7 ms·

Getting rid of manifest v2 and propping up a scam extension. Chrome is looking more and more disgusting

relistan 2y ago
You have to think about how Google abandoned Firefox, which at the time was quite good, in order to build their own browser. It was always about control and owning the data. They fund their business with advertising spread all over the internet. Manifest v2 allowed their browser to run extensions that block the ads that pay for Chrome to exist.
- rafram 2y ago
  Firefox was OK. I think people forget how much better it’s become since Chrome came out. V8 was so much faster than SpiderMonkey at first. (I would argue that Chrome was targeted primarily at IE, though.)
  - relistan 2y ago
    I used both at the time. I think you are overstating the difference. There wasn't as much full-on JS on the web and for all the things people normally did, FF did not struggle at all. If Chrome had been aimed primarily at IE, they could have continued to fund Firefox, or could have worked with Mozilla to do whatever improvements they wanted. For example, if the objective had been speed, Google had so much clout with Mozilla at the time that I feel pretty certain they could have contributed to building something like v8 into Firefox. But it wasn't about any of that. It was about owning the browser because they decided it was in their strategic interest. And that's because their business was by that point entirely funded by people's eyeballs in a browser, looking at ads.
    - rafram 2y ago
      They did continue to fund Firefox. $555 million in 2023!
eitland 2y ago
I keep wondering why people on HN use Chrome at all three days. There was a couple of years when people posted demos that only worked in IE^H Chrome but right now everything I need works in Firefox and I don't even see demos that need Chrome anymore.
- imcritic 2y ago
  Because Mozilla is as evil as google is and their browser is generally worse than chrome on average. We are now just entering a timeline where chrome nose dives on that comparison chart of "who is better?" with compared to Firefox.
  - stanac 2y ago
    I won't go into whether FF is worse than chrome, but why do you think Mozilla is as evil as google?
    - withinboredom 2y ago
      I don't know why they particularly think that. But Mozilla developed a way to uniquely track people without their consent or knowledge. I am not ok with that and that is evil to me.
      - alt227 2y ago
        But you can still turn it off in the settings right? I dont think theres anywhere in google chrome that you can turn off tracking telemetry to google.
      - nickjj 2y ago
        > But Mozilla developed a way to uniquely track people without their consent or knowledge. Which setting is that, DNS over HTTPS? I switched back to Firefox the other day and this setting was enabled by default but it wasn't done silently. When you first launch Firefox a popup comes up saying it's going to be enabled but you have options to turn it off on the spot or click a link to learn more.
yard2010 2y ago
Use Vivaldi. Feel the internet like it's 2010 again. Vivaldi for the win.
- Ygg2 2y ago
  Also Chromium based.
  - hoppyhoppy2 2y ago
    And closed-source

You have to think about how Google abandoned Firefox, which at the time was quite good, in order to build their own browser. It was always about control and owning the data. They fund their business with advertising spread all over the internet. Manifest v2 allowed their browser to run extensions that block the ads that pay for Chrome to exist.

rafram 2y ago
Firefox was OK. I think people forget how much better it’s become since Chrome came out. V8 was so much faster than SpiderMonkey at first. (I would argue that Chrome was targeted primarily at IE, though.)
- relistan 2y ago
  I used both at the time. I think you are overstating the difference. There wasn't as much full-on JS on the web and for all the things people normally did, FF did not struggle at all. If Chrome had been aimed primarily at IE, they could have continued to fund Firefox, or could have worked with Mozilla to do whatever improvements they wanted. For example, if the objective had been speed, Google had so much clout with Mozilla at the time that I feel pretty certain they could have contributed to building something like v8 into Firefox. But it wasn't about any of that. It was about owning the browser because they decided it was in their strategic interest. And that's because their business was by that point entirely funded by people's eyeballs in a browser, looking at ads.
  - rafram 2y ago
    They did continue to fund Firefox. $555 million in 2023!

eitland 2y ago

I keep wondering why people on HN use Chrome at all three days. There was a couple of years when people posted demos that only worked in IE^H Chrome but right now everything I need works in Firefox and I don't even see demos that need Chrome anymore.

imcritic 2y ago
Because Mozilla is as evil as google is and their browser is generally worse than chrome on average. We are now just entering a timeline where chrome nose dives on that comparison chart of "who is better?" with compared to Firefox.
- stanac 2y ago
  I won't go into whether FF is worse than chrome, but why do you think Mozilla is as evil as google?
  - withinboredom 2y ago
    I don't know why they particularly think that. But Mozilla developed a way to uniquely track people without their consent or knowledge. I am not ok with that and that is evil to me.
    - alt227 2y ago
      But you can still turn it off in the settings right? I dont think theres anywhere in google chrome that you can turn off tracking telemetry to google.
    - nickjj 2y ago
      > But Mozilla developed a way to uniquely track people without their consent or knowledge. Which setting is that, DNS over HTTPS? I switched back to Firefox the other day and this setting was enabled by default but it wasn't done silently. When you first launch Firefox a popup comes up saying it's going to be enabled but you have options to turn it off on the spot or click a link to learn more.

yard2010 2y ago

Use Vivaldi. Feel the internet like it's 2010 again. Vivaldi for the win.

Ygg2 2y ago
Also Chromium based.
- hoppyhoppy2 2y ago
  And closed-source