It had been on the horizon for a while. Alphabet, Google's parent company, has declared war on ad blockers. This week, it's official: Chrome no longer allows the extension called uBlock Origin to be used.
And that’s not surprising. Alphabet, the parent company that includes Google and services like YouTube, lives off advertising. Google Ads is the most well-known example.
But it’s also ironic. Google wants all the benefits, and none of the downsides. For themselves, of course. Google Chrome is based on the open source project Chromium. Built by the community, open source. They used it and adapted it to fit their mission. Just like what happened with MySQL, from which MariaDB emerged after Oracle took over the project. Alphabet hasn’t shied away from using open code as a foundation, only to turn it into something that works mainly in their own favor.
But is it good for users that uBlock can no longer be used as an extension in the Chrome browser? The answer is no. Because uBlock Origin, as it’s officially called, does more than just block ads. It also blocks trackers and scripts that compromise your security and privacy. uBlock Origin is nearly essential on today’s internet. That’s why we strongly recommend using it.
So now what? It’s simple. Our advice hasn’t changed in years: don’t use Chrome. Not as a private user, and not as a business.
Edge, Microsoft’s browser, is also not an option for those who value security and privacy. Like Chrome, Edge is now based on Chromium, the open source project that, for years now, has been just a little too accommodating to Google’s changes. Long story short: Edge and Chrome are practically the same.
So our recommendation, as it has been for decades, is to use Firefox. Mozilla Firefox. And uBlock Origin still works just fine in Firefox. Definitely worth installing.
As a business, Exclusive-IT understands that making money is important. However, we believe this should be done by helping people, not by forcing them. The practices of Alphabet, from YouTube's monopoly to Chrome being aggressively pushed, make us raise our eyebrows. Europe has already fined them multiple times for questionable behavior.
The internet belongs to all of us. Not to a single company.