this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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[–] DarkGamer@kbin.social 170 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Firefox looking better all the time...

[–] aeronmelon@lemm.ee 28 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I've been using Safari exclusively since 2013, completely sidestepping all of this drama. I haven't seen an ad on YouTube in several years. I also haven't seen any hint of YouTube blocking my access to videos.

But for everyone who needs Windows, and the growing number of Linux users, FireFox seems like the only democratic option left.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 23 points 11 months ago

There are webkit based browsers on Linux as well, GNOME Web being one; but yeah, I prefer Firefox.

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 11 months ago (10 children)

That's great, but on the downside you've been using the new Internet Explorer.

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[–] Delta_V@midwest.social 12 points 11 months ago

always has been

[–] Gazumi@lemmy.world 119 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] Public_Tumbleweed@lemmy.world 46 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[–] ApeNo1@lemm.ee 96 points 11 months ago (1 children)

“Manifest V3 will also put roadblocks up before extension updates, which will delay an extension developer's ability to quickly respond to changes.”

Can’t wait for a day zero exploit to let rip and its impact and exposure increased because of an extension’s developer inability to promptly patch their software. I hope they are considering more than just ad revenue but somehow I doubt it.

[–] viking@infosec.pub 6 points 11 months ago

They allow extensions to be sold and completely reworked without telling the user jack shit. So I doubt they care about that either.

[–] skozzii@lemmy.ca 92 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Stop using chrome, let the market share dry up. The only reason they can get away with this is because they have a monopoly and surely its against anti-competition laws. But who is gonna try and take on google in court?

Break up tech giants.

Welcome to our hellish future.

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[–] theodewere@kbin.social 57 points 11 months ago (1 children)

this is when a company needs to be broken into pieces.. when instead of providing new benefits, the company seeks to control access to its product, and control the market.. i want my government to break Google into bits..

[–] aeronmelon@lemm.ee 24 points 11 months ago

Google already did the hard work, too. Just make each letter within Alphabet its own company.

[–] netchami@sh.itjust.works 56 points 11 months ago (5 children)
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[–] ieightpi@lemmy.world 39 points 11 months ago

Please tell me that Google was so tone deaf that they actually made a starte page banner for the anniversary of Monopoly or something.

[–] SuperSpaceFan@lemm.ee 33 points 11 months ago (3 children)

This tactic seems short-sighted to me. It will force migrate people to firefox.

[–] Zarxrax@lemmy.world 70 points 11 months ago (6 children)

No one is moving to Firefox, because most people don't care. Just like people stay on Reddit or X, they are going to stay on chrome. Google will feed them shit and they'll ask for more.

All we can do is worry about ourselves and keep trying to make alternatives viable.

[–] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 27 points 11 months ago (5 children)

If people care about using adblock, they will.

[–] BaroqueInMind@kbin.social 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Most people don't. How do you think in 2023 Google is still raking in millions of dollars nonstop?

[–] b3an@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

By cheating, being anticompetitive, and strong arming with legal action.

[–] BaroqueInMind@kbin.social 16 points 11 months ago

...And by having millions of people view ads.

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[–] Fades@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Choice of browser is nothing like the choice of social media, the fuck are you talking about??

One of THE biggest reasons Redditors didn’t leave was because there was more content and already established communities niche as well as large.

With a browser change, you still get the exact same content. Worthless comparison

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[–] takeda@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

This will make many of them care.

[–] dirtbiker509@lemm.ee 8 points 11 months ago

It's not "no one", Because I left reddit and I left chrome. Lemmy and Firefox!

But yeah not many people will actually do it.

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[–] jdrch@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago (4 children)
[–] sir_reginald@lemmy.world 55 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Edge is an euphemism for Microsoft Chrome.

[–] Patches@sh.itjust.works 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Why just be tracked by Google? When you can be tracked by both Google and Microsoft!

[–] netchami@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

That sounds truly awesome /s

[–] netchami@sh.itjust.works 48 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Edge is the worst recommendation I've ever seen in my life

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[–] peg@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Won't Edge and all Chromium-based browsers end up with Manifest v3 and no v2? Will extension devs continue to support v2 in Firefox?

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Yes it does still exist. It came preinstalled with the ThinkPad I set up for my daughter yesterday. That's why I immediately installed Firefox and made it the default browser instead.

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[–] tigerjerusalem@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Can someone clarify why browsers other than the ones that are Chrome based are forced to adopt Manifest v3? What happens if the don't, are they blocked from the web or something?

[–] ShittyKopper@lemmy.blahaj.zone 45 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

They aren't forced to do anything. Manifest v3 is just a part of the WebExtensions API (which is not a standard and is really just "whatever Chrome does except we find/replace'd the word chrome to browser") which both Safari and Firefox chose to implement in order to make porting of Chrome extensions easier.

Before that, Firefox had a much more powerful extension system that allowed extensions quite a lot of access to browser internals, but that turned out to be a maintenance nightmare so they walled those APIs off (not a coincidence that Firefox started getting massive performance improvements after that, and extensions stopped breaking every other release) and decided to go the WebExtensions route. I have no clue what Safari was up to but I think they implemented it after.

If they don't implement Manifest v3, extensions that want to work across multiple browsers need to support both the older Manifest v2 and the later Manifest v3, which would be a burden not many extension authors would want to bother with, which would make them just say "yeah we're not supporting anything outside Chrome". Firefox avoids this problem by extending the v3 API to allow for the functionality necessary for powerful ad blocking Google removed in v3 (webRequestBlocking) while also implementing the new thing (declarativeNetRequest) side by side, so extensions that want to take advantage of the powerful features on Firefox can do so, while Chrome extensions that are fine with the less powerful alternative can still be ported over relatively easily.

Firefox does have it's fair share of extensions on top of the WebExtension API already (sidebar support for one), so adding one more isn't too big of a deal.

[–] ripcord@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

Very, very good summary. Thank you.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

Can someone clarify why browsers other than the ones that are Chrome based are forced to adopt Manifest v3?

See, that's the thing: pretty much every browser except Firefox is Chrome-based. When people talk about browsers being forced to accept manifest v3, they're talking about all the Chrome-based browsers other than Chrome.

[–] sir_reginald@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

why browsers other than the ones that are Chrome based are forced to adopt Manifest v3?

Then the only browser left is Firefox. Edge, Opera, Brave, Vivaldi and a long etc are all Chromium based.

There is also Safari, but Safari does not support WebExtensions in the first place so it does not apply here.

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[–] trslim@pawb.social 15 points 11 months ago

Boy! Glad i dont use chrome!

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago (13 children)

I don't use chrome, so I don't care until it starts effecting the Fox.

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[–] recapitated@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

Firefox works lovely

[–] ConstipatedWatson@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago (10 children)

I know this will irk some people but... Do you know why using Gmail or YouTube on Firefox feels slower on an Apple computer?

I use Firefox on Android exclusively, but on Apple computers I still use Chrome more since Firefox seems to either be slow on certain websites or use too much memory (I'm sure it's not Mozilla's fault here)

BTW I actually donate to Mozilla because I think it needs to survive (though it must be a drop compared to what Google pays Mozilla and I hope they keep doing it), but I'm not using Firefox all the time as I'd like, since the experience looks a tad worse on Desktop

[–] sir_reginald@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

Google makes their websites slower in Firefox. I don't think this is related to Apple at all. You'll probably have the same experience in Linux or Windows with Firefox and Google. They just want you to use Chrome.

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[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 7 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


YouTube can instantly switch up its ad delivery system, but once Manifest V3 becomes mandatory, that won't be true for extension developers.

If ad blocking is a cat-and-mouse game of updates and counter-updates, then Google will force the mouse to slow down.

The current platform, Manifest V2, has been around for over ten years and works just fine, but it's also quite powerful and allows extensions to have full filtering control over the traffic your web browser sees.

Engadget's Anthony Ha interviewed some developers in the filtering extension community, and they described a constant cat-and-mouse game with YouTube.

Firefox's Manifest V3 implementation doesn't come with the filtering limitations, and parent company Mozilla promises that users can "rest assured that in spite of these changes to Chrome’s new extensions architecture, Firefox’s implementation of Manifest V3 ensures users can access the most effective privacy tools available like uBlock Origin and other content-blocking and privacy-preserving extensions."

Google claims that Manifest V3 will improve browser "privacy, security, and performance," but every comment we can find from groups that aren't giant ad companies disputes this description.


The original article contains 915 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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