uBlock Origin is no longer available in the Chrome store
uBlock Origin is no longer available in the Chrome store
Glad I don't use chrome anymore. Though unfortunately everyone else I know still does.
Webserial is only reason I see to install Chrome. For everything else Firefox works great.
This is probably the single thing that got me to switch to Firefox. Privacy whatever, I don’t care about my data or the morality of my tech company or whatever, but mess with my adblocker and goodbye.
I’m mostly in the same boat. If you really want to know my kink-search-history, I really DGAF. The morality is nice to think about but it’s all about your personal morals in a lot of cases.
firefox is going through thier own enshittifcation down the line, they changed ther policy about data recently
They changed the phrasing, since in some jurisdictions "sharing anonymized data with partners" can apparently be interpreted as a sale of data, if they get something in return, even if it's not a fiscal payment.
But after the outrage that sparked, they've rephrased the policy again and wrote a lengthy article detailing the reasoning, which is at the very least plausible.
I’ll care when Firefox loses ManifestV2 support.
I read about this too, and it worries me. Google has donated over a billion dollars to Mozilla over the years. That alone doesn't scare me so much as it's a blatant propaganda tool to deflect the antitrust sentiment that plagues them and will probably some day do its work of breaking them apart.
Fortunately, there are numerous open source forks. I am currently using Librewolf, a fork of firefox focused on privacy and anti-tracking, and it has worked without a hitch. A couple of my extensions have required fiddling with to get right but it's part of life if you care about these things.
I swapped to Chrome years ago because YouTube stopped working right on Firefox.
I've started the process of swapping back to Firefox after 10 years with Chrome over this.
Ironically YouTube seems to work better for me in firefox, although the issue in chrome may be caused by browser extensions
never had a problem with firefox and youtube
I know what he's talking about- there was some javascript spec or something that google proposed, and nobody else bought in, so it never actually became part of javascript's standard.
But google implemented it into chrome's javascript engine anyway, and then used it for youtube. There was some fallback code if the new functions weren't available, but, because of a 'mistake' they didn't work and basically made playback ass for a while until the open source community basically debugged and fixed the issue FOR google, and then spent a few weeks cramming it down google's throat that it needed fixed.
It probably didn't have anything to do with Firefox itself. It's likely related to something I messed up in FF or it was something to do with the ancient laptop I had at the time being a junk heap, but I tried Chrome and noticed that the trouble didn't exist there. So I started using Chrome.
I kept using it because of all the google integration, which was really handy when I was using the google business suite to run my own small business. I shut that down two years ago now, so there's nothing really keeping me on Chrome any more.
I swapped back to FF a few days ago and YouTube works fine now. So I'm back on the FF train and giving Google the finger the whole way over banning the adblockers that I liked.
There were a few extensions you could run in firefox that told youtube that it was totally for reals being accessed by a chrome browser.
Boy, that would have been good to know back in 2015, I feel like I let Google hoodwink me into using Chrome for all that time.
if ads were normal and unobtrusive. We wouldn't need ad blockers. Instead we get an almost unusable internet where ads take up more and more real estate. I had been running an ad blocker for so many years that when a friend (who doesn't use an ad blocker) showed me a website, the unfiltered experience was horrifying.
Instead we get an almost unusable internet where ads take up more and more real estate.
Its even worse than just hurting usability. Lots of ad networks are not policing their advertising customers and malicious payloads have been injected from ads. So allowing ads is a security risk because of the lack of security at the various ad networks.
It's even worse when you consider the entire point of advertising is to deliver a targeted payload at a very specific demographic. So you can target IT folks of a specific company, etc.
I was about to comment something similar but you said it before I did. Sometimes I'll mistakenly open YouTube with Chrome and then I realize I messed up because I have to sit through three, sometimes one-minute long ads just to watch a twenty second video. I'll typically just nope out and switch to Firefox. The worst thing is they're unskippable and I swear for some of them the ad actually pauses if you switch to another tab or browser. I'm getting ads even on super old videos so I'm pretty sure it isn't all to do with the channels themselves monetizing their videos.
3 one minute long adds are better than those 2 hour long prageru racist propaganda videos trying to masquerade as "Educational" content
I went to help out a friend, a few years ago, he runs vanilla Edge, I can't believe anyone actually uses the internet like that.
uBO is not just an ad blocker, its almost a firewall against malware and a tracking filter
Im old enough to remember the internet before ads, and with ads became a thing and you had to make sure to keep your speakers low/off all the time less some screaming loud ad popped up somewhere to burst your eardrums at 2am.
There were so many obnoxious, visual cancer ads.
Then they became actual digital cancer by being injection points for viruses and malware, and thus adblockers became a necessity.
And they remain a necessity to this day, for the same reason as they were 20+ years ago.
and yet the ad servers want to blame the end user for adblocking.
not their absolute refusal to moderate or police any of the content they deliver.
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU WON!!!
I'd be okay with sites showing me unintrusive non targeted ads, but since it's all or nothing I choose nothing.
Chrome hasn't been my main browser in a while but I kept it as a backup and because Firefox doesn't support PWAs and I didn't want to mess with the extension. Turns out, the extension only takes about 3 minutes to get set up and now Chrome has been uninstalled. And on a random Tuesday, who knew?
I'm browsing via FF (fork) + Android + PWA right now. No extensions. ?
I don't use the fork (I'm still learning what that even means). I mostly use PWAs on my desktop and my understanding is that regular FF doesn't have native support for PWAs so you have to use an extension plus a couple other things to make it work.
It seems fine on android though, but the "app" really just opens the URL in the browser, it's not like how Chrome was. NBD though.
Chrome is no longer available on my computer.
Never has been 🔫 (at least for a couple of years)
I only use chrome for my work stuff, and that's because I work with g-suite a lot.
Chrome fucking sucks
Not surprising, Google is an ad company at this point.
It never was anything else
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ublock-origin-lite/ddkjiahejlhfcafbddmgiahcphecmpfh
Doesn't cover 100% of what uBO did, but it still works just as good IMO with DNS based ad-blocking on top.
And that is why I went to Firefox once Google announced this bullshit.
Swapping is pretty painless. It even brings over all your passwords and stuff these days. Best get to swapping before Google disable that as well. They'd just love to keep you hostage.
Use a third party password manager, don’t rely on browser default ones
Some suggestions:
- Bitwarden (US based but with EU hosting, free tier, open source)
- proton-pass (Swiss based with free tier)
- Keepass (open source system, free “self-hosted” through cloud saves)
- 1pass (Us based, paid tiers only)
- Lastpass (US based, free tier. Lots of breaches in the past so I can’t recommend)
I take this as a sign that it genuinely still works to block ads and hasn’t sold out and become malware like those others that used to be popular.
It was removed because Google did away with manifest v2 for browser extensions, and uBlock Origin worked almost entirely from a feature provided in manifest v2. So it was removed because it can no longer work on chromium devices, unless the browser manually adds back in support for it. Firefox has chosen to continue to support manifest v2, so the original uBlock origin is still available. uBlock lite is still available in the chrome store, and uses the new manifest v3. It is more limited in it's capability, but should be able to get the most obtrusive stuff. The lite version is definitely not nearly as powerful as the original.
On a side note, it seems to me like the link still works for now. Idk how much longer that will last.
I stayed away from Chrome alternatives, as it had the best Canvas/HTML5 performance (Which oddly enough, was quite important for most of my browsing needs). However, this news means I will have to switch. Installed Firefox for my primary browsing needs, and a few Chromium-based ones to try out for specifically the aforementioned use case.
That’s fine. Google can go fuck themselves
Chrome is no longer available in my Start menu.
Yeah, I switched to Firefox when this whole Manifest V3 thing was announced, I only still have Chrome installed because it's better for PDFs than Firefox and once in a great while i run into a site that doesn't work right on Firefox.
Been a loooong time
Or in my app drawer
or in ~/.local/share/applications
the what store now
Yeah, I heard someone say a week or so ago that they straight disabled it in the browser, and now only the gimped version that works with Manifest V3 works now. Thankfully I switched to Firefox when all this Manifest V3 stuff was announced. As far as I know it's the only browser out there that isn't based on Chromium (which Google also controls, so browsers like Brave will likely be affected by this soon as well, unless a bunch of those smaller browsers get together and fork Chromium and maintain it themselves, which I'm not very hopeful about) and so doesn't have to worry about these shenanigans.
Safari had its own web engine, WebKit, which chromium’s web engine, blink, is actually a fork of.
Opera Used to have it’s own web engine, presto, but they rebased to blink in 2013.
But yah, your options these days for the basis of your browser are basically WebKit(Apple), Gecko(Mozilla) and Blink(Google).
Brave and Vivaldi are chromium based but have adblocking built in rather than relying on an extension. So while they will eventually be impacted on extension support, the built in adblocking (which is quite robust) won't be affected.
I've been on Firefox since I left Internet Explorer many years ago. But, recently, I switched to LibreWolf, and I've been checking out Pale Moon. Pale Moon is close to doing everything I want, but not quite there.
Have never used Chrome. Firefox is very good. I had 5-6 years when I preferred Opera, but since 2014, I've been using Firefox exclusively.
looks like you dropped opera about the same time it rebased to blink (chromium) from their own web engine, presto.
Didn't consider chrome before and still wont
They hate us
It is 100000% a reason to split Chrome and the ad sales part of Google into different companies.
It won't solve the problem but the pressures end up being orders of magnitude different.
Frankly they should probably split off the ad side from everything else.
Always have
🎵So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye.🎵
Google is not an IT company. It’s an advertising company. Surprised Pikachu, it blocks ad blockers.
It's been an ad company for a long time, though, and blocking ad blockers is new.
Because they are at the end of their growth phase and have entered their squeeze until dead phase.
Yes, but enshittification doesn't happen all at once. And this is a textbook example of the actual meaning of enshittification.
It’s funny how things work out. I had a Chromebook that couldn’t have Firefox installed. I heard that Chrome would remove ubo, my Chromebook died the following month. So I got a cheap laptop instead. The problem solved itself.
Recently switched to Waterfox from Firefox and loving it. Much faster than the latter and I can use all of my add ons.
Haven't used Chrome in years so they can suck it.
Vivaldi's built in adblocker still works fine.
Yeah, I'm using Vivaldi too and getting concerned about UBO's lifespan...
I also have pfBlockerNG running in my firewall, which blocks a load too, but not looking forwards to the future...
laughs in Firefox
Cries in only Chrome and Edge at work 😢
If you had uBlock origin already, you may have gotten a message through Chrome that it was no longer supported, so it's been disabled, and gives you the option to remove it. I noticed you don't have to remove it, and it can be re-enabled. However, I need someone smarter with adblockers than I to say if this is actually helpful and not hazardous.
I would have run already.
I just downloaded the Kagi Orion browser and I can install extensions from both Chrome and Firefox web stores!
Nice!
Is there any firefox based browser on android where I can have easy gestures for the arrow buttons? All the firefox versions I can find require me to do this in two clicks which for the way I browse is a pain in the arse. Can I fix this somehow?
Unknown, i can use gestures on my phone which work in Firefox. Maybe it's is a phone problem.
I haven't tried it, but Iceraven has a lot of extensions available compared to Firefox. Maybe there is one to do exactly what you need?
I noticed they recently marked it deprecated or unsupported (i forget the wording) and tried to get me to remove it. I think it was even disabled automatically. I kinda saw this coming.
But ublock origin lite is by the same dev.. Not as many features but it conforms to the new rules and is still much better than not having a blocker if you use chrome or edge.
Missing critical features:
Filter lists only update with the extension, you cannot update them dynamically
No making your own filters and thus no element picker for blocking annoyances on a webpage (a feature so good apple literally baked it into safari)
No support for external lists (which means if you back up your own filters into a list you cannot easily reimport)
No changing behavior on a per site basis
A number of other features as well that are more strictly power user features but still really handy like dynamic filtering and strict blocking domains.
If you have the option stop using chrome and edge, they are some of the worst options you could choose. Even outside of adblock and manifest v3 chrome is horrendous for data harvesting bullshit and edge isn’t great. If you don’t have the option because of an overzealous it dept or whatever and are forced to use it ubo lite is your best option probably and my heart goes out to you
The best option here is to just tank Chrome's market share instead of making something that's obviously not ideal, work.
Or just use Firefox
My work uses a web-based interface that's very annoying to use on Firefox. I'm unfortunately tied to Chrome in the meantime, so uBlock lite is a lifesaver.
I have used firefox from like 2005 to 2024. I am now using brave and I am quite happy with it. I just disabled all this useless cryptobro crap that it comes with. I tried most of the chromium based browsers and this is by far the one that better fits my needs. It has an adblocker that works well, it has a sync option that is not on google servers and supposedly they dont have that insane telemetry that chrome has. And yes an adblocker is tottally needed and will probably be allways needed. I do run a network adblocker with pihole and nextDNS. I haven't seen a single add in years and do not miss them at all. I rather ahve a half broken page than some random website trying to sell me satisfiers and blue pills.
Correct me if I'm wrong but extensions can still be installed manually correct?
Manifest v2 extensions won't work, the API it needs will be gone soon
Also since 2015, Google has made it VERY hard to install extensions without the web store. This extends to most chrome derivatives as well.
There are workarounds if you use ungoogled-chromium (Method 2 should work with normal chrome as well).
The functionality to run those extensions has been removed, so manual install won't work.
- Chrome is no longer available in my phone, computer,...
Never was.
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm
Still shows up for me
There's a way to save your already-installed extension, in "Manage Extensions..." Enable dev mode, then Pack Extension.
However the browser will probably just refuse to run it soon.
Vivaldi, for what it's worth, seems to still run uBlock Origin just fine. I am afraid to uninstall it now to test if it'll re-install properly.
My version: 7.1.3570.39 (Stable channel) (64-bit)
Might be time to finally move to Firefox though, if Vivaldi doesn't keep Manifest V2 support.
I really hope some team has been following the changes in Chrome/Chromium by Google to remove Manifest v2, and has been keeping a patchset that will undo the damage? Time to make a hard fork and get some funding to try to keep it going?
Multiple browsers have said they will keep support while the code is still there (in Chromium it's still there, only disabled for now).
When it is removed from Chromium, it's probably going to disappear for most or all major Chromium browsers.
i expect at least the 'big' 'non megacorp' chromium based ones like vivaldi, opera, brave to keep mv2 as long as it is possible.
but i can totally see google doing some serious mangling of the codebase to make patching-in mv2 difficult.
Are you sure? In Brave browser it's all nice and dandy.
Going to guess that’s based on your region rather than your browser
i was able to load it in a (not chrome) chromium-based browser without issue, just the notice across the addon's page.
the 'lite' version is also on there, seems to work 'ok'. adguard and a few others are also there--they must all be mv3, as only the full ubo has the warning notice on its page of those i checked.
all the mv3 ones run the risk of having updates rejected or delayed by google, especially if they contain code or filter updates (filters must be packed with the addon in mv3) to combat changes google makes to their own sites. firefox or a trusted customized build or maintained fork is the way to go now.
Switch to vivaldi
switch to firefox (or a fork of firefox like librewolf).
vivaldi just uses chrome's web store (there's a discussion on the forums to build their own extension store but no movement yet: https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/91160/vivaldi-s-own-extension-store/20)
Does Vivaldi not just use the Chrome store for extensions? Also, aren't they losing manifest V2 as soon as it's dropped from Chromium in a few more months?
Not sure how Vivaldi uses extensions since you cannot add new ones from the chrome store, but if that happens we're gonna need to go to Firefox eventually. I currently love Vivaldi due to simplicity and the swipe up to open tabs page. Wish more browsers integrated that or just better & fluid animations
Also highly recommend waterfox if you still want the chrome aesthetic.
Any Chromium-based browser will be in the same boat sooner or later. None of them have the resources to continue to support v2 long-term, or to support their own extension stores.
At this point the only viable alternative is Firefox and its dirivatives.
I'm trying. I'm trying so hard. But it keeps pissing me off because I have to dig through settings to undo changes they made to browser features that are standard across both Firefox and Chrome. It's free and I'm not tryig to sound entitled but almost every single change they made to Chromium aside from the privacy stuff has me going WHYYYYYY?
The way they handle open in new tab, tlds like
.internal, and ctrl+click to complete urls were the worst offenders off the top of my head.Plus their ad blocker doesn't even come close to uBlock Lite.
I just want v8 in a hardened vanilla Firefox wrapper that doesn't go to the extremes that LibreWolf goes) :(
I'm shocked, really
Probably not a popular choice, but my VPN comes with an ad blocker which works great.
I'm still using Nord VPN as I got an insane deal a few years ago. Now it has something called Threat Protection which blocks all ads whether on my desktop browsers or on mobile.
✨Edit to add: Yeah down vote me. Nord was a blackfriday deal from 3 years ago. Much has changed since then.
I travel full time and I'm now in the market for a new VPN provider. I don't have my own router.. I don't even have a home.
Instead of just down voting, perhaps come with some constructive ideas or suggestions, thank you! ✨
You can just use a free adblocking DNS for that.
A browser adblocker is better for a few tricky ads.
Ima be honest. I don’t run ad blockers. The way I see it, if I’m consuming content from a given source and that source invested time and/or money into said content then they deserve to be compensated for it. I am not willing to pay a subscription for every website out there, so ads are an acceptable compromise.
I legitimately don't understand how people tolerate using the internet without an adblocker just from a usability standpoint.
Some pages are fine but frequently wandering to new pages on the internet is an experience in frustration.
I use an adblocker. I wouldn't click on an ad even if I could see it.
I agree with you in principle but in practice way too many sites are doing ads in bullshit ways. If they were just along a sidebar or at the top/bottom of the page I'd have no issue but usually they affect the actual usability of the site and I'm not dealing with that. If they want to expose me to ads they need to make it not a problem for me.
Also ads have served a lot of malware
The big assumption here is that the website had time or money invested in it. I feel like the vast majority of websites these days are just ai garbage with enough ads to prevent you from even reading the thing and give your computer herpies as a bonus. The era of good faith advertising where the ads were reasonable and balanced with the quality of content is long gone. Most sites are now explicitly designed for exploitive data harvesting and endless ad delivery.
Of course, some websites are exceptions to this and adblock can easily be toggled off for those websites if you really want to support them. Taking off protections for a trusted partner though is quite different from raw dogging the whole internet
At this point ad blocking is more about security and optimization than stopping ads themselves. If a site wants to run some banner ads to pay for costs, I have nothing against it, but once Javascript is involved, that just becomes a vulnerability for attack.
Also, websites that bury their content in layers of overlay and popup ads with loud audio and several unrelated videos can go fuck themselves.
Look, the boot tastes perfectly fine. Besides, how will the millionaires eat if I don't spend my attention to get them paid? What's another ad. And another ad. Ads when I drive, ads when I park. Ads when I'm reading the news and ads when I'm watching TV. Anyone else hungry for <insert chain restaurant here> lol.
Not everything I view online deserves money. I decide what is worth it to give money to and I decide what news articles I'm allowed to read.
I run ad blockers. As a security measure. Ad companies collect insane amount of data and do a bunch of shady stuff whenever they can get away with it.
I want to support websites whenever I'm able, but the way ad companies operate just ain't it.
If they clean up their act, maybe then I could stop using ad blockers, but it's been decades and I don't have high hopes.
Also using ad blockers for performance and usability reasons. For example, I used to use a bunch of Fandom wikis and couldn't understand why people hated the UI. Then I saw how Fandom looks like without ad blockers and holy shit how can humans live like this
oh yea i been on those fandom wiki, and almost slows you down on mobile because the amount of ads.
You remind me of the old guy at work who called me a "FUCKING FREELOADER" because I told him about uBlock origin.
I'm never recommending it again to anyone and I have since kept it a secret that I use an ad-blocker. I guess it's a problem for people.
That guy sounds like he thinks his kids owe him money for raising them. Disregard the stupid bastard.
Don't let this one person stop you.
I'm still recommended it to everybody.
I agree with your reasoning but I still do run an adblocker. There are only 3 things in my life (that I can think of) where what I think is right and what I actually do don't align: adblocking, piracy and eating meat.
Your annoyance does not pay the bills though. You are annoying yourself for nothing.
If enough people block the ads then that’s a significant hit for publications.
It doesn’t really annoy me though. I guess I have high tolerance. Maybe it’s also because I rarely use YouTube, thats the only place ads have annoyed me and only because they are constant and impossible to ignore.
I respect your stance and I agree with the subscription vs ads decision, websites need to make money somehow and I dont want to pay a subscription for everything either. I do run an adblocker but whitelist websites I use often and that dont have intrusive ads. It unfortunately affects websites that I visit quickly and dont come back to, they get a visitor but no advertisements. Its not a perfect solution but ads tend to be very intrusive on random websites.
Bike cuck vibes
There have been very decent alternatives, but they never took off.
One such was Flattr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattr
Flattr was a Swedish-based microdonation subscription service, where subscribers opted in to pay a monthly patronage to help fund their favourite websites and creators. It shut down in November 2023.[1]
Flattr subscribers installed an open-source browser extension that records which websites they frequent and shares this data with Flattr.[2] Flattr processes this user data and pays out shares of the user's subscription to each registered Flattr creator based on which websites the user consumed.[3] Flattr filtered websites by domains with a default allowlist of participating domains, but individual users could override and contribute to any website they want or withhold contributions from any website.[4]
I used it for a while, but not many websites and creators used it, so most of my money was going towards a select few.
I do, but it's less about the ads and more about privacy. I don't use things like sponsor block because there's pretty much no privacy violation there. But I do use an ad blocker because advertisers track me across websites to build up a profile.
I also don't want to make a free account, again because of privacy concerns (both from the site and from any data breaches.
I'm happy to pay a little for content, but I haven't yet seen a system that respects my privacy and is reasonably priced. If that was a thing, I'd totally pay.
Good, click on them for the rest of us
I still use Google news, I really need to get rid of it but I've been slacking. Anyways, every once in a while I'll click on a story and the website will literally be paragraphs separated by gigantic, scrollable ads, and ads between paragraphs done in a way that you're not sure if you've actually finished the story or not.
I can't use fathom being on those websites without an adblocker. It's horrendous.
Many chromium browser have built-in adblockers and some of them are on-par with uBO. These are not extensions, so Google can't really do anything about them. Not worried in the slightest.
Name one that is remotely on par with uBlock and is open source.
