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Does it really kill adblockers though?

by mda 7y ago

steventhedev 7y ago
Yes[0] [0]: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/338 https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/338
reagent_finder 7y ago
In current form, yes. The article pretty clearly states: >Instead Google wants developers to use the declarativeNetRequest API, which has the browser, not the extension, strip content or resources from a visited web sites. This API, though, has a limit of 30,000 rules that can be created. >Unfortunately, this change will break popular ad blockers such as uBlock Origin, which rely on the original functionality of the webRequest API and need more rules than are available in the declarativeNetRequest API. Looking at an old picture of ublock origin block lists: https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/u/1100723/uBlockOrigin-content-blocker.png https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/u/1100723/uBlockOrig... we can see 150,000 rules. The whole point of a rules list (easylist/easyprivacy) is that they're easy to maintain, since it should be a surprise to no one that adding new ad domains is trivially trivial. EasyList alone is 30,000 rules and it alone is woefully insufficient for a modern-day browser. The declarativeNetRequest only allows for ONE type of filter to work. The static kind, i.e. the old, deprecated, bad, insufficient kind. Recommended reading: uBlock Origin developer's comments on this change (unanswered by google ofc) https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=896897&desc=2#c23 https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=896897...
- onion2k 7y ago
  The way ad-blockers work at the moment is that the authors of ad-blockers work hard to not break the websites they block adverts on. This is good for users. This change means ad-blockers will need a different, simpler approach that probably will break far more websites. For example, you could write a very simple ad-blocking script that just denied requests to load JS from any third-party domain. That would break a lot of websites, but you wouldn't see many adverts. I'd rather have lots of broken websites than websites with adverts. I suspect a lot of web users feel the same way.
  - bigiain 7y ago
    Hmmm, I wonder if you could globally block 3rd party javascript, then use the 30,000 rule limit for your whitelist of places to allow js from? I seriously doubt I'd be left with any "broken sites" I care much about by the time I've whitelisted 30k 3rd party javascript domain/paths?
- kretor 7y ago
  > we are currently planning to change the rule limit from maximum of 30k rules per extension to a global maximum of 150k rules. (https://blog.chromium.org/2019/06/web-request-and-declarative-net-request.html https://blog.chromium.org/2019/06/web-request-and-declarativ...)
  - viraptor 7y ago
    That's from June this year. If it was important for them, it would be done already.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  > In current form, yes. It does not; actually, I’d argue that the adblocker I’m using right now works just fine. I cannot see how it will do in the future, but it’s just incorrect to say that this change kills all adblocking.
tyingq 7y ago
It does kill the really effective ones like uBlock Origin by removing any ability to do heuristics, "right click to block", "IAB sized divs" and similar dynamic detection. The 30k limit is also too low. So, a bit of hyperbole, but it DOES kill the best blockers.

Does it really kill adblockers though?

by mda 7y ago

Does it really kill adblockers though?

Yes[0] [0]: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/338 https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/338

reagent_finder 7y ago

In current form, yes. The article pretty clearly states: >Instead Google wants developers to use the declarativeNetRequest API, which has the browser, not the extension, strip content or resources from a visited web sites. This API, though, has a limit of 30,000 rules that can be created. >Unfortunately, this change will break popular ad blockers such as uBlock Origin, which rely on the original functionality of the webRequest API and need more rules than are available in the declarativeNetRequest API. Looking at an old picture of ublock origin block lists: https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/u/1100723/uBlockOrigin-content-blocker.png https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/u/1100723/uBlockOrig... we can see 150,000 rules. The whole point of a rules list (easylist/easyprivacy) is that they're easy to maintain, since it should be a surprise to no one that adding new ad domains is trivially trivial. EasyList alone is 30,000 rules and it alone is woefully insufficient for a modern-day browser. The declarativeNetRequest only allows for ONE type of filter to work. The static kind, i.e. the old, deprecated, bad, insufficient kind. Recommended reading: uBlock Origin developer's comments on this change (unanswered by google ofc) https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=896897&desc=2#c23 https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=896897...

onion2k 7y ago
The way ad-blockers work at the moment is that the authors of ad-blockers work hard to not break the websites they block adverts on. This is good for users. This change means ad-blockers will need a different, simpler approach that probably will break far more websites. For example, you could write a very simple ad-blocking script that just denied requests to load JS from any third-party domain. That would break a lot of websites, but you wouldn't see many adverts. I'd rather have lots of broken websites than websites with adverts. I suspect a lot of web users feel the same way.
- bigiain 7y ago
  Hmmm, I wonder if you could globally block 3rd party javascript, then use the 30,000 rule limit for your whitelist of places to allow js from? I seriously doubt I'd be left with any "broken sites" I care much about by the time I've whitelisted 30k 3rd party javascript domain/paths?
kretor 7y ago
> we are currently planning to change the rule limit from maximum of 30k rules per extension to a global maximum of 150k rules. (https://blog.chromium.org/2019/06/web-request-and-declarative-net-request.html https://blog.chromium.org/2019/06/web-request-and-declarativ...)
- viraptor 7y ago
  That's from June this year. If it was important for them, it would be done already.
saagarjha 7y ago
> In current form, yes. It does not; actually, I’d argue that the adblocker I’m using right now works just fine. I cannot see how it will do in the future, but it’s just incorrect to say that this change kills all adblocking.

tyingq 7y ago

It does kill the really effective ones like uBlock Origin by removing any ability to do heuristics, "right click to block", "IAB sized divs" and similar dynamic detection. The 30k limit is also too low. So, a bit of hyperbole, but it DOES kill the best blockers.