astronomical (or their business model must be suspicious). It should provide a good income stream for Mozilla. The entire space is shady and filled with dubious actors. It is just begging to be disrupted by a trustworthy organization. I can't think of a single candidate other th…

Don't Mozilla just resell Mulvad?

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

#275
I wonder how future historians are going to look back at this. The vast majority of people letting themselves be forced into wasting a portion of their lives on adds make me pessimistic for the survival of this race. Might seem like hyperbole, but I'm not talking about ads anymore, I'm talking about submissiveness.

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

#276

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…

> Make browsing the internet possible only on Chrome, Safari or Edge (with no modifications or extensions). No competition allowed in browsers

Forgive my stupidity, but isn't this only going to be the case for websites that will opt into the use of this api? Currently, websites can already do user agent sniffing, or hide their content behind a login wall; but we are not complaining that this is the end of the web. Or are we?

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

#277

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…

Ok but have you considered that making people watch ads to use an optional service is not a war crime

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

#278
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Firefox is owned by Google You're gonna have to explain why you think this, because publicly, Firefox is owned by Mozilla which is not owned by Google in any way. But maybe you know something the rest of us don't?

> Firefox is owned by Mozilla which is not owned by Google in any way. Who owns Mozilla? Put another way, if Google stops funding Mozilla, will it still exist? The only reason Firefox exists is because Google wants something they can point to in court and say "look! we're not a monopoly!"

> The only reason Firefox exists is because Google wants something they can point to in court and say "look! we're not a monopoly!"

A competitor that survives at the charity of a monopoly is evidence of a monopoly, not evidence of the opposite. A court might see a non-profit that is directly dependent on Google for ongoing operating cash very differently that how it saw Gates' one-time personal investment in Apple.

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

#279

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…

Respect!

from random internet nobody...

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

#280

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.

As an example, Can you recommend a good tech/hacker video channel that is available somewhere else other than Youtube?

Do Channels on Nebula count? Since Nebula is paid only, ads free and creator owned (as far as I understand), it might be the one prime example of a video platform not incentivized to restrict access to only consumers using proprietary, big tech OSes.
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