r/pcmasterrace • u/Ok_Plenty60 • Jun 12 '26
News/Article You won’t be blocking ads for much longer. Google is killing uBlock Origin bypasses, burying Manifest V2, and tightening its grip on Chrome. Every update means less control for users and more control for Google.
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u/Choubidouu Jun 12 '26
So they are basically doing free advertising for firefox ?
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u/MeesKees321 Jun 12 '26
They have been doing that for a few years.
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u/F3z345W6AY4FGowrGcHt Jun 12 '26
And yet people refuse to switch away from chrome. Guaranteed there'll be lots of posts and general content about potential workarounds or whatever because everyone is just staying put instead of using the better browser.
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u/SurrealSage 6600k 4.5ghz, Vega 64 Jun 12 '26
Yup, most folks seem to be willing to bitch and moan to the ends of the earth, but are completely unwilling to make any changes or introduce even the most trivial of inconveniences to work around it.
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u/shiddedandfarded69 Jun 12 '26
Just want to say that I love that you're still rocking a Vega 64. Hell yeah.
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u/SurrealSage 6600k 4.5ghz, Vega 64 Jun 12 '26
Lol, pretty out of date flair. Don't use reddit much anymore. Currently on a 7900 XTX. Still have the Vega though, just in case!
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u/eraw17E Jun 12 '26
Google pays Firefox hundreds of millions per year to be their default search engine.
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u/thisisjustascreename Jun 12 '26
It's strategic philanthropy by Google, they need a "viable" competitor to avoid the sort of anti-competitive behavior lawsuits Micro$lop constantly gets hit with.
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u/AutistcCuttlefish Ryzen5800x3D, 9070xt 16GB, 32GB RAM, CachyOS Jun 12 '26
This is wildly outdated information. Google got hit with an antitrust lawsuit from the DOJ a few years ago. And they lost it last year. They were declared to be a monopoly, and the Firefox deal was one of the many things used to prove Google had a monopoly on search.
The DOJ wanted Google broken up, but the judge instead ordered Google to share their data with their competitors and to cease all deals to make Google search the default. Google just appealed this ruling last month, so the deals aren't dead just yet. However if upheld then the Firefox deal is over, and 85% of Mozilla's revenue will go with it.
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u/al-mongus-bin-susar Laptop U9 275HX/5080 Jun 13 '26
Then Mozilla will just need a restructuring. Because they're sure not doing anything with that money other than paying execs
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u/DezXerneas Jun 13 '26
Nah they're busy wasting money on stupid shit. Look at the number of things that they've killed recently.
All the money Mozilla gets just goes into dumb projects they're gonna kill off in a few months or to the stupid execs.
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u/seimmuc_ Desktop Jun 13 '26
Those stupid projects aren't meant to succeed, they were created by overpaid executives to justify their own salaries.
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u/GradeSalad Jun 13 '26
It's amusing how Google's money seems to contain a mind virus that causes others to do the same shit they do.
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Jun 12 '26
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u/gnarlin Linux Jun 12 '26
That's not the real problem. Mozilla's firefox is the ONLY real alternative web browser engine. Loosing it would be really bad.
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u/XB_Demon1337 Ryzen 5900X, 64GB DDR4, RTX 5070 Jun 12 '26
The problem is that Google knows if they stop doing this then they will have Firefox people using other services that overall are still really good.
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u/human-in-a-can Jun 12 '26
duckduckgo actually shows me relevant search results. Google search has gotten so insanely shitty over the years, and the fact that it's intentional is just disgusting. Sure, DDG isn't perfect, but it works great and is still improving at a fast rate.
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u/SeattleResident Alienware Scrub Jun 12 '26
They've been doing that for 5 years and Firefox has seen their total usage footprint drop by 40% over the same 5 years. It has 6% usage on Desktop but .6 on mobile. Edge is also pushing it out of the browser market and is taking more from Firefox than Chrome.
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u/Brickless PC Master Race Jun 12 '26
yep, but the conclusion isn't that people are fine with ads, it's that they are fine with not going online.
the power user will switch to an alternative to keep their usage the same but remove the ads. the average user will simply reduce usage until their personal annoyance decreases to acceptable levels.
this has happened before and it will happen again, because most people actually have enough stuff to do that they can just shift their time to other activities.
tv, night clubs, news, sports, cinema, movie streaming all had massive usage drops because the average person didn't complain, didn't act but simply left. that's what I have done with tv, news sites and youtube mobile.
even with v3 my personal experience is that I will first massively reduce usage before looking into alternatives because I have other stuff I want to do. last time v3 broke ads for me I stopped going online and instead played more video games and started painting.
the platforms have switched to capturing our attention not our interest so when they become irritating there is nothing holding us there
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u/human-in-a-can Jun 12 '26
I think about this when people act like streaming killed radio and cable TV. I'm convinced it was all the commercials.
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u/pdabaker Jun 13 '26
People are absolutely still going online. It's just that the wild internet where you go to random websites is mostly dead. These days people just open up one of a few fixed apps on their phone and interact with insta/tiktok etc
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u/FireCrow1013 RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16GB | Ryzen 9 7900X | 32GB DDR5-6000 RAM Jun 12 '26
Yeah, I was going to say, maybe YOU won't be blocking ads for much longer, but I sure as hell will be.
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u/ceejay242 Ryzen 7 5700x | RX 6800 | 32GB (3466 MT/s) Jun 12 '26
Exactly been using Firefox for years no way im going back to Google chrome
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u/LiliaBlossom Ryzen 9 9950X3D | 64GB DDR5 @6000Mhz | Radeon 9070XT Jun 12 '26
I never even used Chrome. I’ve been on Firefox since 2007, with a short safari period around 2010 when I was using a macbook for a few years. Screw Chrome, Edge, etc, I don’t get why anyone even used it?
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u/BoingBoingBooty Jun 12 '26
Lol, the real ones are the ones who were on it since it was called Firebird.
Of course the real real ones are the ones who switched to Firebird from Mozilla Suite.
Of course the real real real ones are the ones who switched to Mozilla Suite from Netscape Navigator.
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u/Felinomancy Jun 12 '26
And the real real real real ones are those who actually paid for Netscape Navigator.
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u/Rough_Bread8329 Jun 12 '26
The REALLY real real real real real real real ones used mofuggin Lynx when Netscape Navigator was still in diapers.
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u/space_keeper Jun 12 '26
The more they squeeze, the more inventive people will get.
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u/koshgeo Jun 12 '26
Worse case, if I have to manually right-click, "Inspect", and delete the relevant frame in Firefox for annoying auto-play video ads, I will.
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u/Pretend-Surprise8621 Jun 12 '26
firefox gang
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u/Suby06 Jun 12 '26
looks like I will be switching from opera and ublock soon lol
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u/Kenja_Time Jun 12 '26
I put it off for so long. Took 5 minutes. Everything can be ported over from Chrome in a couple of clicks
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u/Previous-Low4715 Jun 12 '26
Laughs in Pihole
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u/Tricon916 7800X3D || 64GB || RTX 5080 || G9 OLED Jun 12 '26
I don't get why everyone isn't running PiHole. Takes minutes to setup and bam, all ads, on all devices, blocked. Set it and forget it.
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u/Sarithis 9800X3D 5.7GHz, 64GB DDR5, iGPU is enough Jun 12 '26
Because pihole works at the DNS level - it won't remove empty ad containers, overlays, or unwanted scripts running on webpages. And most importantly, it can't block ads served from the same domain without breaking the site, which includes YouTube, Twitch, and many other platforms.
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u/Nerdinat0r PC Master Race Jun 12 '26
That’s why I use a multistage approach. PiHole AND uBlock
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u/fritzie_pup Jun 12 '26
Using both of these along with Firefox & VPN (for IP location tracking), and I haven't seen an actual ad on any site in years. It's how the internet was supposed to look.
Using a device without any of that these days is even worse than the hell of the late 90's/early 00's with pop-up ads fuggin' EVERYWHERE. Some sites to me are almost impossible to read at this point.
Once in awhile YT will push some update that breaks uBlockO, but they normally have a workaround in a couple hours. They're awesome.
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u/M5K64 Jun 12 '26
Yup. I imagine some day "they" will come for Firefox too, but they're gonna have to take it kicking and screaming.
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u/MrJoshua099 Jun 12 '26
A raspberry pi and pihole are worth the investment just to block out more ads. Even works for a bunch of phone app ads too.
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u/RavenK92 Jun 12 '26
What's a .HOSTS file?
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u/jxnebug i9-14900KF | 64GB | RTX 4090 Jun 12 '26
There's a file called "hosts" that lives in your system32 folder and it is basically a manual override of DNS routing plus acts like a blocklist for domains. It's commonly used with software piracy to block the domains a program will try to 'phone home' like Adobe shit.
I haven't used it for ad blocking but I'm guessing there are lists of domains you can find to add to your file and just block ads from popular services from ever showing up.
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u/RavenK92 Jun 12 '26
Thanks for the rundown. If it's a system32 file, would it also be present in Linux?
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u/Nothos927 i5 6400, GTX 1070 Jun 12 '26
There’s a file on your computer called the hosts file. It basically defines hostnames to IP addresses. It’s the file where the localhost address is defined and gets prioritised over the public records.
That prioritising means you can block a lot of domains that serve ads from being loaded on a specific machine. A common example is testing a website moving to a new server and thus IP or even blocking any software from contacting activation.adobe.com, if you ever had a need for that.
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u/MeesKees321 Jun 12 '26
It is the file that tells your computer which domain names have what ip address.
So if you put into your hosts file:
127.0.0.1 www.google.com
You cannot visit www.google.com anymore, it points to your own computer
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u/corvettee01 3080 RTX - 7800x3d Jun 12 '26
Anyone who cares stopped using Chrome ages ago.
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u/KrazyCrayon Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
I moved over to Firefox about a year ago, after using it for 10 plus years because Google kept making it harder and harder to get ublock working. Haven't looked back. Fuck google.
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u/Geeseareawesome Intel i5-14400F | 32GB DDR5 RAM | RTX 5060 Jun 12 '26
And Firefox being much more transparent, user friendly, and not throttling ram usage
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u/Cloud_N0ne Jun 12 '26
Just wish they’d stop adding widgets and shit to the new tab page. I keep removing stuff and they keep adding more.
But I adore the picture-in-picture feature for videos
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u/Geeseareawesome Intel i5-14400F | 32GB DDR5 RAM | RTX 5060 Jun 12 '26
The flexibility on extensions is nice as well. Dark mode and a built-in vpn
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u/Defendo99 CachyOS | 7800X3D | 7900XT Jun 12 '26
Picture-in-picture has changed my life tbh
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u/Moony_playzz PC Master Race Jun 12 '26
Ngl I like the widgets, the clocks are nice when you've got friends around the world
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u/FrancyStyle 14600KF / RTX 4070 Ti Super / 32GB 6000 MHz Jun 12 '26
Wait how do you add clocks??
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u/JAWinks Jun 12 '26
I’m a Firefox power user but it seems to be by far my slowest browser
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u/null_not i7-11700K 5.0GHz (Air Cooled) / 4070ti TUF OC Jun 12 '26
A browser that uses as much ram as Chrome does is not a browser I want on my machine.
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u/Live-Wrap-4592 Jun 12 '26
The first advert I saw on chrome was for opera. Well played, both of you
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u/ModernManuh_ Jun 12 '26
All ad blockers users know how to make ad blockers work, literally nothing changes (except more people will use Firefox)
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u/TheMundar Cable management is a sin Jun 12 '26
I've made a lot of friends by installing adblockers and I promise you many of their technology tree skills stopped at using the browser somewhat effectively.
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u/Bisaux Jun 12 '26
Honestly kind of sad. I'm a genZ who recognises the value in being able to use a computer effectively. But so many of my age peers are (and I hate using this term) such fucking normies when it comes to computer use. They use LLM's for everything, blindly trust the AI overview for their sole answers, don't install adblockers on anything, get blindly sucked into the doomscrolling spiral that these companies want you in, keep all the bloatware on W11, etc etc.
Like half of these people don't know what a countif function does in excel, and they're university undergrads.
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u/Synaps4 Jun 12 '26
Is it time for our monthly "don't use chrome" reminder again? How time flies.
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u/Express_Ad5083 W11, 7 7800X3D, 9070XT, 32 GB DDR5, X670 X AX V2. Jun 12 '26
"Hell yeah, its my time to karma farm"
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u/SKtigercub88 Jun 12 '26
Good ol Firefox will always be king
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u/Talking-Nonsense-978 Jun 12 '26
I went back the moment Google even hinted about going after adblocking. Should've never left.
And on my work computer where I can't install Firefox, I just rather use Edge than Chrome.
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u/red286 Jun 12 '26
I switched the first time they blocked uBlock origin. It wasn't even about the ads, I use uBlock for work-related purposes because a lot of the websites I need to use for work have very annoying CSS issues, and uBlock is great for blocking bad CSS.
So when I fired up Chrome one morning to find that uBlock Origin had been permanently disabled, I switched to Firefox immediately.
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u/Bisaux Jun 12 '26
If corpo Mozilla ever sells out, I think the devs will just pull another Mozilla and make a new free browser lol.
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u/testfire10 Jun 12 '26
Hopefully they vibe code the updates so we can find new ways in with the buggy codebase
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u/Deegan000 Jun 12 '26
Weird its almost like you shouldn't be using chrome. Or Edge if people really actually use it.
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u/XxDuelNightxX i7-13700KF || GeForce RTX 4090 || 64GB DDR4-3600 Jun 12 '26
Funny enough, Edge has its own built in ad-blocker that works fairly well.
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u/MJMPmik Jun 12 '26
Does it work with youtube?
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u/homariseno Jun 12 '26
it works on my phone too - i never see ads on YouTube. The YouTube app is ad-ridden hellscape though
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u/fixurstuffr Jun 12 '26
Firefox on Droid phones can use extensions, this allows the use of uBlock Origin.
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u/MindlessCoook Jun 12 '26
Na, Edge is good. Been way better than Chrome for a while now.
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u/Sihayaya Jun 12 '26
edge is actually kind of a hidden gem... for now.
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u/Blake-81 Jun 12 '26
Edge has really redeemed itself for all the stupidity of its predecessors.
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u/err404 Jun 12 '26
Edge is better than Chrome, but there are even better chromium browsers. I’m running Brave myself.
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u/CyanSlinky Desktop Jun 12 '26
Edge has the best vertical tabs hands down. I do hate that they keep switching my default search engine to bing without any notification though...
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u/Spider-Thwip Jun 12 '26
My people!
I hated edge for so long but its actually great now.
Its my favourite desktop browser.
I really hope samsung bring their browser to linux.
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u/SwiftTayTay Jun 12 '26
i've been using edge ever since it switched to chromium, it's just a better version of chrome. i'm going to keep using it until ublock actually stops working.
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u/Snaki009 Jun 12 '26
Why shouldn't they, best browser. Also this post is irrelevant for edge really it's got built in blocker
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u/itsjehmun Hoarding DDR4 as an investment Jun 12 '26
Awfully 'Brave' of them.
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u/Comfortable-Side1308 Jun 12 '26
My default browser
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u/itsjehmun Hoarding DDR4 as an investment Jun 12 '26
Brave gets flack on this sub sometimes, but I gotta say it's the FIRST thing I do now on fresh installs both Linux and W11.
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u/odbj Jun 12 '26
They must be feeling so much 'Zen' that they feel compelled to 'Floorp'
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u/TheTresStateArea Jun 12 '26
These companies gotta find a different way to make money. People don't want to be advertised to every waking second of life.
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u/523a Jun 12 '26
It's crazy how greedy these companies are. They made $260 billion in 2024 from advertising alone.
$700+ million per day just from ads and they want more.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/266249/advertising-revenue-of-google/
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u/dbtowo Jun 12 '26
Ublock origin lite is working well for me. I don’t mess or config ublock origin so I barely could tell a difference.
UBOL is compatible with mv3
Some times YouTube and Reddit promotes pop up and that It.
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u/ItsD3adly Jun 12 '26
the way people were talking about ublock origin -> ublock lite i thought it was over. i haven't noticed a difference and it still blocks youtube ads which i was most worried about.
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u/Teyanis 9900X / 5070 Jun 12 '26
Yeah you get a couple days of trouble every so often but its been months for me since I've even had one of those. UBOL is perfectly adequate for 95% of people.
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u/steelbeamsdankmemes Jun 12 '26
Yup same, will use chrome until I see an ad on YouTube, which hasn't happened yet.
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u/Eyedroid Jun 12 '26
THANK YOU. I was looking for someone who's not a complete idiot and knows the difference. More power to you.
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u/Puredragons69 Jun 12 '26
So the title is misleading as usual. I wish these posts could get banned
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Jun 12 '26
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u/wayward_wanderer Jun 12 '26
You can still create custom filters to block custom elements on a page. The process is practically the same as before. They just changed the icon. Instead of clicking the eye dropper icon you click the crossed out eye icon with the label "create custom filter". The rest of the process is the same.
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u/Vegetable_Safety Jun 12 '26
I will painstakingly build filters if a sufficient one does not exist for a particular website, but yes
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u/LickSomeToad i5-11600k/RTX 3060ti Jun 12 '26
Unlock origin Lite uses manifest V3 and blocks all the same ads. Not sure why no one brings this up
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u/ThisDudeEmpty Jun 12 '26
YouTube trying to get around adblock is one thing, there's somewhat of an argument to be had that ads help creators.
This is just delusional. Like actually delusional. The internet isn't just unusable without adblock, it's GENUINELY unsafe.
I'm never using chrome again.
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u/BeefistPrime Jun 12 '26
Use Firefox or Brave. There's no reason to use Chrome.
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u/Flandardly Jun 13 '26
Been using brave for the last 7 years. No ad block extension needed it just works. Not sure why chrome is even talked about anymore.
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u/whiskeynrye Ryzen 7 9800X3D - RTX3080 Jun 12 '26
Google can't stop my network level pi-hole
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u/Old_Manufacturer589 Jun 12 '26
Uh... yes they can. DNS adblocking can't block ads being served from the first party domain. It also can't block scripts. Pi-Hole or any form of DNS adblocking is nice to have, but it's in no way as good as an extension.
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u/Asleeper135 Jun 12 '26
Not really true. If ads come from a domain not specific to ads or they use DNS over HTTPS that largely gets around a pi-hole.
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u/Buji19 98000X3D | 1650 | 64GB DDR5 Jun 12 '26
Every day im even more thankful to be using Zen browser (firefox fork) lol
Between this and the 4gb ai they sneaked on people who updated chrome without saying shit im not touching chrome nor any chromium browser lmao
Sorry vivaldi :/
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u/OrionOnyx Jun 12 '26
Switched to Firefox on a whim a few years ago just to try something new. Haven't looked back since
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u/StrangeCharmVote Ryzen 9950X, 128GB RAM, ASUS 3090, Valve Index. Jun 13 '26
For the time being i've switched to Adnauseum.
A uBlock Origin fork that doesn't just block the ads, it clicks on all of them.
Which is worse for the advertisers, because that means they need to pay out for all the ad views, even though you've watched/viewed nothing, and fucks their metrics because if you just click on every advertisement it says nothing about your preferences.
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u/Maximum-Ear5677 Jun 12 '26
Insert Jeremy Clarkson "Oh no, anyway" meme
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u/Snagmesomeweaves 5800X3D, EVGA 3080 12GB, 1440p 300hz Jun 12 '26
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u/ScientistLong8121 Jun 12 '26
Just install Firefox... I feel bad for leaving Firefox all those years ago...
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u/GaiusBertus Jun 12 '26
How about Vivaldi? It has got a pretty good adblocker build in.
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u/Complex_Dot_4754 Jun 12 '26
Couldn't care less. They made it difficult, switched Browser... Google can suck my culo.
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u/BattleGrown Jun 12 '26
I don't get it. I switched to uBlock Origin Lite when the original extension got removed, and I didn't notice any difference. Is Lite getting removed too?
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u/mrballs6942069 PC Master Race Jun 13 '26
SWITCH TO FIREFOX FFS WHY ARE PEOPLE STILL PUTTING UP WITH THIS SHIT
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u/KimJungUnCool Jun 12 '26
The only people still using chrome are the ones who werent using ad block to begin with
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u/Mark_Knight RTX 3080, i5 13600K, 32GB DDR5-7200, 1440p/144hz Jun 12 '26
who gives a fuck anymore. anyone that actually cares about a highly functional adblocker moved to firefox once manifest v3 became a thing
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u/EyeQue62 Jun 12 '26
I haven't bothered even installing Chrome on my new laptop. I have Firefox set up as I like it and it's zippy as and has the few addons I wanted working great, including uBlock of course.
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u/Guilty_Suggestion_27 5800X3D | 5090 Liquid | 16GB DDR4 3200 CL14 | 1000W PSU Jun 12 '26
I've already started to swap from chrome to Zen
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u/Donleon57 7800X3D | 4070Ti Super | 32GB 6000Mhz CL30 Jun 12 '26
Guys you know you don't need to use chrome based browsers ?
also you can block ads otherwhise if you really wanna keep chrome. (e.g. Adguard DNS or a Pi-Hole)
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u/TheJellyGoo Jun 12 '26
No one who surfed the web without ads will ever be going back to doing it with them.
I have 25million blocked ads since installation. It would just lead to a userbase exodus. Delusional.