I had to use the mobile version of Chrome recently on a locked down work device with an MDM policy that prevented installation of other browsers. It made me realize I had no idea just how far gone the mobile web has become with ads.
As an experiment I grabbed a random article on my Google News feed for today and opened it in Chrome with no ad blocking allowed and Samsung Internet with ad blocking enabled to compare.
Chrome produces a nightmarish hell scape of ads that just gets worse the further down you scroll.
Samsung Internet isn’t perfect because there is still a large banner taking up space at the top of the screen, but it blocks all of the ads in the article along with the website’s own ads for other articles.
The cynic in me, however, acknowledges that the truth of the situation looks more like this, even with ad blocking enabled.
Thanks for the this, I got a chuckle. Especially gizmodo…
aD BloCkeRs aRe RuINinG oUR wEbSitE!
Uhm yeah? The more ad blockers are used the more ads they have to show to the rest of the users to make up the lost revenue
Weird, I don’t see anything like this on firefox.
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Sounds like a great reason not to use the home screen search bar. I use nova launcher so I can disable it completely.
Reading this just made me decide to remove the Google search bar from my home screen and put the Firefox widget there instead, but I’m a little disappointed that it really just functions as another button to open Firefox instead of letting me use the bar like it visually appears it should be.
The type of widget you’re thinking of hasn’t existed for a while. Google broke that functionality on Android a couple versions back. Some apps still make widgets that create the illusion it’s working that way, but it really isn’t.
So no, you can’t have a functioning Firefox search bar on the home screen.
But you can make a widget that’s basically a shortcut to the internal searchbar. One tap will:
Open the browser, create a new tab, place the cursor in the search bar, and open the keyboard.
It serves the same function: one tap then you can start typing your query and hit enter. It just doesn’t do that on the homescreen.
Yep, it’s just annoying when the Google search widget gets to work that way.
On the Nova Launcher, you can change the default search app to Firefox.
Yeah, nova launcher is the broken record response but there really is a reason for it. Its the stock launcher on crack, use it out of the box or spend hours tuning it into your own thing, while being super easy to use either way.
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What godawful browser is injecting that ai nonsense? The ads are bad enough but the browser itself seems to be using 1/3rd of the screen
This is on an iPhone. They’re using Microsoft’s Edge “browser” which is just a reskinned Safari.
For those who don’t know, Apple’s developer terms explicitly state:
2.5.6 Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit JavaScript.
Until Apple changes the rule to comply with new EU laws. Hope those laws will affect users globally, not just in the EU.
Hope those laws will affect users globally, not just in the EU.
Maybe. You know how Apple how is. Lol
i could really see it going either way. apple likes to pander to the developer crowd, and they also like to have a consistent and streamlined operating system. both of those things would be strong incentives to roll out the changes worldwide. (many in the “developer crowd” would probably want access to third party app stores and non webkit browsers, and many people who don’t follow technology closely might be very confused by things like the firefox app being fundamentally different in the EU vs US.)
depending on how the laws are enforced, people could also theoretically switch their phone region to the EU in order to download those apps.
although apple also loves to have control over their operating system, and they have a pretty large market share in the US. i doubt they’d love giving up that much control.
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It’s not really “going out of my way to dig at Apple”
There’s little reason to use any other browser on iOS because of the policy they enforce. If all you’re getting is just Safari with a different face, you’re literally making your browsing experience slower and worse. Some people don’t know this so my comment educates them on such.
Wait. So you can’t install Firefox and uBlock Origin on iPhone?
I’ve been contemplating moving to an iPhone but this is actually quite a big turn off.
Firefox doesn’t support extensions on iOS. As it’s currently impossible. Due to Apple’s restrictions forcing the use of WebKit, this makes Firefox (Gecko) extensions incompatible. Additionally, Apple’s own extension system for WebKit is proprietary. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-ons-firefox-ios
As far as features go, what can’t natively be done is handled with JavaScript injections. As WebKit allows you to do this. Since it’s locked down most take advantage of this. Naturally, injecting several functions can slow down the web experience. About the only feature IMO that will matter to most people is the ability to sync content. Such as passwords and browsing history.
Sorry, I edited my post after doing some research and came across Mozilla’s own articles stating the same.
Oh. No worries. Lol. Wild timing on that.
If the EU ruling ends up being a thing for the rest of the world out of simplicity, then iOS users are stuck in a shitty situation.
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Does it support add-ons?
It supports ad ons.
Lol
It’s not Edge. They’re using the Google app.
Idk why the other guys saying it’s some edge browser. This is the google app on iPhone. The bottom part pops up when you click on articles because they’re pushing their AI summaries. It’s actually a great feature but it’s annoying how much space it takes up
Honestly web browsing on mobile has been a piece of sh1t for a long time, without adblockers it’s a total cancer.
And even with an adblocker it’s always the god damn cookie popups…
Firefox has a plugin called I Don’t Care About Cookies, Which basically just ignores the pop-ups and auto except / rejects them, but for some strange reason that plugins you can add to the mobile version of Firefox are extremely limited.
Essentially the plugin implements the functionality that should have been mandated under the cookie law to begin with which makes the choice browser side rather than web side
I think ublock has a block list for cookie notices as well
OMG why aren’t these checked by default
I had the lists activated but they still didn’t work.
Just activated the Adguard ones and I’m not seeing any more cookies crap for now, thanks.
Adguard is single handedly one of the best
What’s your font? Looking like Garamond which is nice
I think it’s just the default Firefox for Android font, my system font is the third option in the styles settings of Android 11 but idk if that affects it.
I was wondering about the system font! The font for the time, etc. Thanks
You can install any extension in the beta version. Some won’t work though.
use the i still don’t care… one, official one got bought out by avast and contains google analytics
If you want more addons on mobile you can use Nightly and create a custom addon collection. However the nightly app gets updated daily and you have to get a firefox account so be warned
If you use Firefox nightly it has this feature built-in
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Firefox and uBlock Origin…. Now sadly I wish I could find something like that on iPhone.
Change the phone dns to nextdns.io or adguards dns. Use dns over https if possible.
I use 1blocker on the iPhone. Unfortunately (iirc) they stopped doing lifetime purchase and went the subscription route. Luckily I purchased it before they did that.
It works great.
iPhone has AdGuard pro.
Setup a PiHole. Not 100% guaranteed but it stops a lot.
Can’t exactly carry a pihole with you everywhere….
My home wireguard run off my phone. I just connect my phone to my home wireguard when out of the house.
Was coming to say exactly this.
nextdns
Firefox and reader mode is your best option for mobile.
Not sure atm what the extension I use for safari on iPhone is called, but it works great for me. I‘ll look it up when I get to it
Late Update: I use Hyperweb, the free version is totally enough for me and works great
Just use adguard on an iPhone. I see 0 ads across all apps I use.
Why do you choose to view ads? Inaction is a choice.
I love how it just keep getting worst as I scroll.
Yup. I work from home and have a pihole on my network at home so I’ve gotten used to not seeing the ads.
Was browsing on mobile data while on the road and was reminded why its necessary. It was unbearable.
use nextdns
I do the same with an (almost) always-on vpn to the same pi with wireguard set up. I use Tasker on Android to auto start the wireguard tunnel if I disconnect from my home Wi-Fi. I typically only disable it if I’m running into issues with an app etc, and I’m too lazy to dig into and whitelist any relevant domain.
I’m working on setting up a VPN, so even when mobile I’ll connect back through my home network to view filtered adverts. At least, I might end up using DNS from my home anyway.
Would be nice if such behaviour tanked SEO
From what I understand, web crawlers see a totally different version of the site than users do
Only due to using a different user agent, it’s totally possible to build a for-the-people pagerank that would see what we see and deprioritize stuff like ads and fluff on recipe pages
it’s totally possible to build a for-the-people pagerank that would see what we see and deprioritize stuff like ads and fluff on recipe pages
Why haven’t you built it then?
It’s on the todo list, just behind a lot of other stuff xD
No profit in doing it.
What, you don’t enjoy ads on your articles that are also ads?
don’t you enjoy discussing with your friends and family what interesting ads you’ve seen lately? - what marketers think people actually do
And yet they’re baffled as to why so many people use adblockers
huh
Just to clarify what’s happening here - The top 15% of the screenshot? That’s the website itself. The rest is an ad. That’s actually insane.
I’ve been wishing for an ability to blacklist search results somehow, because of websites like this. For tech, stuff like CNET or Zdnet. For gaming, it’s gamesradar, or CBR, or especially gameranx. All just garbage information with 300 cookies to feed the ad networks
Have you considered Kagi? I’ve not used it but it looks like it has the exact features you want.
Kagi is fabulous. You can also use nextdns to block ads from getting in. They have a generous free tier and the unlimited is cheap. I have it on my router = ad free house.
Spot on for what browsing without adblockers looks like. What a hellscape
Calyxos+firefox+ublock for phone
Gentoo+librewolf+ublock for the home
Or just Brave
I don’t use chromium based applications.
