HN Reader

Bypassing Google's big anti-adblock update

1044

919

Even if bigs exists to work around what Google is doing, that isn’t the right way forward. If people don’t agree with Google move, the only correct course of action is to ditch Chrome (and all Chromium browsers). Hit them where it hurts and take away their monopoly over the future direction of the web.

6 months agoby al_borland

The best bypass is to use Firefox. uBlock Origin works best in Firefox:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...

6 months agoby breve

>They decided it wasn't a security issue, and honestly, I agree, because it didn't give extensions access to data they didn't already have.

So they admit that MV3 isn't actually any more secure than MV2?

6 months agoby krackers

An adblocker is a firewall for your brain. Google should have no say over what I consume and when and with for instance youtube being pretty much unavoidable their monopoly position is abused by forcing you to pay for it. Doubly so because of the bait-and-switch, I'm fine with platforms that start off being ad supported, I'm not fine with platforms that become huge on piracy that are free to use by everybody and not an ad in sight and then when bought out suddenly you end up as a captive lemon to be squeezed.

6 months agoby jacquesm

> Adblockers basically need webRequestBlocking to function properly. Pretty convenient (cough cough) for a company that makes most of its revenue from ads to be removing that.

Why does this keep getting repeated? It's not true.

Anyone can use uBlock Origin Lite with Chrome, and manifest v3. It doesn't just work fine, it works great. I can't tell any difference from the old uBlock Origin in terms of blocking, but it's faster because now all the filtering is being done in C++ rather than JavaScript. Works on YouTube and everything.

I know there are some limits in place now with the max number of rules, but the limits seem to be plenty so far.

6 months agoby crazygringo

So OP got Google to patch a harmless "issue" that could've been used by addon devs to bypass MV3 restrictions. Hope it was worth the $0.

6 months agoby throwaway73945

I suppose that switching to Brave will be one of the best solutions after all. They have already comment this in June: https://brave.com/blog/brave-shields-manifest-v3

6 months agoby raydenvm

Haven't missed Chrome once since switching to https://brave.com/

6 months agoby pnw

I don't "bypass" Chrome when they want to melt my brain with their business model, I use Firefox. I don't "bypass" Windows when they want to melt my brain with their business model, I use Linux. No idea why so many "hackers" doing "bypasses" can't instead take action that is simpler, long lasting, and easier. Do people need to jerked around 50 times for 20 years before realizing it will keep happening and their "bypasses" are just temporary bandaids?

6 months agoby zulban

https://getfirefox.org

Even ignoring the adblock issues, Chrome isn't worth it... Google themselves spy on you with it. Cockblocking adblock just puts extra emphasis on what you should have already known.

6 months agoby NoMoreNicksLeft

Would love to give Firefox a chance but one thing that stops me (apart from occasional website loading bugs) is inability to install PWAs. Not sure why it’s not implemented like it has been for a long time in Chrome and all its forks.

I have found a 3rd party extension that claims to facilitate this (0) but still feel uncomfortable to use this for privacy reasons.

(0) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pwas-for-fire...

6 months agoby RockstarSprain

You bypass it by installing Firefox.

6 months agoby urda

I switched away from Chrome years ago. Not because of their weird anit-adblock moves. Just because the quality of their software dropped. Because of various UI bugs of their tabs that didn't get fixed with updates. I remembers that when Chrome came out it was rock solid and fast so it's a huge disappointment.

I tried out Firefox again and nowadays it is as fast and as solid as Chrome used to be. Never looked back. I still keep Chrome for cases when somebody YOLOed their website, but I use it the way I used to use IE, briefly and with distaste. With the next upgrade I might just start using builtin Edge for that and not bother to install Chrome at all.

6 months agoby scotty79

Just use Firefox with ublock origin. On Android too. Nightly has tabs on tablet.

At work I use Edge (MS integration w SSO and all). Edge has some nice features like vertical tabs and copilot. (yes, email writing with AI is nice)

We are allowed Chrome and FF so have those too with ublock on FF. Chrome is 3rd choice if a site really needs it and for testing.

6 months agoby heraldgeezer

Just for anyone here switching: Don't get firefox; get firefox developer edition. It's firefox but you don't need to pay Mozilla $20 and go through verification to local-load browser extensions you write for yourself. (you can do this on non-DE firefox but you have to reload extensions every time you restart browser)

I've been off Chrome for a while after using it for about a decade. Firefox is nice to have around, but ngl, it's behind on standards and some of its implementations are wack. Its performance on video is poor, and its memory management relatively awful, especially if you're the kind of person who leaves your computer on for months at a time; be prepared to open a new tab and copy-paste any "HUD" tab URLs you leave open (e.g. CNBC for the top ticker). I feel like the kind of person who buys an Intel GPU, and I have some thoughts about Nvidia for pushing me here.

6 months agoby kldg

1) A lot of ads are terribly overdone and even sometimes actively malicious (malware or tracking). It makes no sense to aggressively try to stamp it out like Google is doing

2) Aside from the Page/Brin stealing tech salaries thing (yeah it really did happen) what happened to Google? They've always been a bit incompetent but their behavior (ie Chrome and increasing censorship on Google/Youtube the last few years) has been really bad, I thought they were basically founded off idealism

6 months agoby alex1138

Luckily I only need to use chrome on my work laptop, I use Firefox everywhere else. Still sad to see uBlock origin stop working which was useful to keep a cleaner experience when browsing the web for work reasons (research, documentation, etc).

6 months agoby loloquwowndueo

So what’s the conclusion? Can we use a different Chrome based browser and avoid MV3? What’s the decision for privacy after this has happened?

6 months agoby daft_pink

I really wish Apple revived Safari for Windows.

In my opinion, it's the only browser that nicely balances performance, privacy, and security.

6 months agoby RS-232

Reading the comments, I see a lot of hate for Firefox. What is the explanation for this (other than people not trying Firefox and assuming it's inferior)?

6 months agoby bgnn

I remember back in the day, one of the big selling points for Google’s search engine used to be that the advertising didn’t get in the way. Imagine that.

6 months agoby bborud

I bypass Google's big anti-adblock updates by using Firefox

6 months agoby atlintots

So theoretically Chrome is open source.

Open source is supposed to prevent issues like this, as it is possible to fork Chrome pre-MV3 and preserve this functionality.

However, this appears to have not happened.

Perhaps we need a better definition of “open source”, or well-funded organizations that are adversarial in nature to the maintainers of open source commercial software.

Lots of f/oss has malware and misfeatures in it, hiding behind the guise of “open source”. It doesn’t count unless there are non-corporate interests at work in the project that are willing and able to fork.

6 months agoby sneak

As an exclusive Firefox user, with really great ad blocking features, I didn’t notice that Chrome got worse on this front. I’m sorry to hear that. Perhaps it’s time for a change. Best of luck.

6 months agoby froderick

> But I don't know how to make an adblocker, so I decided to report the issue to Google in August 2023. It was patched in Chrome 118 by checking whether extensions usin

Well, thanks for nothing?

6 months agoby fracus

People shouldn’t be using chrome anymore. Not even the technologically illiterate. I’d go so far as to say even safari is possibly more private.

6 months agoby diebillionaires

Try Safari, Firefox, or any other non-Chrome browser.

6 months agoby bradgessler

No judgement but I would love to hear from Google employees who worked on this. Do they believe they are improving the internet in any way?

6 months agoby ujkhsjkdhf234

Signed up to complain about this. YT is no longer worth watching ads for. Anything that is worth paying for, the money needs to go via Patreon so the publisher isn't demonetized at a whim. The rest is brain-rot, utter shit and a lot of damaging misinformation. I hope it dies. While it remains easy to do so, I will "steal" with yt-dlp and proudly watch it ad-free on VLC on my computer. If they break that then I'm no longer interested.

When this became adversarial, which was a battle that lasted the last year of inconvenience I ended up dumping every Google thing I have. So the Pixel is GrapheneOS now with no Google crap. Browser is Firefox. Email has moved from Gmail to Fastmail with a domain.

My Google account is closed after 20 years. The relationship is dead. They can do what they want. I don't care any more.

6 months agoby crinkly

Somebody should probably fork chromium.

I remember when Firefox was getting traction, it had a killer feature: speed.

A chromium fork could come with a simple killer feature: bringing back the possibility of blocking requests.

I’m pretty sure it would quickly gain traction.

6 months agoby znpy

> I don't know how to make an adblocker, so I decided to report the issue to Google in August 2023.

> It was patched in Chrome 118 by checking whether extensions using opt_webViewInstanceId actually had WebView permissions.

> For the report, I netted a massive reward of $0.

Snitches get stitches, not rewards.

FWIW, on Windows Google relies on the registry to determine weather to use V2 or V3, and it can be reenabled: https://gist.github.com/MuTLY/71849b71e6391c51cd93bdea36137d...

6 months agoby moffkalast

Google hijacked the Internet by dominating web standards and abusing their market position. We could vote on a new RFC and Google gets the veto vote merely if they don’t want to put it in Chrome.

6 months agoby exabrial

I keep hearing that no-one gives a shit about Firefox but I've used it since I was a kid in the mid-2000's (including on mobile) and never had an issue.

The one exception is that I do allot of reading/web surfing using lynx with a couple of flags set but aside from this, I've never seen the need for other browsers.

Why is Firefox 'dead' and why does anyone care what Apple/Google does with their proprietary bullshit?

6 months agoby korse

I was able to bypass the chrome changes by installing firefox. Honestly it's better than I thought it would be, and I have no serious complaints, or broken sites. Yay web standards.

6 months agoby ltbarcly3

Being neither an expert nor illiterate I've been blocked, very recently, from websites vital to me. Whether caused by Microsoft (most likely) or Google (less so) I've never had problems like this before. Usually, a little patience and they resolve the issue in short order. I hope this is the case now. Long ago I used IE, then Firefox and finally settled on Chrome. These current issues, if they persist, will be enough to make me move.

6 months agoby shitonU2

> For the report, I netted a massive reward of $0.

Sure, not a security issue. But given how much Google hates Ad Blockers, they could have easily given him some USD 50,000.

6 months agoby qwertox

I’ve been happy with Orion on macOS. I get it’s WebKit but at least it’s not Chrome. Brave was also good if you must have chromium.

6 months agoby unstatusthequo

Just get AdGuard as it's a superior solution anyway.

And I mean the actual app that can modify responses, not a simple DNS filter.

6 months agoby baxuz

     Supermium

https://github.com/win32ss/supermium

https://win32subsystem.live/supermium/

6 months agoby ck2

Google is running an experiment: how much ads crap users are willing to tolerate before they switch supplier.

6 months agoby akomtu

For work I need various profiles, The feature is so bad on Firefox…. Please community just fix that…

6 months agoby coppa

Why couldn't someone just compile Chromium and strip out webRequestBlocking from the code?

6 months agoby pogue

Would it be possible to create a web browser where different tabs are running other browsers? Like I could have chrome in one tab and Firefox in another? Almost like a VM?

6 months agoby closetkantian

> It was patched in Chrome 118 by checking whether extensions using opt_webViewInstanceId actually had WebView permissions

soo will this still just work if we give uBo webview permission?

6 months agoby rasz

My solution is easier: just use Safari. 1Blocker has been nearly bulletproof for me for years, and I enable some ads filtering on my router.

6 months agoby kylehotchkiss

I did not even realize my ublock origin was turned off. My HOST FILE script did the same service: https://expatcircle.com/cms/privacy-advanced-ublock-origin-w...

More concerning is that social fixer was turned off: https://socialfixer.com/

MFGA Make Facebook Great again ;-)

6 months agoby Beijinger

I notice people being very reserved on their criticisms of Google, knowing Google can end their careers in an instant if it chooses to.

6 months agoby Garvi

>If only I weren't 8 years old back then [bug discovery]... maybe I could have cashed in.

Impressive and feels bad man.

6 months agoby maxglute

[flagged]

6 months agoby SuperShibe

Stop using Chrome. (i.e. as main browser I use Firefox which with containers is unmatched and Brave for any websites that I used Chrome in the past mainly for faster JS, while speed is +/- per bench) This could not have much effect on Google in the beginning (technically informed users first), but at some point it can (and I predict will, as technical literacy and privacy awareness is increasing, plus greed and productization of user data does have limits..) be avalanche moment. It will take variable time due to many variables, but is inevitability (i.e. universe law of "optimal path"). In my opinion, Google has miscalculated with the move to obsolete MV2 (masking it as "security" adds to dishonesty and consequent distrust, which is the opposite from the original Google's founding principles)

6 months agoby nomendos

Using ebpf to block ads would be fun !! Need a way to translate rules into blocking rules for ebpf

6 months agoby sciencesama

This seems to make a good case for the brave browser

6 months agoby Cyclone_

> But I don't know how to make an adblocker, so I decided to report the issue to Google in August 2023. (...) For the report, I netted a massive reward of $0

rome doesn't pay traitors.

6 months agoby znort_

i never made chrome my daily driver. firefox and safari are wonderful browsers.

6 months agoby macinjosh

Just use uBlock Origin Lite.

6 months agoby andxor

who uses browser level Adblockers anymore?

Just use Pihole.

Traveling? VPN home then Pihole

6 months agoby john_alan

Safari + Wipr2 FTW!

6 months agoby delduca

I honestly thought reading this blog post was quite refreshing and I had a little smirk at the caption of the photo. Thank you for sharing!

6 months agoby orliesaurus

Stop using chrome

6 months agoby brianzelip

finally switched to firefox. no regrets

6 months agoby BeautifulOrb

I got downvoted for commenting this, why can't we make a ManifestV2-like framework using .DLLs ? This can enable network control for ad blockers and Google can do nothing about it.

6 months agoby est

Good

6 months agoby yyhhooq

Why not use DuckDuckGo?

6 months agoby CommenterPerson

I use Safari.

6 months agoby raspasov

>(Shown above: my earnings from this bug.)

I lol'd!

6 months agoby replyifuagree

I'd gladly pay for YouTube without ads if I trusted that it would remain ad free, but the track record from various companies on this is not good.

6 months agoby labrador

Chrome full on blocked uBlock Origin (and others) this week. There is still four flags [1] you can play with that will allow you to re-enable it again, but this is a losing battle of course. The inevitable is coming.

Nothing comes close to Safari battery life on MacOS, followed by chrome, followed by firefox in last place (with all its other issues - those claiming otherwise have stockholm syndrome). I've tried taking Orion for a spin which should offer the battery life of Safari with the flexibility of running FF and chrome extensions - but it hasn't stuck yet. As much as I'd like to use FF, I really don't want to shave 10-20% (?) off a battery charge cycle when I spend 90% of my day in the browser.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/1lx59m0/resto...

6 months agoby deanc