About Google Chrome's "This extension may soon no longer be supported" (2024)

I simply cannot give up the option of zapping distractions off of my screen. I really cannot understand how people can use Youtube or even a Youtube embedded video without zapping away the distractions. There is no way I'm coming back to Chrome if they don't support manifest V2. It's Firefox for me.

They mention "other browsers" in addition to Firefox that will continue to support Manifest v2, but I can't find a list. Does anyone know off-hand the additional browser options for Manifest V2 and multiple-OS support?

For anyone else like me that hasnt tried uBO lite wondering what features are missing: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home/wiki/Frequently-as...

It’s only a matter of time before the modern Phoebus cartel starts blocking Firefox.

Many years ago I switched to chrome because ff felt sluggish. That’s all fixed since a long time. Not sure why so many seems to be choosing chrome today.

It is a shame that Orion is Mac and iOS only. I found this statement[1] in response to a request for it on other platforms

> We are getting a lot of repeat questions about windows/linux/android version and sometimes it appears that users think that the team is choosing not to work on these platforms. The situation is quite different and simpler - we do not have the resources to hire a new team to do any of these platforms yet.

> And since Orion is funded by its users only, it is entirely up to the number of subscribers and Orion+ sales we have that will enable funding a new team to make Orion for any new platform. And building a browser is not cheap, especially one on top of WebKit.

> Ways you can help accelerate this is: > Contribute to Orion development with your time > Help spread the word about Orion to attract more users > Get Orion+ and financially support developmet

This is a tricky situation to be in. A lack of resources to support multiple platforms, but the solution being more subscribers. But the incentive structure is perplexing. Those supporting development going to be those already using Orion. And those not on Mac/iOS are unlikely to financially support a browser they can't use in the hopes it might one day come to a platform I use.

[1] https://orionfeedback.org/d/2321-orion-for-windows-android-l...

Orion is great. There are some websites that for some reason don’t work as well as with Safari/Firefox (like Github), but otherwise it is pretty good.

Do they really remove it? Because I've had several extensions get disabled and was only able to re-enable them after enabling developer mode (toggle at top-right).

I believe that most say "remove" because they get removed from the plugin-bar when disabled.

I'll ditch Chrome without a second thought if they really remove it. They'll lose access to my browsing history, so I don't see what they have to gain with it. What about the ads which are blocked at network level via PiHole?

Have they even considered that PiHole might then catch on and start blocking ads on mobile devices in households which would otherwise not use it?

Orion looks pretty interesting, it's not like any of the other alternative browsers (opera, vivaldi, brave, arc etc) which just wrap Chromium in more junk. It uses WebKit which is optimised for Apple platforms, giving more battery life, while also integrating uBlock Origin.

I'm happy with 1Blocker in Safari

What part of Arc feels abandoned? I still use as my primary browser.

After 17 years of using Android, with building my own kernel and ROMs in the early days, I finally gave up on it and finished my de-Google journey and reluctantly switched to iPhone.

The fact that Orion on iOS existed was a major reason I was able to this. On Android I was a Firefox user since Firefox was the only browser with the ability to run proper uBo.

Orion is not without its bugs, but it does support a lot of Firefox and Chrome extensions. But you don’t even need to install uBo as an extension,it’s got built in ad blocker with the ability to add or remove filter lists. Even without installing uBo, in terms of ad blocking, it instantly matched Firefox on Android. That I can install things such as Tapermonkey or Bypass Paywall Clean as extensions is a huge bonus.

It’s amazing how Google is pushing its early adopters and cheerleaders away by one anti user move after another.

I still wish Apple would remove some of the restrictions on iOS, allow other browser engines etc. Installing unknown software from unsigned developers on macOS is really difficult these days but still doable if you know where to look. If only iOS was the same. The potential lost revenue from loss of control would be more than made up by new people who would be brought on to the platform.

Chrome took over long before Firefox dumped XUL. It was sticking to XUL with all the performance issues that let Chrome take over. Losing all the extensibility of XUL, and it being too late to take a thoughtful approach to design something that maintained that extensibility with performance and security, helped solidify Chrome's lead. A lot of people didn't see a point in using Firefox without extensibility beyond what Chrome allowed.

It also works flawlessly on Android, with uBlock Origin blocking everything, including ads on youtube (provided one stays in the browser of course, and not use the app).

Best thing we can do to influence it is probably to use and fund forks such as LibreWolf, hoping that they are in a position to continue development once Google decides to tell the manager of Mozilla to finally destroy it completely.

(Yes, that is a joke I hope, but if I compare what I think a puppet controlled by Google would do to destroy the Mozilla brand to what Mozillas CEO has been doing, I think there is a lot of similarities.)

Ad blocking is the one thing that pushed me over the edge to move to Firefox from Safari.

I already knew the same change was coming to Chrome so I went directly to Firefox.

I will burn my computer to the ground before I watch any kind of intrusive non-contextual advertisement online.

IMO it's only a matter of time before LLMs will include ads. Current pricing isn't covering the costs of running LLMs and brands will pay a high price for being favored in responses.

My experience with LLM has been that if the question/search is basic or common (in any particular subject), the results are no better than an ordinary search, and if it isn't, the responses are too frequently wrong. The problem isn't so much hallucination, but gullibility. The LLM appears "intelligent" but stupid. It seems to lack introspection, i.e. applying good sense in evaluating its sources and conclusions. You can ask an LLM how to properly evaluate sources and come to conclusions, but it doesn't apply these lessons to its own operation.

In other words, LLMs work well when you don't really need them and don't work well when you do. I have yet to see an LLM give a good result when a better result, written by a human, isn't available.

> People are paying for LLMs, consumers are no longer a commodity.

Ask your LLM: "How many percents of world populations is paying for LLMs? Any estimates how many will never pay for it?"

> LLMs are much better in searching for information than advertisement-exposure optimized google.

Completely disagree. Just this morning I've been trying to search for how to pair a wireless headset that I own to a new receiver. Gemini tells me there is no need to pair the adapter, but if I do need to do it I should press <button that doesn't exist on the model I specifically searched for>. It also pushes the PDF and TS articles that the manufacturer provides off of my main search window.

This is my example from today, but I have consistently found Gemini suggests outdated, or inaccurate information and cites "sources" that don't match what it says.

[dead]

It’s pax cloudflara. We let them in exchange for peace on the web.

(Pax nubem would probably be too obscure…)

At least Cloudflare has no network effects. They offer good services that I can migrate off of if I need to. Google owns my life and it's really hard to go elsewhere, even if I want to.

only because we let them

Relevant now as Chrome recently started force-removing/disabling uBlock Origin in Chrome.

(at least is has been force-removed on one of my machines. On another machine, it hasn't happened yet)

The main issue is going to be around the corner. As more and more people use CNAME cloaking to do server-side tracking using GTM (etc.), it will be a cat and mouse game to block it (and other networks). uBlock Lite cannot uncloak these CNAMES and you're going to see a pretty bad experience in due course.

Does it block YouTube ads?

I migrated today as well from Firefox to LibreWolf. I'm curious why you need a chrome based at all? I mean I have ungoogled Chromium on my desktop just in case I want to see if a broken site is only broken for Firefox, but that's rare.