For a while now the transition away from Manifest V2 (MV2) to MV3 has been on-going and it looks like it is entering its final phase of deprecation, at least, in the case of Google Chrome. A recent discussion thread in the w3c WebExtensions Community Group GitHub repo has highlighted how the latest and upcoming versions of the most popular browser are expected to be its final releases with support for MV2 extensions.
What this essentially means is that the tricks and bypasses that were used to keep MV2 extensions like uBlock Origin and others alive will not work any more on Chrome, or at least not for very long. For example the Windows Registry mod that could extend MV2 availability will cease to function after Chromium version 151.
The browser wars have been kind of strange from the perspective of someone who’s been using Firefox for well over a decade. It’s a bit like hearing about the Civil War while living in Oregon.
i used opera for around 13 years. i knew about the flaws but i was simply used to it, and as long as adblock worked i couldn’t be bothered to switch to anything else
then my laptop broke and only that happening gave me the incentive to install something else, i was starting from (close to) scratch anyway
it’ll take a lot of effort for people to abandon what they know, even if they’ll be moving towards something better
i use Zen now :) it’s nice
Another zen user, good to hear!
Zen is a reskinned Firefox. Firefox depends on Google’s funding to stay afloat.
Everything else, other than Safari on Mac is either chrome-based or firefox-based.
There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept.
The more you tighten your grip, Google, the more ad revenue will slip through your fingers.
Not after they demonstrate the power of their evil browser. In a way, you have determined the choice of the ads that you will be shown first.
Honestly I don’t think so, the average person won’t bother with changing browser. So they might lose more users but they dont care about those users because they are were using adblock anyways
Government becomes more fascist, tech companies become more fascist.
People don’t like surveillance advertising, and most reject it when given the choice. Unpopular policies are squashed when the people are represented, and the Republican policies and interests of forced and extreme deregulation are being represented here, not the people’s.
That, and I believe advertising is inherently fascistic in the way that it distorts realty, and intrusively attempts to modify thinking with punitive, insulting, and psychologically coercive methods - it is corporate propaganda, and when it is combined with surveillance and purchased by the State, it becomes fascism.
I can’t wait for them to try and make ad-blocking illegal. We’re seeing a similar trend with the age verification firm Yoti “reporting” GrapheneOS users to “the authorities”, whatever the hell that Gestapo bullshit scare-tactic means. If FOSS software and ad-blocking are tools of privacy and freedom from thought manipulation, and those concepts are being attacked by a State-backed corporate entity, then the State no longer represents those values. Chrome, like so much other corporate software that has sunk to surveillance advertising with a healthy side of selling data to the government, is now just another fascist tool to punish democratic resistance.
Freedom from advertising is a human right.
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …
~Edward Bernays From his 1928 publication - Propaganda
Edward is the father of modern advertising through psychological manipulation.
He’s the reason bacon and eggs are breakfast.
I am posting this again in such a short time, but The Century of Self is required viewing in my opinion. That asshole you mentioned, Bernays, is one of the prime perpetrators for the state of advertising.
— Anyway, I do highly recommend (for those that haven’t) investing the time and watching The Century of the Self by Adam Curtis. It is very illuminating as to how we’ve arrived where we are now with regards to propaganda and advertising which are rooted in the same psychological underpinnings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s
It appears to be on Netflix, as well.
I was the one who you posted it to and it’s well worth a watch. I put it at 1.25 speed and that was about right.
Hey there, Pele!
I was going to mention two other docs to you that my friend and I found quite good (though different topics). They are:
I hope you can find them somewhere. If you torrent or what not, they are doubtlessly found there.
Firefox and its derivatives (and Safari - sorry Apple users) are the only browsers not using Google’s Blink web engine these days - at least until Ladybird is released.
Despite the Mozilla Foundation’s many stupid decisions, Firefox (and Safari) is starting to look like the only thing stopping Google from completely controlling the internet.
Not true — Safari is still based on WebKit. And Safari is still the default browser on over two and a half billion mobile devices currently in use. And say what you might about Apple, but at least they aren’t in the business of selling ads, and thus don’t have any business interest in allowing you to block them effectively, unlike Google.
They don’t sell as many ads, but they do sell ads. It was only a few months ago they announced that ads would be coming to their maps app. There’s ads in news, the App Store, music, and settings on iOS. Maybe more than aren’t coming to mind immediately
Oops. My bad. I swear I read somewhere that Safari was switching to Blink, but that isn’t the case.
Cue the Brave shills “recommending” to switch to Brave in 5…4…3…
Wait what’s wrong with Brave?
Brave is by a company who’s in the business of serving ads.
Much like google was back in the day, they’re trying to obtain market share with a product that they can easily manipulate after the fact and rely on people not jumping ship as things get progressively worse and worse bit by bit
Think of the “approved ads” era followed by the “enhanced security features” which made it so your block list couldn’t be updated at a moments notice and now it’s being stripped entirely.
Better to avoid it entirely and just use Firefox or a derivative thereof
It’s not firefox
Firefox doesn’t have tab groups on mobile
You may have a browsing addiction if you need tab groups on mobile, wow…
I swear I hate tabbed browsing, because it leads to people hording tabs like a freaking squirrel hordes nuts.
If you need it for later, book mark it.
If you’re done with it close it.
I’ve started using Karakeep for this. If I haven’t used a tab in a while but want it to stick around, throw it to Karakeep, let ai tag it, then close that tab.
“People don’t use their browsers how I want REEEE!!!”
When will marketing people figure out our generation views ads as hostile, non-consensual, and unwanted? They are a negative way to introduce us to your product/service. I actively avoid things with obnoxious ads. Native, old spice, liberty mutual, all of those brands the first thing that comes to mind is the negative experience of an invasive advertisement I never fucking asked for.
Ads aren’t always there to get you to buy something specific. In fact, an ad you don’t interact with is a better ad because they don’t have to pay for click-through.
You don’t want to buy brand A because they have ads, so you buy brand B instead, but both widgets are owned by the same holding company. Or they’re made in the same factory. Or they use the same components. Or they have the same shareholders. Any way you slice it, the same rich assholes are getting your money.
The goal of the Ads is to put a bug in your head and get you to buy something.
And that’s just the Ads. The tracking is also (increasingly primarily) about political manipulation and surveillance.
Pretty sure all generations feel the same way.
IMHO all of our advertising talent died in 9/11. Ads used to be a lot cooler, funnier, and higher effort during the days of antenna broadcast television.
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It doesn’t matter how we view them as long as they work.
They dont
Apparently not, as ads keep selling.
I hate to sound so cynical, but many folks are gullible. They’ll trust a flashy ad because it looks nice to them, and gives them a positive emotional response, and then internalize that judgement as their own decision (so when someone comes to challenge it, they take it personally).
It’s not just old people living in another time, either. I’ve watched teenagers and young adults trust obviously-sponsored influencers like they’re friends. Or wear brands as status symbols.
That’s been the better browser since 2008 though.
Just use Firefox (or Zen Browser, which is a nice fork of Firefox)
And all the forks die if Firefox does.
I could also say “and all forks of chromium die, if it dies”.
I don’t see Firefox dieing any time soon. And the more people use and support Firefox or any fork, the lower the chance of it actually happening.
And people still use these trash dumpster of a browser?
You know, I seem to see this rhetoric a lot, and it seems to be getting upvoted more now, which isn’t a good sign for Lemmy, but are you really surprised by this? Is this really a question? Are you really that under a rock?
If it’s rhetorical, then what’s the point? Is this just a petulant way to try and dumpster something without going through the effort of actually picking out a real problem with it, of which there are countless?
Is this starting an interesting discussion? Is this voicing an interesting opinion? What is the point of this exact kind of comment?
Maybe I’m just too autistic and I’m going off the rails here, but these are starting to itch like a form of “internet forum hives”.
Maybe it is because people shame others into using “the most popular” browser, by asking stuff like “who uses X?” or “I use Y, lke a normal person” and so on and so forth. However, spend any time in the privacy-oriented community, and you will find that there is a significant disdain for Chrome, and Edge is never truly accepted as a viable option, and well; Opera, by Chinese scare is also shunned; but more often than not, Privacy-oriented browsers, (to my disappointment, a Chromium-based browser,) Brave is often recommended for most who don’t want to tinker, and that’s understandable.
But, when you look at things like the LinkedIn spyware, the aggressive anti-ad and also anti-privacy practices of these “popular” browsers, you really start to question, is it worth it? So tell me, IS IT worth it? My bare minimum is Containers, Chromium has to use an extension that kinda works, but for everyone else, why keep using something that constantly tries to invade your privacy? – The “Everything spies on you” or “I have nothing to hide” mentalities that try to normalize this are, in my eyes, outright defeatists.
The question once again, becomes; Why are we allowing this? If we don’t get a say; then the trusty old “Vote with your Money” comes into play; cause you always have a choice to switch browsers. We will always have that choice, and yet, I keep seeing the perpetuation of Chrome, and less Brave, and to my personal disdain, even less Firefox-based options, which are objectively better, and have built-in containers (kinda wish you didn’t need the extension to unlock it on the toolbar)
Nothing against you, you provided me with a peak at a concerning common perspective; “Why are you hating?” “If you dislike it so much why don’t you suggest something better?” and the far too common, “I dismiss everything you say, because you dislike/hate X” and truth be told, between that, and the in-person shaming and questioning, we ignore everything that is factually wrong, until something like the LinkedIn spyware or an AI Forcefully-yet-Repeatedly being downloaded without your consent, only then do they THINK, but not necessarily commit to switching to something else, the companies know this, and they just keep doing their… questionable practices.
So, I’m sorry, but yes. Chrome, is a trash browser, one that will continue to invade your privacy. De-googled Chromium would be better than Chrome. Brave is still far better, but it’s still Chromium based, that matters because if something affects a Chromium-based browser, there’s an exceedingly high chance it’ll work on all Chromium-based browsers (again, look at the LinkedIn spyware). I would personally suggest a Firefox-based alternative, simply because a lot of these exploits, which again, are a (Non-Google) Search away (just look at the efforts to remove malware from the chrome store), would simply not affect the browser. Easy suggestions are LibreWolf, WaterFox and the Mullvad Browser.
Tech isn’t meant to be complicated, it’s meant to facilitate things, but convenience should never have to come at the cost of bundled consent nor privacy.
People will *anything *except use FireFox
IKR?
Laughs in Firefox based browsers
Man up and take your spyware like an obedient peasant
Ublock was already somewhat neutered on Chrome, and people didn’t seem to notice. They keep using it.
I’m just so cynical these days. It’s not like the Windows XP era, where people eventually get fed up with enshittification, and move.
Google won. Facebook won.
They have absolute control, basically.
Firefox exists.
At ~3.5% market share, depending on the statistics source. And declining, month-on-month:
https://radar.cloudflare.com/reports/browser-market-share-2025-q4
In all sadness, folks on Lemi and other more technically inclined forums infight even more than leftists infight, and all they do is sabotage themselves.
Projects like Firefox are mountains above Chrome when it comes to privacy and not ceding web control over to Google. Yet any thread about anything Firefox is doing is just filled with FUD from people complaining about small individual changes or Firefox not being perfect enough, so on and so forth.
It’s self-sabotage. If you didn’t think Firefox is good enough, congratulations. Now you’ve got Chrome, and pretty soon you won’t have Firefox.
😒
Good thing I don’t use any of those shitty browsers.
Remember back in the day when you’d see these little badges on websites saying Best viewed with Internet Explorer? And some sites just wouldn’t work right on other browsers?
Soon you went be using any of those shitty sites, either
So LibreWolf browser it is?
Just about any firefox derivative will do now.
Yeah, thats what I use with uBlock for Youtube. I can’t get Invidious to be stable enough.
