Google Chrome pushes browser history-based ad targeting
www.theregister.com
YMMV, based on where you are

Google Chrome pushes ahead with targeted ads based on your browser history::YMMV, based on where you are

    • weew@lemmy.caEnglish
      141·
      1 year ago

      have they not already been doing this ever since they created Chrome?

  • Kittybeer@lemm.eeEnglish
    301·
    1 year ago

    I had to read the whole article to get to this info: Depending on what Chrome version you’re using, and whether you’ve been selected to start using Topics API, you can switch this functionality off and on by visiting chrome://settings/adPrivacy and/or chrome://settings/privacySandbox – cut’n’paste these URLs into your address bar to jump straight to the controls.

      • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.worldEnglish
        59·
        1 year ago

        Easier said than done sometimes. Google is already doing what Microsoft used to do. They’re locking G suite features to Chrome, and if your company uses G suite, you made find yourselves in Chrome just so a damn thing works.

        • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
          20·
          1 year ago

          My company uses G Suite extensively, and I exclusively use Firefox. I haven’t found a single thing that doesn’t work in Firefox thus far.

          Some lawyer somewhere will wind up with a fat payday if some important feature of Gmail/Sheets/Docs gets locked to Chrome exclusively, as soon as anyone notices.

            • porkchop@lemm.eeEnglish
              11·
              1 year ago

              They work great for me in chromium based browsers like Arc or Brave

              • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                And those are basically Chrome.

                WebKit, Gecko, and other rendering engines don’t always get full compatibility, even if they’re super standards compliant.

                • porkchop@lemm.eeEnglish
                  11·
                  1 year ago

                  They use the chrome rendering engine but they are not chrome. You get the best of both worlds. Compatibility with your corporate g suite whatever with a security/privacy-first mindset (at least with Brave)

          • Boozilla@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            1 year ago

            FF is my daily driver (tho I do have to use other browsers for testing and such). G Suite works great for me in FF as well.

          • unalivejoy@lemm.eeEnglish
            3·
            1 year ago

            Unrelated to G Suite, Google search on mobile should work perfectly fine on Firefox, but Google has decided anyone not using chrome will get a “mobile” version of the site. There’s an addon that fixes that by just changing the user-agent string.

        • Klystron@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          5·
          1 year ago

          Especially with some webapps too. My nas’s only allows you to upload folders through chrome, completely unsupported on Firefox. They do however another service on a different site that does support folder upload on Firefox for some reason though. I don’t get the disconnect.

          • 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            You could ask them when they are going to support uploading through a modern browser like Firefox.

            • DeadlineX@lemm.eeEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              There are a lot of webapps only supported by chromium based browsers. A lot of development focuses on popular modern browsers. Firefox market share is under 5%. I use it because google has become more awful every year. I wish everything was supported on Firefox. It uses a different engine which provides challenges for some js and js libraries.

              The amount of dev hours involved has to be justified by the user base that desires the feature. This is the case even for just adding new features. It’s annoying, because I can only test using chrome, and chrome dev tools is way worse than Firefox.

              • 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                If we keep having to justify any development for other browsers, well end up with Chrome having all the market share!

        • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          12·
          1 year ago

          I encounter a site that will only work in Chrome based browsers (or at least won’t work in Firefox) about once a month. I’ve yet to encounter one that will only work in Chrome proper.

    • Blizzard@lemmy.zipEnglish
      19·
      1 year ago

      You can switch it now but obviously it’s just a matter of time til you won’t be allowed to.

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
        9·
        1 year ago

        And also … When you give users the choice to turn something on or off but don’t tell them that the thing is on and also make it inconvenient for them to turn it off …

        … Most users won’t turn it off.

  • notannpc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    I like seeing the full cycle of Google Chrome starting out as the hero the world needed, to becoming the bloated pile of stalkerware trash like it had originally replaced.

    Rest in piss Google chrome.

    • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Was it ever needed? What has chrome provided that wasn’t already available from other 3rd party and/or open source browsers?

      The whole “faster than firefox” thing was greatly exaggerated, didn’t last long, and was at least partially artificial as google has been found to intentionally gimp their sites on non-chrome browsers.

      • StudioLE@programming.devEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Chrome’s UI was light years ahead of the competition. I’d be tempted to say they had an impact on the design of all desktop applications.

        • linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Yeah when they came out they did absolutely everything right. And they do no evil years they just kept nailing it time after time.