this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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Ad blocking is alive and well, despite Chrome's attempts to make it harder (www.theregister.com)
submitted 1 day ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Is it?

I used vanilla Chrome with “Ublock lite” in someone else’s computer for a bit, and was shocked by how many ads got through, not to speak of annoyances and what I suspect was a malware link. We also got a related ad on TV soon after browsing for something.

I think Google’s having their cake and eating it. It blocks enough for users to feel like they’re getting Adblock, yet it’s not much skin off Google's back.

[–] shrugs@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Just plug an old PC into it and buy a 3d mouse, that works like a wii controller. Been doing it for years, no ads on YouTube or anywhere else is a bliss.

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 8 points 22 hours ago

Over my cold, dead hands. Fuck you and your shitty worldview,

[–] Zink@programming.dev 39 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (6 children)

I wonder, is hatred of advertising a common thing for folks with ADHD? They take away something you are giving your attention to because it interests you, and shove some other crap in your face just to serve their own interests.

I remember being enraged at the scheduled commercial breaks in the '80s and '90s. The only benefit they had was that I always knew which segment of the show I was in and therefore roughly what time it was.

But now? It is so much damn worse and the normies just seem more OK with it than ever. I just remind myself they are living in a society that conditions them to accept it and gives them a thousand more serious things to worry about.

Edit: some words not have right letters

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

On the contrary, my eyes slide right off ads. They even did when I was a little kid.

Why should I care about something I’m not looking for? It’s just going to make whatever they’re advertising more expensive to buy.

Maybe that’s the autism side of AuADHD taking over, though.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 12 points 22 hours ago

I have wasted so much of my life watching adverts. I am absolutely over it and I get agitated if I watch them now. I cancel any streaming service that tries to force them on me and I am relying more and more on Plex/Jellyfin. I am not going to waste any more of my life watching marketing lies.

[–] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 12 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Combo of ADHD and living through the 2000s with Internet Explorer where ads often installed malware and viruses. If you DIDN'T use an Ad Blocker you were playing a game of Russian Roulette every time you opened a web page.

Popups, pop unders, blaring audio, malware, slow page loads...ads are a scourge.

[–] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I hate it because it’s an unethical practice to manipulate or mislead and all modern advertising uses dark patterns to try to get you to overconsume.

The ADHD distress is just another side effect of all that

[–] Murdoc@sh.itjust.works 6 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

That's me too, an effect of Justice Sensitivity, a common trait among both ADHD and autistic people. Before I knew that I was both, I used to tell people that I was allergic to advertising, to convey my feelings about it.

[–] moonshadow@slrpnk.net 5 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Dismissing righteousness as "justice sensitivity" is absolutely tragic to me. You're right to feel that way, don't change. The problem is with the system, not you. Applying a medical perspective is stigmatizing and self defeating. Your reaction is real, valid, and a far more sane response to these conditions than acceptance

"it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a sick society"

[–] Murdoc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I wasn't trying to dismiss anything. Just pointing out that it's a commonly observed trait in ADHD people. It's a scientific perspective to notice that people with certain neurologies tend to exhibit certain behaviors more often than people with other neurologies. It's not stigmatizing unless you are both generalizing and value judging.

[–] moonshadow@slrpnk.net 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

It's a dehumanizing perspective to categorize experience by "neurologies" and look for problems at an individual rather than systemic level. You don't have "justice sensitivity", you're aware of overwhelming injustice. That's a good thing. Act on it.

[–] Murdoc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 18 hours ago

"Categorize experience"? That kinda sounds like that generalization I was talking about, which is not what this is here. It's a simple matter of "people in this group have a higher likelihood of exhibiting this behavior than people of other groups". Simple observation. It's not saying that only people in this group exhibit it, or even that all people in this group exhibit it. Just that more do. It's not even necessarily claiming direct causation. Maybe people in that group have experiences that make them more likely to exhibit that behavior, so that would make it environmental. But the cause is another discussion.

As for "look for problems at an individual rather than systemic level", I'm afraid that I don't know what you mean here. I wasn't talking about any problems. Are you referring to the injustices themselves maybe? Because that's a whole other discussion too. I'm talking about psychology, not politics or economics. (And while it's not relevant, yes, I am acting on it, and far more systemically than most people.)

[–] Blaster_M@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago

The problem is malvertising and tracking. Despite Google's best efforts, ads that deploy malware still exist, and so does ads that track what page/site you're on to profile you.

[–] BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Lol normies couldn't care less about serious things, they are more worried about petty interpersonal nonsense, like how others perceive them and conspicuous consumption

[–] Zink@programming.dev 1 points 18 hours ago

Oh yeah agreed. Their role in the rat race makes up a significant part of their personal identity. That's part of the design, to keep you focused on your consumption instead of your life.

I guess I should have referred to the noise as attention-grabbing things instead of serious things, lol.

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[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Who the fuck is still using Chrome?!

[–] ilillilillilillililli@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Oh, you know. Just 3.6 billion fucking people (73% of web users). But definitely not you and me. I've been on Firefox since 1.0 (2004) and switched to Librewolf a few years ago when Mozilla lost it.

[–] barnaclebutt@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

While we are making recommendations use IronFox for Android. Also, blah, blah, blah, Linux better, blah blah.

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[–] boaratio@lemmy.world 47 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The ad company hates ad blockers. Whoda thunk it? Also, don't let web browser engines become a monoculture. We went through this shit with Internet Explorer. We know where this leads.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago (5 children)

The biggest issue is that making a browser from scratch takes a lot of resources. It's not cheap and takes a long time.

We essentially have Chrome and Firefox now. And Firefox is starting to enshitify.

We desperately need a third browser.

[–] knexcar@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago

We desperately need a third browser.

Safari?

[–] GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (3 children)
[–] MrKoyun@lemmy.world 5 points 22 hours ago

Also, even though everyone is probably aware of it, Ladybird.

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[–] Tetsuo@jlai.lu 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Most of the time I dont see any ads on YT and I watch a lot of content there. It's getting harder to not get ads there on all my devices but it's doable.

But when I go see my parents, I use their smartTV to watch YT. And I realize how horrible the experience is with all the interruptions and the impossibility to just focus on what you are watching.

And yesterday I got multiple time ads for a crypto scam called Ryxero or something. The scam was using AI clones of Bernard Arnault, a french billionaire, pretending you could win 1000€ a day...

The scam also had deepfakes of news outlets pretending that people in France were "queuing to ATM" to get their money...

I think it's absolutely unacceptable that YT let them serve crypto scams to millions in complete impunity.

I will try to report the scam to authorities. I also reported it to YT but I dont expect them to act. The 3mn long ad was paid by an american business called "EX" which I think serves their scam abroad through YT in complete impunity.

For me the scam and AI clones is obvious but how many got scammed with the complicity of YouTube ? Hundreds ?

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

BTW you can/should install an alternative YT frontend on smart TVs, if you want to watch YT and are forced to use a smart TV. Even something semi-suitable like Pipepipe will do, but there are also frontends more suited for TV use, e.g. SmartTube

[–] Tetsuo@jlai.lu 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

Interesting ! Thanks for the suggestion.

Although I usually have issues with third party clients all the time.

On Android for example I used the following clients so far :

  • Vanced YT
  • Revanced YT
  • Freetube
  • Newpipe
  • Morphe
  • Grayjay

All of them eventually failed or were down for extended durations. Point is, these third party apps are always vulnerable to YT purposefully sabotaging them.

But I will try it out anyway I don't have much to lose.

PS : Hmmm, on Smart Tube's Github :

My development environment was infected by unknown malicious software, as a result of which a few builds may have been affected. Once the issue was detected, I secured everything with a full disk wipe, restored a clean setup, and now all builds are scanned with VirusTotal. The F-Droid version will also be verified before release.

PS2 : My SmartTV is on WebOS, LG's proprietary OS...

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 1 points 18 hours ago

Well, yeah, the dev environment was compromised but the author restored everything and checked that it all works.

Personally I use Pipepipe and Outertube on my android phone, and just watch through a browser with adblock on my Linux phone. Although I don't watch youtube too often, especially on my phone (maybe twice a month or so), I didn't notice any issues with either of those methods, and never got any ads either.

[–] Zink@programming.dev 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Watching TV of any kind at other people's homes, and especially my parents' place, can feel like some real black mirror shit.

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[–] orioler25@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Didn't even notice them trying. Pathetic.

[–] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 235 points 1 day ago (36 children)

Let's be honest: The internet without adblock is unusable. I really do not know how all those people without adblock are doing that.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

Some sites, particularly ones that serve up questionable things like torrents or roms, are horrible without ad blockers.

[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

well that's why most people use apps instead. the real internet is so hostile without a guide.

especially now that you can't use the mainstream browsers and do it. the barrier to entry has gotten so high that i don't blame kids for being put off by computers and prefering their phones for everything. tiktok has annoying ass ads, but no apps are as bad as the average news website...

it reminds me of trying to learn about cars growing up. i didn't learn about cars growing up. i tried, but everyone i tried to learn from spent the whole time complaining about all the anticonsumer practices that made cars shitty these days. all the hoops you have to jump through to work on them yourself anymore. how the manufactures went out of their way over the course of years to take what used to be a fun tinkerers hobby for the everyman and made it incredibly difficult and expensive to do yourself.

my take away was "I hate cars". so when i hear teenagers these days say that they hate computers i get it. they fucking suck now and there's this 8 foot fence of knowing how to make them suck less before they can even start wanting to learn about them. but it's going to take them a very very long time to get good enough with the computer that they can accomplish anything on it better than on their phone. so we have trucks full of ladders that can scale that fence, and even if we lose our ladders we know how to scale that fence barehanded if we gotta. but the kids just walk around the fence because they don't value what's inside. why would they?

so I'm just waiting for the old pc based intent to slowly wither away as we age with it... places like this becoming out last bastions in a world that requires validated apps on phones.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Do people mostly use apps instead? I don't really get that perception, but also everyone in my family basically hates tiktok, facebook, instagram, twitter and other social media sites on principle. My apps are basically 2FAs, email, chats, and tools, but the vast majority of my time on my phone is in Firefox.

[–] MrKoyun@lemmy.world 6 points 22 hours ago

Yes. As someone in High School my peers have no idea whats happening while using a computer and none of them hate that they need to install a bajillion apps for the dumbest stuff. They just do it and keep the apps, even if they legit use it once a year.

Basically none of them know what a folder is, that there are actual files inside their phone/computer. When I'm doing tech support I can't say "open the files app/file explorer and go to x folder" I need to hold their hand through it all "take your mouse here on this icon, click on this, drag and drop this here..." and silently facepalm when they can't drag and drop... Or I make them press keyboard shortcuts that does it for them. Many of them refer to any kind of sideloading/piracy as "installing an apk/installing as an apk" even on iPhones and computers.

I really really believe that mine and the following generations are substantially more tech illiterate than previous ones. Like of course they dont all need to be tech savvy but my dad or my 50 year old teachers know how to open folder or drag and drop and I can just say it as is to them and they will do it fine, maybe after a 2-3 second wait. Can't do that to my peers. They exclusively know how to "use" phones to scroll the social medias, take photos, text and such.

[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

yes, the vast majority of web traffic is phones using apps. no person that uses this platform is an average user.

even if your family hates tiktok it's still massively popular.

especially among the youth who probably only have a really shitty locked down chromebook from their school and the recently developing world. in the global south most people never got a decent computer. they all got phones instead. once you're on a phone everything pushes you towards apps.

[–] Blackfeathr@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago (2 children)

No seriously though. Was using managers laptop very briefly, and needed to look up some instructions. No adblock, Google Chrome default browser, etc. The websites were almost unreadable. Giant video ads in top and bottom corners, big thick flashing distracting ads on all sides making the readable area a little bigger than a postage stamp. Genuinely how do people browse the Internet like this?

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[–] boogiebored@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

If you ever use the web without an adblocker you see why people have such a hard time with it and why apps took over. It’s almost entirely unusable except for some of the data farming social media sites (which also try to funnel you to their apps).

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 27 points 1 day ago

Better be. Also, fuck chrome.

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