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Apple's new Safari feature removes distracting items from websites

22 points by mfiguiere 2y ago

dpflan 2y ago
So the feature saves xpaths/selectors for DOM elements to remove?
nerdjon 2y ago
I am getting greesemonkey flashbacks. I know it is not where near as powerful. But if I remember correctly one of its most basic functionality was something like this. Hopefully this does end up syncing between devices and just isn't possible during the beta. Now if Safari could just identify and get rid of whatever element is suddenly pushing my content down to show an ad that would be amazing!
mark_l_watson 2y ago
I am running the latest iPadOS beta and the safari experience is very good. I like the summarize button and use it for over 10% of web sites I visit. I look forward to the per web site customization features mentioned in this article. Off topic but the new Apple Mail App features in the vera are also useful.
ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago
Just allow uBlock origin and control of the rendering layer by the user instead of these "features".
Mistletoe 2y ago
No matter what website I’m on these days there will be a sidebar or list of links at the bottom that have political crap or content that just makes me angry and upsets me. Humans should have freedom to escape this tyranny and hopefully this can get us there.
bearjaws 2y ago
Nice of them to reinvent the adblock wheel. Apple has mastered taking what should just be a customizable plugin and making you wait 10 years for it.
- frou_dh 2y ago
  Visual selection of elements to block has been available in plenty of Safari extensions over the years so what's the complaint?
- misnome 2y ago
  Reinventing adblock, except with the extra “feature”: > Apple said that the feature won’t remove ads
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
gwbas1c 2y ago
I've been blocking elements via ad blockers / Brave for years. What I really wish was a way to subscribe to a list of common elements to block: Distracting videos, content that shows up when you highlight text, ect. Maybe even block stuff like this by default, kind of like blocking popups. (I also think a lot of the lower-level APIs should require some oversight, like intercepting right-click, manipulating the clipboard, ect. IE, at a minimum, these actions should also be treated like popups and disabled by default.)
- cassianoleal 2y ago
  If you're on macOS, I cannot recomment enough StopTheMadness. https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/ https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/
  - hnbear 2y ago
    and now it's Pro - https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/Pro/New.html https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/Pro/New.html and it was a cheaper upgrade for pre-existing users. Seconded as a great tool.
- PlunderBunny 2y ago
  I have also done this with an ad-blocker on a few occasions, but I often find it doesn't work reliably. I'm not sure why - the ad-blocker I'm using (1Blocker on macOS and iOS) seems to use something to identify the element that changes occasionally. My very limited experience of ad-blockers is also that, when you enable the "point-to-the-thing-to-remove mode", it first reloads the page without certain information that would normally be present (e.g. the reloaded page is 'logged out'). It will be interesting to see if Apple has solved both these problems.
- crtasm 2y ago
  uBlock Origin has a few 'Annoyances' lists that you can enable in the settings, e.g. Fanboy's list on https://easylist.to/ https://easylist.to/
PlunderBunny 2y ago
How amazingly fortuitous we are that browsers work by executing the code in the client, so that all these features like ad blocking are possible. Imagine what the internet would be like if it were different (e.g. browsers did something like display a static image that was sent from the server).
- hnbear 2y ago
  There are and have been browsers that work like this. Opera Mini worked like this for optimization of sites for limited cell phone bandwidth and processing years ago. You would get a pre-processed and rendered site as an image. https://www.consumersearch.com/technology/ultimate-guide-opera-mini-browser-everything-need-know https://www.consumersearch.com/technology/ultimate-guide-ope... More recently there are security solutions that do this so that all website processing is sandboxed and run outside your desktop, particularly for enterprise environments. If you have many many users who will click on all sorts of nonsense, it's better having that processed off in an ephemeral container somewhere then streamed to the desktop statically.

22 points by mfiguiere 2y ago

So the feature saves xpaths/selectors for DOM elements to remove?

I am getting greesemonkey flashbacks. I know it is not where near as powerful. But if I remember correctly one of its most basic functionality was something like this. Hopefully this does end up syncing between devices and just isn't possible during the beta. Now if Safari could just identify and get rid of whatever element is suddenly pushing my content down to show an ad that would be amazing!

mark_l_watson 2y ago

I am running the latest iPadOS beta and the safari experience is very good. I like the summarize button and use it for over 10% of web sites I visit. I look forward to the per web site customization features mentioned in this article. Off topic but the new Apple Mail App features in the vera are also useful.

ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago

Just allow uBlock origin and control of the rendering layer by the user instead of these "features".

Mistletoe 2y ago

No matter what website I’m on these days there will be a sidebar or list of links at the bottom that have political crap or content that just makes me angry and upsets me. Humans should have freedom to escape this tyranny and hopefully this can get us there.

bearjaws 2y ago

Nice of them to reinvent the adblock wheel. Apple has mastered taking what should just be a customizable plugin and making you wait 10 years for it.

frou_dh 2y ago
Visual selection of elements to block has been available in plenty of Safari extensions over the years so what's the complaint?
misnome 2y ago
Reinventing adblock, except with the extra “feature”: > Apple said that the feature won’t remove ads

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

gwbas1c 2y ago

I've been blocking elements via ad blockers / Brave for years. What I really wish was a way to subscribe to a list of common elements to block: Distracting videos, content that shows up when you highlight text, ect. Maybe even block stuff like this by default, kind of like blocking popups. (I also think a lot of the lower-level APIs should require some oversight, like intercepting right-click, manipulating the clipboard, ect. IE, at a minimum, these actions should also be treated like popups and disabled by default.)

cassianoleal 2y ago
If you're on macOS, I cannot recomment enough StopTheMadness. https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/ https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/
- hnbear 2y ago
  and now it's Pro - https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/Pro/New.html https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/Pro/New.html and it was a cheaper upgrade for pre-existing users. Seconded as a great tool.
PlunderBunny 2y ago
I have also done this with an ad-blocker on a few occasions, but I often find it doesn't work reliably. I'm not sure why - the ad-blocker I'm using (1Blocker on macOS and iOS) seems to use something to identify the element that changes occasionally. My very limited experience of ad-blockers is also that, when you enable the "point-to-the-thing-to-remove mode", it first reloads the page without certain information that would normally be present (e.g. the reloaded page is 'logged out'). It will be interesting to see if Apple has solved both these problems.
crtasm 2y ago
uBlock Origin has a few 'Annoyances' lists that you can enable in the settings, e.g. Fanboy's list on https://easylist.to/ https://easylist.to/

PlunderBunny 2y ago

How amazingly fortuitous we are that browsers work by executing the code in the client, so that all these features like ad blocking are possible. Imagine what the internet would be like if it were different (e.g. browsers did something like display a static image that was sent from the server).

hnbear 2y ago
There are and have been browsers that work like this. Opera Mini worked like this for optimization of sites for limited cell phone bandwidth and processing years ago. You would get a pre-processed and rendered site as an image. https://www.consumersearch.com/technology/ultimate-guide-opera-mini-browser-everything-need-know https://www.consumersearch.com/technology/ultimate-guide-ope... More recently there are security solutions that do this so that all website processing is sandboxed and run outside your desktop, particularly for enterprise environments. If you have many many users who will click on all sorts of nonsense, it's better having that processed off in an ephemeral container somewhere then streamed to the desktop statically.