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This is getting trickier: - nowadays (iirc) you can serve/proxy those scripts via your own domain (to circumvent ad blocker blocklists) - there are limitations

This is getting trickier: - nowadays (iirc) you can serve/proxy those scripts via your own domain (to circumvent ad blocker blocklists) - there are limitations re the number of blocking rules in Manifest V3 It’s cat and mouse at this stage, we’re getting to the point where blocking ads will be as hard/annoying as, say, installing 3rd party apps on your iPhone. Too much of a hassle even for fairly techie users

Macha 2y ago
> there are limitations re the number of blocking rules in Manifest V3 Use Firefox. uBlock Origin on Firefox also gets around CNAME cloaking to make advertiser domains appear as first party, which Chrome does not give sufficient access to do that. It doesn't get around actually serving these endpoints mixed directly in with first party endpoints, but these are a hard sell on the advertising side too, from the technical effort from the publisher to implement it to the advertisers reluctance to trust the stats when the publisher gets to be the man in the middle.
int_19h 2y ago
I wonder if at this point an AI-based ad blocker that would actually look at the DOM, or maybe even the image, would be viable. Obviously, this requires significantly more resources. But it feels like a more productive use of the hardware power that we already have, compared to the most recent Electron monstrosity.
- rpastuszak 2y ago
  Hehe, so I made a (semi) serious project in a similar vein some time ago actually: Https://butter.sonnet.io (Because you deserve butter.)
  - int_19h 2y ago
    Very nice. (And yes, this is all kinda silly in a sense that it's an insane amount of effort and resources to spend on, basically, blocking unwanted shouting. Obviously the long-term sustainable option is to just kill ads altogether.)
- koolala 2y ago
  An AI ad blocker could mute embedded ads and cover them with interest information you want to learn.
jjav 2y ago
> limitations re the number of blocking rules in Manifest V3 Which of course was the whole purpose for google pushing for this v3, to benefits ads and hurt users.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  Manifest V3 can even work with unlimited blocking rules and in-page content blocking. Firefox' implementation of it does that. So yeah the fact that Google doesn't makes it very deliberate.
efilife 2y ago
then uMatrix is the solution, as it has always been

Macha 2y ago

> there are limitations re the number of blocking rules in Manifest V3 Use Firefox. uBlock Origin on Firefox also gets around CNAME cloaking to make advertiser domains appear as first party, which Chrome does not give sufficient access to do that. It doesn't get around actually serving these endpoints mixed directly in with first party endpoints, but these are a hard sell on the advertising side too, from the technical effort from the publisher to implement it to the advertisers reluctance to trust the stats when the publisher gets to be the man in the middle.

int_19h 2y ago

I wonder if at this point an AI-based ad blocker that would actually look at the DOM, or maybe even the image, would be viable. Obviously, this requires significantly more resources. But it feels like a more productive use of the hardware power that we already have, compared to the most recent Electron monstrosity.

rpastuszak 2y ago
Hehe, so I made a (semi) serious project in a similar vein some time ago actually: Https://butter.sonnet.io (Because you deserve butter.)
- int_19h 2y ago
  Very nice. (And yes, this is all kinda silly in a sense that it's an insane amount of effort and resources to spend on, basically, blocking unwanted shouting. Obviously the long-term sustainable option is to just kill ads altogether.)
koolala 2y ago
An AI ad blocker could mute embedded ads and cover them with interest information you want to learn.

jjav 2y ago

> limitations re the number of blocking rules in Manifest V3 Which of course was the whole purpose for google pushing for this v3, to benefits ads and hurt users.

wkat4242 2y ago
Manifest V3 can even work with unlimited blocking rules and in-page content blocking. Firefox' implementation of it does that. So yeah the fact that Google doesn't makes it very deliberate.

efilife 2y ago

then uMatrix is the solution, as it has always been