1252

Google pulls the plug on uBlock Origin, leaving over 30 million Chrome users susceptible to intrusive ads (www.windowscentral.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by mesamunefire@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

301 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] mke@lemmy.world 186 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I think some people overestimate how many will migrate to Firefox in the near future over this.

High switching cost compared to finding another extension (e.g. uBO Lite), even if the resulting experience is worse.
Just as many Firefox users like Firefox, lots of Chrome users enjoy what they have too. They don't want to lose that.
The kind of tech-aware person who'd switch over this is much more likely to have seen the news months ago and taken action already.

As fun as it is to imagine an Adpocalypse shocking the masses and pushing them to try out alternatives to big tech, it's also way too optimistic, I feel.

[-] OriginalUsername7@lemmy.world 40 points 3 weeks ago

The uBlock Origin chrome extension ~~has~~ had 34 million users. Chrome has 3.45 billion users.

Even if every uBlock user switched, it’s less than 1% of chrome users.

[-] Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Depends on their methodology. Sure, a huge proportion of those are users who haven't heard of uBO, but we're forgetting a lot of caveats:

Electron exists and lots of apps are built on top of it and identify as "Chrome". Judging by the numbers most have been weeded out, but some edge cases do visit more sites so they end up in the count.
A lot of workplaces mandate the browser, which is often Chrome. This also gets counted.
A not insignificant amount of Firefox users change their useragent to Chrome.

All of these skew the numbers towards Chrome. Some Chrome users use a different adblocker which lowers the uBO statistic.

load more comments (3 replies)

load more comments (35 replies)

this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024

1252 points (98.5% liked)

Technology

57944 readers

2982 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS