Google pulls the plug on uBlock Origin, leaving over 30 million Chrome users susceptible to intrusive ads

So ... can we like finally dismiss Google Chrome as the obviously awful idea it is and which should never have made it this far and remind all of the web devs married to it that they're doing bad things and are the reason why we can't have nice things?

Hmmm ... a web browser owned by a monopolistic advertising company ... how could that possibly go wrong??!!

• XKCD: Infrastructures

I think some people overestimate how many will migrate to Firefox in the near future over this.

• High switching cost compared to finding another extension (e.g. uBO Lite), even if the resulting experience is worse.
• Just as many Firefox users like Firefox, lots of Chrome users enjoy what they have too. They don't want to lose that.
• The kind of tech-aware person who'd switch over this is much more likely to have seen the news months ago and taken action already.

As fun as it is to imagine an Adpocalypse shocking the masses and pushing them to try out alternatives to big tech, it's also way too optimistic, I feel.

Meh. They had plenty of time to move to Firefox but they ignored all the warnings.

In case anyone here needs this

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switching-chrome-firefox

I'm in the process of switching to firefox on all my devices.

I've had enough of Google pushing features like this.

Firefox.

This is the way.

There's only 34 million uBlock Origin users on Chrome? So, billions are using Chrome without any ad-blockers? That's crazy and unsafe

I miss the "dont be evil" version of google. Its like, large amounts of money ruin everything

It deserves mentioning that Firefox on Android supports extensions, so if you uninstall/disable the official YouTube app then add uBlock Origin and Sponsorblock you get a more tolerable experience.

Advertising company makes it harder to block ads on their browser, news at 11.

Or did anyone forget that they made an explicit effort to block another ad blocking extension a while back, including blocking it from the Chrome store, blocking you from installing it manually and even blocking at least some versions of it from being manually installed in developer mode?

Ad nauseam, because it also simulated ad clicks and thus ruined their metrics.

EDIT: Fucking phone autocorrect. "as clocks" -> "ad clicks".

Stallman was right.

At this point I am seriously wondering why people would like to use Chrome over Firefox for instance.

Simple solution. Don't use Chrome.

Used Chrome forever, switched to Firefox back when this stuff first started going down. No ragerts.

We should all probably start donating to Firefox. Isn't Google their main source of income?

There might come a time when they prefer to gut Firefox, forcing Mozilla to either reject uBlock Origin or die (or they could simply pull the plug on funding knowing they'll earn more when people go back to Chrome-based browsers)

I wonder if this leaves Chrome users susceptible to ads that load malware, which has been a problem for the last decade, and a driver of adblocking extension development. You can get spyware and worms from Forbes, for instance.

Adblocking is not just a matter of a cleaner internet experience, but also of good internet hygiene

Huh... I couldn't tell with all the Firefox I use.

cackles in firefox...

I pulled the plug on allowing chrome user agents on my domain.

Granted its tiny but I'm making people switch.

This is the juncture.

P.s. yes I know the cavaets all my services work fine tyvm.

With Google providing 80% of Mozilla's finding, I think we can all see whats going to happen next.

LibreWolf.

How long until YouTube blocks Firefox?

Stop using Chrome, it is adware at this point. Use Firefox or if that's too different, use Brave or Edge or a different chromium offshoot that isn't going to support manifest v3.

There's an easy fix for this. 🔥🦊

I imagine most of us here already don't use Google Chrome, but I'll be spending some time proselytizing on the behalf of Mozilla for Firefox with the folks I run across.

It literally took me less than ten minutes to set up firefox. I carried all my bookmarks and passwords from edge and set up a mozilla account and everything is synced across linux, windows and android.

The only thing I'm worried of, is if some websites require chrome to work, as was the case with some government sites that only worked with internet explorer in the old days.

(Does anyone know if the default user agent is chrome? I used to log in a local streaming site from edge and it wouldn't work, as it required chrome, but I used an extension to take care of the user agent. On firefox it works no problem.)

Firefox downloads a spike by 30 million. Will be the next headline.

This was the plan all along

I wonder if the DoJ actually does split up Google if separating Chrome would make any difference with behavior like this?

I've used Librewolf since the first time Google announced these kinda plans I'm thinking it must be at least 3 years now.

Theres tons of options Librewolf is overkill to be honest Firefox would be fine.

I wonder if we trained an AI on the entire corpus of articles about how Google is gonna kill adblocking, if we could keep these articles going after most people switch uneventfully over to Lite.

Look like I need to convince my dad to switch now

This headline is premature. They haven't pulled the plug yet. I still have Chrome installed, fully updated, and all the extensions are still there.

The headline is a bit overdramatic. Google hasn't pulled uBlock Origin off its extension webstore. Rather, it's switching from Manifest v2 to Manifest v3, which won't support features the current version of uBlock Origin needs to work. We've known this was in the process of happening for months. It's a good reminder of what's coming eventually (namely, the fact v2 extensions will be entirely disabled by Chrome soon), but this is nothing new.

so long dental plan!

Those who don't like FF can use brave, it's brave shield works well

Brave will continue to support manifest V2.

Is ublock origin still operable for YouTube? Could this be related?

As long as chromium keeps it I'm fine. I use edge, why should I bother with downloading another browser when the one it comes with is identical?

Sensationalist and inaccurate title

Awesome. Normies are getting sucker punched left and right. Keep it up, Google!

That is a choice thumbnail.