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Google pulls the plug on uBlock Origin, leaving over 30 million Chrome users susceptible to intrusive ads (www.windowscentral.com)

submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 185 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (38 children)

I think some people overestimate how many will migrate to Firefox in the near future over this.

High switching cost compared to finding another extension (e.g. uBO Lite), even if the resulting experience is worse.
Just as many Firefox users like Firefox, lots of Chrome users enjoy what they have too. They don't want to lose that.
The kind of tech-aware person who'd switch over this is much more likely to have seen the news months ago and taken action already.

As fun as it is to imagine an Adpocalypse shocking the masses and pushing them to try out alternatives to big tech, it's also way too optimistic, I feel.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

The uBlock Origin chrome extension ~~has~~ had 34 million users. Chrome has 3.45 billion users.

Even if every uBlock user switched, it’s less than 1% of chrome users.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I thought about mentioning that. But the comparison goes both ways. Less than 1% of Chrome users switching to Firefox could still mean an increase in Firefox users of over 10%, if I remember my numbers correctly. That'd be a sweet boost for most products.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Ya, it’d still be huge for Firefox, but what I’m really getting at is that even with this change, Chrome is going nowhere. They’re the big fish, they can afford to make these kinds of changes, because the people who care are a very small minority.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

To be fair, nerds will tell their tech-illiterate friends about this change and probably influence them enough to consider it. Especially when it's something as easy as downloading an application.

It's much easier to switch a browser then it is to stop using Google, Facebook, etc.

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