this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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Privacy

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[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 months ago (4 children)

How do you "de-google" when most websites expect most browsers to use chromium and start requiring this to ensure ~~companies buying ad space get the best bang for their buck~~ security?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Most websites? Haven't come across one yet (I am using Firefox on all devices and don't have any other browser installed) ... Do you have any examples?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I don't think this comment is accurate, the only website that gives you a subpar experience to incentivize you to use a Chromium-based browser that I've come across is, well, google.com on mobile.

Luckily you can download a plugin on Firefox to trick google.com to show you the Chromium experience, or you can just use something like startpage.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's true. Luckily I removed Google Search Fixer from my browser this week, as I finally gave up on Google search (hopefully this time it's permanent).

In my opinion its results have been getting so bad (including boolean searches) in the last months that I feel that other search engines don't provide a significantly worse experience anymore. I was unable to find content on Google that I know I found there before and where I know that it's still on the internet, as I was able to find it with other search engines. I actually found that for example Bing gave me much more results when filtering by date range, e. g. searching for web content dated before 2005.

Google's web DRM project was the final straw for me to finally be serious about trying other search engines again (all my previous attempts eventually failed due to my boolean search requirement) and use as little Google services as possible. I have also tried to lower my usage of YouTube over the last couple of months by primarily subscribing to channels I know from YouTube on PeerTube and by using the Piped frontend more. Since I subscribed to YouTube channels via RSS already, it wasn't difficult to switch the RSS feed over to PeerTube instead. ;)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I selfhost SearXNG. Its pretty good. And you can turn on and off different search engines (e.g Google, Bing, Yahoo)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Google search on FF Android, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Snapchat web, are all apps that have missing features on Firefox or straight up don't work.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

For me, when a website doesn't work in Firefox but does in Chrome or edge, most of the time the real reason is due to me switching from a browser with dozens of add-ons to one with 0.

Otherwise Firefox works fine everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Not yet, this is what this change enables. This is just starting now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Snapchat web client doesn't work on Firefox :( that's the only one I've run into

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Firefox and ublock origin to start. Site requires Chromium? Buh bye now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Good luck with that when the site is your bank, your doctor, or your government.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I’ve been de-Googled for 6 months now and the internet works just fine on Firefox and Safari. No significant differences.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

For now. This is a near-future thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

That’s fine, they’ll lose my traffic.

So many people are acting like they have no choice, like you absolutely have to have everything that everyone else has. You’re obligated to use such and such platform.

Try suffering for what you believe in over convenience for a bit. Things might just change if you give up some things because they’re shit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I agree it is an uphill battle, but it must start somewhere. Else, it only gets worse, and then movements against such abuses will get easily crushed. As I like to say, "the hardest part of a journey is the first step", but also "the future belongs to those who prepare now".

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

If I can’t internet without ads, I can’t internet at all.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Except it's practically impossible to exist in modern society without internet. Unless you're rich and you can get other people to do internet-requiring tasks for you.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Same. If my pihole breaks the internet because of this, welp. 🤷🏻‍♀️