• Jaximus@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Firefox has been as fast as chrome on most websites for some years now. Chrome was quick a decade ago, not anymore…

      • d-RLY?@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Yeah for real! They were really really quick and light on RAM in the super early days. But that was due to not having much there compared to Firefox and Opera, or even IE and Safari. Even the original Edge browser was kind of quick due to it just not having everything. All of them lose that little advantage after being around long enough to have the code base be added to along with trying to copy features from popular extensions or trying to add random things to stand out. Even when Firefox got heavy with RAM, I still stuck with it due to extensions factually being able to do more that I wanted. But then they solved the RAM issues dramatically with that Quantum refresh, though it did mean many extensions got nurfed by virtue of not having as much access to the OS level stuff (which is probibly a good thing with regards to security and privacy). Even then they still have better access to being able to really block ads and other privacy related things. And that is because they aren’t an ad company that wants to dictate how you are allowed to use the internet.

  • wolfylow@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Man I wish we hadn’t all fallen for the “don’t be evil” motto all those years ago.

    This move from Google is utter, utter bullshit.

    • intrepid@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      We all did. It’s very much possible that they really meant it at the time. Most companies start with a lot of idealism. And then they become successful and consequently the target of cronies. They feel like they’re entitled to everyone else’s earnings and the dark pattern begins.

    • cassetti@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I avoided chrome for a long time. Finally I made the switch because FF was getting too slow on old computers back in the day. Lasted for maybe five or six years before I started getting some bad vibes. Why am I letting google run the web browsing software I’m using? This can’t/won’t be good in the future.

      At least five years ago I made the switch back to Firefox, and haven’t looked back. I love having adblocking that works (I use a router level ad block and ublock origin just in case to ensure I block almost every ad on the internet lol).

      I’m honestly surprised it took people this long to decide to move away from Chrome.

      • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Firefox really became awesome after the quantum update. It really is the best browser to date imo.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Agreed.

        My personal browser history:

        1. IE - came with Windows, before I didn’t really know what a browser was; we also had Mozilla, but only my dad used it
        2. Firefox - as a teenager, I think I started at 1.5 and used until 3.5 or so
        3. Chrome - it was faster than Firefox, so I used and recommended it to a lot of people; this is also when I started to care about web standards (tried to get IE users to use Chrome)
        4. Opera - used for a couple years until they announced 15, which was going to be Chrome based
        5. Firefox - I used Firefox off and on throughout, and remember the switch to rapid releases, and I’ve used it nearly exclusively (aside from Web Dev testing) since 2013 or so

        Once Opera switched to Chrome-based, I started heavily recommending Firefox. So I saw the writing on the wall about 10 years ago, and now I’m stubborn about avoiding Chrome where possible. I hope others choose to switch too.

  • IHeartBadCode@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    but this is Google, and they control Chrome, and this probably still won’t make people switch to Firefox

    Yeah. People just simply will not do things that are in their best interest. This is literally the biggest issue that was had with IE. Inertia.

      • anguo@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        There is Firefox for Android. You’re still on Android, but you can have some control left.

        • qupada@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Unfortunately Firefox doesn’t have a replacement for the “Android System WebView” component, so any app that embeds a browser component (and oh boy is that a lot of them) will still be using Chrome.

          There’s a relevant ticket here: https://github.com/mozilla/geckoview/issues/167

          It should be possible to have a shim that allows Mozilla’s “GeckoView” component to implement the API, but - per that ticket, at least - most Android ROMs won’t allow alternatives to the Google one.

          The Firefox browser is genuinely great, but it’s so far from possible to replace Chrome with it everywhere a browser is used.

          • Blxter@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            Maybe I’m dumb but I have had no issues using Firefox on android.

          • anguo@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            A lot of those apps allow you to open links in an external browser instead, but yes, that is a problem

        • topher@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          You can’t uninstall Chrome most likely, but maybe your stock/rom will allow you to “disable” it.

          • DacoTaco@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Good idea. Let me disable it and see what breaks! ( i have firefox and inbrowser installed on lineageos )

        • floofloof@lemmy.caOP
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          1 year ago

          Also Firefox Focus, which forgets your browsing history when you close it or hit the trashcan button.

      • beteljuice@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Lineageos+microg is a useable de-googled android. I’m using it now without any google services.

  • TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    So they’re baking user behavior tracking into the browser but calling it “privacy”? What’s the difference between this and colors cookie tracking?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Unlike the glitzy front-page Google blog post that the redesign got, the big ad platform launch announcement is tucked away on the privacysandbox.com page.

    The blog post says the ad platform is hitting “general availability” today, meaning it has rolled out to most Chrome users.

    This has been a long time coming, with the APIs rolling out about a month ago and a million incremental steps in the beta and dev builds, but now the deed is finally done.

    Users should see a pop-up when they start up Chrome soon, informing them that an “ad privacy” feature has been rolled out to them and enabled.

    That’s actually what started this whole process: Apple dealt a giant blow to Google’s core revenue stream when it blocked third-party cookies in Safari in 2020.

    Google says it will block third-party cookies in the second half of 2024—presumably after it makes sure the “Privacy Sandbox” will allow it to keep its profits up.


    The original article contains 588 words, the summary contains 159 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • kakes@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    They say this is meant to be an eventual replacement for tracking via cookies, but there is literally no way this won’t become supplemental to current tracking methods. And I think they know that.

    • bluefirex@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      While I don’t agree with what Google does, they want to remove third-party cookies entirely next year. So it’s indeed a replacement, not supplemental.

  • signor@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Gonna be hilarious when we hear about it lowering productivity at work.

    • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Gonna be hilarious when hackers figure out how to hijack where this reports back to. Particularly since Google recently got rid of most of their senior devs you know, the ones who can actually make secure code.

  • Mwalimu@baraza.africa
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    1 year ago

    The Federated Learning of Cohorts and now the Topics API are part of a plan to pitch an “alternative” tracking platform, and Google argues that there has to be a tracking alternative—you can’t just not be spied on.

  • topher@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    And then hoodwink people into upgrading with the promise of Material You themes 🙄

    I hope Chromium-based Vivaldi is still okay. I’m pretty invested in some of its features (though I have to admit it is getting more bloaty).

    • placatedmayhem@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      No. There are a whole bag of tactics to get you to enable it like “Whoops, got re-enabled in an update. Our bad.”, which has happened before, or a myriad of dark patterns. By changing the name of this at least twice now when it got backlash from users, Google has shown it doesn’t care about Chrome users’ preferences, only that it wants this to fly under the radar so that every Chrome user won’t know to disable it.

      Change to a browser that actually gives a crap about your privacy. As a bonus, changing helps reduce Google’s ability to dictate what happens to the web via Chrome’s huge user base, like the recent “Web Environment Integrity” push.

    • cassetti@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Lol, oh sweet child. You have much to learn about what a corporation says, and what they’re forced to do by government regulations. Without them, corporations can (and will) do anything they want for the sake of more profits.

      Unfortunately, with a country run by a bunch of geriatrics who hardly understand the concept of the “internet” and hardware/software, let alone the nuances of different social media platforms or how different communities within the internet interact.

    • floofloof@lemmy.caOP
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      1 year ago

      Sorry about that. Lemmy usually warns me if a link has been posted already, but it didn’t this time.