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If it was trivially possible, Firefox would already be doing it. But there's always an arms race with stuff like this. Our robot butler would be able to figure

If it was trivially possible, Firefox would already be doing it. But there's always an arms race with stuff like this. Our robot butler would be able to figure out how to parse the web today, but the advertisers would completely change the structure of pages tomorrow. Facebook used to have their ads wrapped in `<div class='advertisement'>`. Now, they're buried a thousand divs deeps, and the ads and content both have nonsensical, non-semantic class names.

discordance 5y ago
It's technologically possible, but not legally possible and not convenient. People in the know have the right extensions to block stuff and get past paywalls using the right snapshot services etc. Firefox can't officially offer this, but they can let people do whatever they want if they run their own extensions. If this was common place or convenient for the masses then it would be actively discouraged or outlawed, similar to what happened with Napster and MP3s.
thizzbuzz 5y ago
If it was trivially possible, Firefox would already be doing it. I am thoroughly unconvinced of this, as a Firefox user for two decades. There are so many simple power-user features that Firefox has chosen to ignore.
throwaway81523 5y ago
> If it was trivially possible, Firefox would already be doing it. Sorry but Firefox is mostly on the dark side these days. That shouldn't be too surprising since most of its money comes from google. It does have a setting to stop embedded video from playing sound unless you send an event, but it is too easy for obnoxious pages to evade and play sound against your wishes.
waltbosz 5y ago
I also noticed super deep div structure, and weird random class names. I assume it's to prevent automation and scraping. They're really hard to run querySelector against.
- WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
  Then you render it to text which gives you a decent markdown approximation, and render it back to what you want.

discordance 5y ago

It's technologically possible, but not legally possible and not convenient. People in the know have the right extensions to block stuff and get past paywalls using the right snapshot services etc. Firefox can't officially offer this, but they can let people do whatever they want if they run their own extensions. If this was common place or convenient for the masses then it would be actively discouraged or outlawed, similar to what happened with Napster and MP3s.

thizzbuzz 5y ago

If it was trivially possible, Firefox would already be doing it. I am thoroughly unconvinced of this, as a Firefox user for two decades. There are so many simple power-user features that Firefox has chosen to ignore.

throwaway81523 5y ago

> If it was trivially possible, Firefox would already be doing it. Sorry but Firefox is mostly on the dark side these days. That shouldn't be too surprising since most of its money comes from google. It does have a setting to stop embedded video from playing sound unless you send an event, but it is too easy for obnoxious pages to evade and play sound against your wishes.

waltbosz 5y ago

I also noticed super deep div structure, and weird random class names. I assume it's to prevent automation and scraping. They're really hard to run querySelector against.

WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
Then you render it to text which gives you a decent markdown approximation, and render it back to what you want.