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Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by bambax on Friday May 14, 2021 @12:54AM (#27150831)
Having used some kind of adblocking, on all devices, for as long as I can remember, I realize I live in an alternate universe where all these scams don't exist [0].

If at some point adblocking is defeated I'm up for a very difficult crash landing into reality.

[0]: almost; top results can be scams of course; but it's rare.

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by matheusmoreira on Friday May 14, 2021 @02:39AM (#27151431)
Yeah the internet is completely different without blockers. I install uBlock Origin on every browser I come across and I've gotten random comments from other users about how everything just seems better for some reason. Firefox supports uBlock Origin on mobile too, people love it when they try it out and find that there's no idiotic YouTube ads anymore.

Firefox should just ship uBlock Origin by default and make it the default experience. Brave browser is already doing that.

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by blfr on Friday May 14, 2021 @03:09AM (#27151611)
For YouTube on mobile, you can get ad-free experience with their premium tier[1] or YouTube Vanced[2]. Both come complete with background playback and overlay player.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/premium

[2] https://vancedapp.com/

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by yusi-san on Friday May 14, 2021 @03:37AM (#27151768)
Or on Android you can install NewPipe[0] which is an open source YouTube frond-end without ads too. You can install it from F-Droid[1] or Github releases[2].

[0] : https://newpipe.net/ [1] : https://f-droid.org/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/ [2] : https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/releases

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by Marsymars on Friday May 14, 2021 @01:17PM (#27156860)
YouTube Premium makes sense if you're a heavy user of YouTube, but at my level of use, it would make more sense to have a $1-per-video pay-as-you-go model. Or a $5/day pass that doesn't renew would be good too.
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by iaml on Friday May 14, 2021 @06:00AM (#27152592)
They actually have firefox focus app with integrated adblock, at least on apple devices.
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by pawsforapplase on Friday May 14, 2021 @09:39AM (#27154170)
"Firefox" on iOS is just a WebKit reskin; Apple forbids 3rd-party browsers.

Mozilla does their best with Firefox Focus (which is also a "Safari Content Blocker"), but you cannot use normal Firefox extensions on iOS, including ad and script blockers.

I was extremely frustrated to buy an iPhone for privacy, only to find that there is no way to selectively block javascript! They only provide a coarse toggle with Safari.

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by RussianCow on Friday May 14, 2021 @01:34AM (#27151080)
I had quite a rude awakening when I switched to an iPhone recently. I had to adopt NextDNS for its domain-level ad blocking, but it’s amazing how many ads still come through. I don’t know how people browse the web without any sort of ad blocking these days.
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by jjbinx007 on Friday May 14, 2021 @01:47AM (#27151147)
I've been thinking of screen recording some web browsing on my desktop and phone without an ad blocker just to record for posterity how truly awful the modem web is without an ad blocker.

I can't even read most news websites these days because the ads are so utterly distracting and awful.

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by bozzcl on Friday May 14, 2021 @02:17AM (#27151284)
I'm using a combo of AdGuard and MalwareBytes on Safari, and Pi-Hole via Wireguard and my browsing experience has been pretty smooth.
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by asdff on Friday May 14, 2021 @02:37PM (#27158066)
I've pretty much stopped browsing the web on my iPhone at all. The mobile web is broken. With all the banner ads and videos popping up, My 6 inch long phone is reduced to about 1 inch of readable text. It's like the 2000s again with the adspam, or maybe its always been like this and I've just been using an ad blocker this entire time.
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by zuppy on Friday May 14, 2021 @01:44AM (#27151136)
there are adblockers for ios too, for example here's a good one: https://1blocker.com
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by mullingitover on Friday May 14, 2021 @02:19AM (#27151293)
Ehh, I'm a pretty die-hard iOS person but ad blocking on iOS is a steaming pile of BS, to put it mildly. They flat-out don't work for 99% of ads. They're not ad blockers, they're domain filters, nothing more than a big hosts file, and they block absolutely nothing at the page/element level. The ad industry runs circles around 'ad blockers' on iOS.

The lack of functioning ad blocking is by far the biggest downside to iOS, and the same reason that I pity the engineers who put all that work on desktop Safari only to have it rendered worthless by their lack of ad blocking.

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by aikinai on Friday May 14, 2021 @03:04AM (#27151582)
> They're not ad blockers, they're domain filters, nothing more than a big hosts file, and they block absolutely nothing at the page/element level.

I don't think this is true. I use 1Blocker and it seems to have tons of element-based rules. You can also create your own element-based rules easily with the Safari share extension. You tap the element you want to remove, tap buttons to go up or down the DOM to make sure you hit the right level, and then add it to your blocklist.

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by evgen on Friday May 14, 2021 @05:58AM (#27152579)
Simply not true. I have been using Firefox Focus and 1Blocker on iOS for years and ads are not significantly more noticeable than on desktop Firefox with uBlock Origin. I think you quite misinformed on this subject.
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by Marsymars on Friday May 14, 2021 @01:21PM (#27156928)
It depends on your level of blocking. I use 1Blocker and uBlock Origin, and find maximum blocking with 1Blocker to be roughly equivalent in blocking to the default "Easy mode" in uBlock Origin. "Medium mode" (combined with a few additional lists, e.g. cookie nag lists) in uBlock Origin blocks dramatically more crud.
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by vxNsr on Friday May 14, 2021 @12:13PM (#27155878)
1Blocker is amazing and absolutely isn’t just a domain blocker. I’d check it out if I were you.
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by stephen_g on Friday May 14, 2021 @02:12AM (#27151261)
Yeah, I use 1blocker too, it's fairly good but annoying they only give you monthly rule updates (unless a major site breaks) unless you pay a subscription. Even when I bought the 'Pro' version, and then they changed to a subscription model...

Still, it works pretty well. But how I wish it was possible to have uBlock Origin running in mobile Safari (and desktop Safari for that matter)...

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by pawsforapplase on Friday May 14, 2021 @09:52AM (#27154297)
They do have a one-time payment option of about $40.

But in my experience, it simply does not work compared to other platforms. I still see a lot of ads even with their strictest settings, and it also seems to break a lot of sites without having any toggle switches in the browser UI.

It's gotten to the point where I put the iPhone down and pick up another device if I need to access a website. After a few months, I'd like to just resell the phone. But on the social side of things, having a number with blue chat bubbles is a depressingly effective status symbol, and Apple is better about in-app tracking.

It's getting hard to ignore how harmful the duopoly in phone operating systems is to consumers. Carrying two phones around is not a tenable solution.

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by vxNsr on Friday May 14, 2021 @12:16PM (#27155925)
Idk what you’re talking about or what sites you’re going to, I’ve never seen ads using the default 1blocker settings.

I use DNSCloak to block ads in other apps. It’s obv not as good as an element blocker but it’s great for when I need to use chrome or some random store app that inserts ads.

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by bobbylarrybobby on Friday May 14, 2021 @02:12AM (#27151260)
Safari only though
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by aikinai on Friday May 14, 2021 @01:51AM (#27151169)
iPhone has supported ad-blocking for six years.
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by pbhjpbhj on Friday May 14, 2021 @02:47AM (#27151481)
Sounds like they need to work on their UX then because if people here aren't getting it working then it seems likely that most of their users aren't able to. Is it a default installed plugin in Safari?
Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by aikinai on Friday May 14, 2021 @03:00AM (#27151557)
I think the only way anyone would not find it would be assuming it doesn't exist. If you search on the web, App Store, iPhone search box, etc. you'll find it right away.

And the answer is, it's not installed by default, but there are a variety of third-party plugins available in the App Store.

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by pawsforapplase on Friday May 14, 2021 @10:02AM (#27154419)
I spent days trying to set up effective ad blocking on iOS.

There is a firehouse of options in the app store, but you need to sift through conflicting reports about which ones are "still good" - the prevailing recommendations seemed to change every 6 months or so when I researched which ones to try.

When you do find some that seem worthwhile, the paid tiers are often expensive, and they will not work as well as the free browser extensions on every other platform.

And there is no replacement for NoScript at any price.

Re:Ads are impersonating government websites in Google resul... by RussianCow on Friday May 14, 2021 @11:16AM (#27155167)
I tried a few of the top "content blockers" from the App Store and none of them worked very well (at least the free versions), so I gave up and assumed it just wasn't feasible. I can't imagine I'm the only one with the same experience. I'll revisit this based on your comment and others in this thread.