from Hacker News

uBlock Origin 1.53

by archo on 11/1/23, 4:33 AM with 280 comments

• by codeflo on 11/1/23, 6:31 AM

  From the “uBO works best in Firefox” page, I found this gem:

  > Firefox will wait for uBO to be ready before sending network requests from already opened tab(s) at browser launch.

  > In Chromium-based browsers, this is not the case. Tracker/advertisement payloads may find their way into already opened tabs before uBO is ready, while Firefox will properly filter these.

  That’s a hell of a “bug” in Chromium, that blocker initialization has a race condition with restoring the last opened tabs. What a weird little “accident” that Chromium just moves forward and loads all the trackers, “oopsie”. I wonder which kind of promotion the engineer who made that “mistake” has been awarded.

• by flakes on 11/1/23, 5:09 AM

  I've been using uBlock since shortly after it launched, and I'd rather lose access to all Google services than not have an ad blocker. I seriously question how people use a browser without one. Completely changes how the web feels.

• by Twirrim on 11/1/23, 5:47 AM

  A nice little Quality Of Life improvement for me with uBlock Origin recently has been using it top block Confluence's pop ups when someone has commented on a page I'm reading.

  We use Confluence to do document reviews at work, and sitting there attempting to read a document while Confluence is popping up that annoying dialogue box over and over again as people comment on the doc is insanely annoying. With uBlock Origin I was able to (after a few false attempts) sniff the specific element and filter it out.

• by creatonez on 11/1/23, 4:42 AM

  For anyone looking for up-to-date information on getting YouTube ad blocking to work: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/issues/19976

• by altairprime on 11/1/23, 5:10 AM

  Note that this release is not, as of this comment, finished being published and approved in any of the four browser app stores, so you may not see the new version when using check for updates (if you installed the normal way) until they’ve finished the release process.

  https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/17kw0vc/ubloc... has the usual “it hasn’t completed review yet” guidances as well how to rush ahead of the app stores for those that are impatient.

• by beej71 on 11/1/23, 5:15 AM

  "uBO works best on Firefox". I can't say I'm totally shocked that getting it working better under Chrome is somehow more difficult.

• by archo on 11/1/23, 4:39 AM

  uBlock Origin is a recommended extension[1]

  Recommended extensions undergo full code review by staff security experts to provide a strong additional security check.

  [1] - https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/extensions-addo...

  uBlock Origin – Wiki : https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki

• by loughnane on 11/1/23, 12:28 PM

  Yesterday I figured out how to block cards in my LI feed that contained certain words. Here's the one for things containing "excited to"

  ``` www.linkedin.com##.relative:has-text(/excited to/i)```

  between that, blocking images, and user taglines my feed is much more concise and readable.

• by iza on 11/1/23, 6:34 AM

  Is there something significant about this release? I read the changelog but nothing really stands out to me.

• by bloopernova on 11/1/23, 2:12 PM

  uBlock Origin can also be used to modify the DOM or CSS in specific URLs via its "My Filters" screen.

  For instance, I use it to switch HackerNews to dark mode, and restrict the width of comments to about 10-12 words: https://gist.github.com/aclarknexient/c39c83f2f97c3c6b1c307c...

  It's a great alternative to GreaseMonkey or other user style extensions.

• by shiroiuma on 11/1/23, 5:15 AM

  gorhill should be given a Nobel Prize and a knighthood for contributions to humanity.

• by Jedd on 11/1/23, 5:11 AM

  Unsure of provenance for this link, but it shows your browser's current success / failure state for blocking youtube anti-adware efforts.

  https://drhyperion451.github.io/does-uBO-bypass-yt/

• by tedunangst on 11/1/23, 6:31 AM

  "Do not add filters from untrusted sources." Interesting addition.

• by kriro on 11/1/23, 6:57 AM

  I have been hit a lot by the adblock-block and my default browser for youtube was Chrome with uBlock. There was some back and forth and it still worked around 50% of the time. I took the oportunity to try the youtube experience on a brand new clean browser, not logged in. My seed recommendations were 80% right wing and conspiracy material. I humored the algorithm a bit and after three days I was basically in a right wing/anti science/flat and hollow earth bubble. An interesting experience to say the least. It is basically the opposite of my real world interests. I'd describe myself as libertarian and love to learn about different cultures and I do work in academia.

  I have since cut my youtube viewing by about 50-80% and am not using Chrome anymore (except for testing/security). Great success Google and thanks for all the idiotic brainwashing content.

  I do get that youtube needs to make money somehow and adds are the way. Unfortunately the experienc is so bad, perormance is suffering etc. that I'd rather have no youtube than youtube with adds.

• by unforgivenpasta on 11/1/23, 4:13 PM

  I have almost 1500 rows in the "My filters list" (comments and blank lines included)

  I couldn't think of how horrible the web browsing experience would be without uBlock Origin

• by randomdev3 on 11/1/23, 5:24 AM

  never had an issue with YouTube. At least until now they only try to block blockers if you are signed in. And there really is no reason to login to watch videos.

• by jchook on 11/1/23, 6:46 AM

  Google's Chrome browser now aggressively thwarts uBlock on YouTube.com.

  Since Firefox is not owned by Google, uBlock still works.

• by iamalchemist on 11/1/23, 5:58 AM

  How is UBO on Google Chrome different than Brave browser?

  Context - I've used UBO on Google Chrome in the past and now using Brave browser for the last few years. I don't see much difference how web feels with UBO and Brave.

• by freedomben on 11/1/23, 3:30 PM

  The one killer feature I hope for is feature parity with uMatrix. If advanced mode had the ability to filter based on type (CSS, XHR, script, cookie, image, media, other) it would be a glorious day!

  uMatrix has completely changed how I use and experience the web, and going away from it (even to uBO) is such a big downgrade that I don't know what I'll do on the day it stops working D-:

• by zare_st on 11/2/23, 12:28 AM

  I run Firefox+uBlock origin on multiple computers and OSs and haven't been affected. I'm always logged into YT.

  If it's true that YT is actively trying to avoid ad blockers then I guess I may have been pushed down their priority list because I occasionally run a video or two while logged in on my phone via official app where ads actually run.

• by rrgok on 11/1/23, 8:05 PM

  I wish for a law where it would make illegal to show/put ads on any product without the consent of the consumer/user.

  The same should be applied to that cookie non-sense. Default: no cookies and website should ask for permission to enable them. Or make it an option in the browser setting to reject all cookies.

• by Modified3019 on 11/1/23, 8:23 PM

  I currently use fadblock for youtube, which seems more resiliant against googles changes: https://github.com/0x48piraj/fadblock

• by Qhai on 11/2/23, 9:04 AM

  Haha