Google removed uBlock Origin from Chrome

"YouTube is not hiding the skip button. On skippable ads, the button appears after 5 seconds into playback, as always. To allow users to focus on the video creative and make the player more seamless with YouTube content, we are reducing elements on the ads player. In doing so, viewers can engage more deeply with the ad through a cleaner experience."
Click to expand...

When I engage deeply with an ad, it's when I find I can't skip it, my anger begins to boil and I want to throw things.
 
www.techspot.com

Google is purging ad-blocking extension uBlock Origin from the Chrome Web Store

According to recent user reports, uBlock Origin is quickly disappearing from the Chrome Web Store. The official page for the ad-blocking extension now states that it is...
www.techspot.com www.techspot.com

According to recent user reports, uBlock Origin is quickly disappearing from the Chrome Web Store. The official page for the ad-blocking extension now states that it is unavailable because it doesn't comply with Chrome's "best practices" for add-ons. However, we can confirm that the page is still accessible from our EU Windows client.

For those who already have uBlock Origin installed, Chrome now displays a warning that the extension is becoming obsolete. Google introduced Manifest V3 in 2018, claiming it would replace Manifest V2 in the Chromium project due to its supposedly enhanced security features.
Click to expand...
 
When I tried to watch YouTube on Firefox with uBlock Origin this morning I was just getting a white screen. Switched into private mode and it got it going for some reason. I wondered if there was some Google hijinx going on.
 
winjer said:
www.techspot.com

Google is purging ad-blocking extension uBlock Origin from the Chrome Web Store

According to recent user reports, uBlock Origin is quickly disappearing from the Chrome Web Store. The official page for the ad-blocking extension now states that it is...
www.techspot.com www.techspot.com
Click to expand...
Man what a bunch of shit. The only small amount of solace I have is that there must have been a boardroom of people absolutely seething at uBlock for years and crying/pissing their pants about lost ad revenue, to cause them to go this hard on them.

I'd like to hope that Chrome specifically would see a huge loss of downloads/users, but the realist in me knows that the average person is too uninterested/savvy enough to know what's going on.

Hope the antitrust case keeps gaining steam.
 
Pejo said:
Man what a bunch of shit. The only small amount of solace I have is that there must have been a boardroom of people absolutely seething at uBlock for years and crying/pissing their pants about lost ad revenue, to cause them to go this hard on them.

I'd like to hope that Chrome specifically would see a huge loss of downloads/users, but the realist in me knows that the average person is too uninterested/savvy enough to know what's going on.

Hope the antitrust case keeps gaining steam.
Click to expand...

The more Google got agressive with their ads, the more people started to use adblockers.
If it was just an ad here or there, most people would not mind. But when there are so many ads, some of them unskippable, a lot of people were pushed to use ad blockers.
And of course, Google can't understand it's their fault for more and more people to use adblockers, so they now push even harder against it.
 


Current Chrome/Chromium versions (starting 129.0.6668.101 for some and increasingly on 131+) started disabling access to uBO through the Chrome Web Store.

The CWS access can be restored by enabling an enterprise policy. You can also try sideloading uBO instead.

This will give you access to uBO until June/July 2025 when subsequent browser updates will remove the manifest v2 framework entirely and all extensions requiring it to function will simply disappear from your Chrome/Chromium.

You might be tempted to stop updating your browser then - please DON'T DO THAT - up-to-date browsers are your strongest security protection on the web. There is no point in keeping uBO on while leaving known holes in your browser open to attacks.
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  • Does this mean the end of the uBO project as a whole?
Of course NOT! Firefox has stated they have no current plans for removing the mv2 framework and uBO will continue to receive the full support on that browser.
In fact, uBO works best on Firefox, so moving to it should improve your overall uBO experience.

If you really do want to stay on a chromium-engine browser, Brave plans to keep the mv2 framework for as long as feasible for just a handful of extensions - including uBO. A separate setting already exists, but for now still installs from the chrome webstore. Be careful though - disabling the setting currently offers no warning and will remove uBO (and your config).

From other officially supported chromium-engine browsers by the uBO project Edge has not updated their removal timeline yet, so it's possible it might last a little bit longer... Or not - the next 7 or so months might be enough time for them to make up their mind. Also, Opera has recently stated they plan on letting you use uBO.
Click to expand...
  • I'm not able to change browsers because my device is managed by my school/company (or I simply don't want to change browsers). What can I do?
Unfortunately, you'll have to say farewell to the full uBO project (or similar extensions). Your only choice will be installing the less powerful mv3 iteration of your favorite content blocker, e.g. uBOL (uBlock Origin Lite), which should still be enough for most users.
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  • TL;DR - officially uBO supported browsers
    • Firefox - uBO is most powerful in it. It will continue to work.
    • Chrome/Chromium - started removing uBO from the webstore, add a policy (or install manually) to extend support till June 2025.
    • Edge - removal timeline unspecified yet.
    • Brave - policy currently enabled by default. Will let you install uBO + a few other extensions through a special setting afterwards.
      • The setting is still in development so tread carefully - disabling it removes uBO entirely.
    • Opera - plans to let you keep uBO.
Click to expand...

For me, I'm using Brave, so it's still working for me. And it's probably still going to work.
But for other Chromium browsers, it might be time to change to something else, like Firefox or Brave.
Please don't use Opera, that one if full of Chinese malware and spyware.
 
RavageX said:
Never understood why really. I wont have it near my hardware.
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Yeah, at the VERY BEGINNING, sure I used it, but Chrome dropped off so quick. The RAM hogging was INSANE and then the browser in general just kept getting worse and worse, just like the result from Google Search kept getting worse and worse.

I've used Vivaldi for a short time and MS Edge, but I've been using Firefox for quite sometime due to uBlock Origin being removed.
 
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winjer said:








For me, I'm using Brave, so it's still working for me. And it's probably still going to work.
But for other Chromium browsers, it might be time to change to something else, like Firefox or Brave.
Please don't use Opera, that one if full of Chinese malware and spyware.
Click to expand...


I recommend Librewolf, it comes with uBlock out of the box and is already configured for privacy. If you rely on session tokens and webgl you will have to disable some of its anti-fingerprinting settings, however.

Edit: Librewolf is a fork of Firefox, does not use Google as the default search engine, disables Google Safebrowsing by default, and is compatible with most if not all Firefox extensions.
 
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Jinzo Prime said:
I recommend Librewolf, it comes with uBlock out of the box and is already configured for privacy. If you rely on session tokens and webgl you will have to disable some of its anti-fingerprinting settings, however.
Click to expand...

Librewolf is an excellent solution for a quick solution with all privacy settings. Highly recommended.
The only problem is that updates are a couple of days delayed, compared to Firefox. And it requires manual updates. But this is just nitpicking, compared to the advantages of a browser that is properly configured out of the box.

I also tried Firefox+Arkenfox a month ago. But it was a pain to setup and manage.
 
winjer said:
Librewolf is an excellent solution for a quick solution with all privacy settings. Highly recommended.
The only problem is that updates are a couple of days delayed, compared to Firefox. And it requires manual updates. But this is just nitpicking, compared to the advantages of a browser that is properly configured out of the box.

I also tried Firefox+Arkenfox a month ago. But it was a pain to setup and manage.
Click to expand...
If you want a semblance of automatic updates for Librewolf I recommend installing through a package manager like winget or chocolatey. When it's all set up you can have a batch file that runs the update command.

If you manage most of your software through them (which I recommend for silent updates, especially if using chocolatey) you can set yourself up a script to update all programs then shutdown the computer.
 
The Cockatrice said:
firefox GIF by Sarah Schmidt
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Amen, never looking back.
 
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