this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2023

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Mobile web browsing in 2023 (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 years ago by dep@lemmy.world to c/google@lemmy.world

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[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 86 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I had to use the mobile version of Chrome recently on a locked down work device with an MDM policy that prevented installation of other browsers. It made me realize I had no idea just how far gone the mobile web has become with ads.

As an experiment I grabbed a random article on my Google News feed for today and opened it in Chrome with no ad blocking allowed and Samsung Internet with ad blocking enabled to compare.

Chrome produces a nightmarish hell scape of ads that just gets worse the further down you scroll.

Samsung Internet isn't perfect because there is still a large banner taking up space at the top of the screen, but it blocks all of the ads in the article along with the website's own ads for other articles.

The cynic in me, however, acknowledges that the truth of the situation looks more like this, even with ad blocking enabled.

[–] blindbunny@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Thanks for the this, I got a chuckle. Especially gizmodo...

[–] Hotdogman@lemmy.world 80 points 2 years ago (1 children)

aD BloCkeRs aRe RuINinG oUR wEbSitE!

[–] Duke_Nukem_1990@feddit.de 69 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Weird, I don't see anything like this on firefox.

[+] Maajmaaj@lemmy.ca 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] PlantJam@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Sounds like a great reason not to use the home screen search bar. I use nova launcher so I can disable it completely.

[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Reading this just made me decide to remove the Google search bar from my home screen and put the Firefox widget there instead, but I'm a little disappointed that it really just functions as another button to open Firefox instead of letting me use the bar like it visually appears it should be.

[–] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

The type of widget you're thinking of hasn't existed for a while. Google broke that functionality on Android a couple versions back. Some apps still make widgets that create the illusion it's working that way, but it really isn't.

So no, you can't have a functioning Firefox search bar on the home screen.

But you can make a widget that's basically a shortcut to the internal searchbar. One tap will:

Open the browser, create a new tab, place the cursor in the search bar, and open the keyboard.

It serves the same function: one tap then you can start typing your query and hit enter. It just doesn't do that on the homescreen.

[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

Yep, it's just annoying when the Google search widget gets to work that way.

[–] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

On the Nova Launcher, you can change the default search app to Firefox.

[–] Illuminati@lemmy.world 42 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Honestly web browsing on mobile has been a piece of sh1t for a long time, without adblockers it's a total cancer.

And even with an adblocker it's always the god damn cookie popups...

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

Firefox has a plugin called I Don't Care About Cookies, Which basically just ignores the pop-ups and auto except / rejects them, but for some strange reason that plugins you can add to the mobile version of Firefox are extremely limited.

Essentially the plugin implements the functionality that should have been mandated under the cookie law to begin with which makes the choice browser side rather than web side

[–] AProfessional@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

You can install any extension in the beta version. Some won’t work though.

[–] vox@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 years ago

use the i still don't care... one, official one got bought out by avast and contains google analytics

[–] programmer_belch@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 years ago

If you want more addons on mobile you can use Nightly and create a custom addon collection. However the nightly app gets updated daily and you have to get a firefox account so be warned

[–] mercury@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 2 years ago

If you use Firefox nightly it has this feature built-in

[–] ramble81@lemm.ee 35 points 2 years ago (7 children)

Firefox and uBlock Origin…. Now sadly I wish I could find something like that on iPhone.

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Change the phone dns to nextdns.io or adguards dns. Use dns over https if possible.

[–] Alivrah@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

I use 1blocker on the iPhone. Unfortunately (iirc) they stopped doing lifetime purchase and went the subscription route. Luckily I purchased it before they did that.

It works great.

[–] Crow@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

iPhone has AdGuard pro.

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Setup a PiHole. Not 100% guaranteed but it stops a lot.

[–] ramble81@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Can’t exactly carry a pihole with you everywhere….

[–] Lem453@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

My home wireguard run off my phone. I just connect my phone to my home wireguard when out of the house.

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Was coming to say exactly this.

[–] vox@sopuli.xyz 0 points 2 years ago

nextdns

[–] tromars@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Not sure atm what the extension I use for safari on iPhone is called, but it works great for me. I‘ll look it up when I get to it

[–] tromars@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago

Late Update: I use Hyperweb, the free version is totally enough for me and works great

[–] ScoobyDoo27@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

Just use adguard on an iPhone. I see 0 ads across all apps I use.

[–] TheFriar@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

Firefox and reader mode is your best option for mobile.

[–] wabafee@lemm.ee 26 points 2 years ago

I love how it just keep getting worst as I scroll.

[–] BlinkerFluid@lemmy.one 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Why do you choose to view ads? Inaction is a choice.

[–] misanthropy@lemm.ee 18 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What, you don't enjoy ads on your articles that are also ads?

[–] jcit878@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

don't you enjoy discussing with your friends and family what interesting ads you've seen lately? - what marketers think people actually do

[–] TeamDman@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Would be nice if such behaviour tanked SEO

[–] rip_art_bell@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

From what I understand, web crawlers see a totally different version of the site than users do

[–] TeamDman@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Only due to using a different user agent, it's totally possible to build a for-the-people pagerank that would see what we see and deprioritize stuff like ads and fluff on recipe pages

[–] Kuro@lemm.ee 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

And yet they're baffled as to why so many people use adblockers

[–] LemmyNameMyself@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

huh

[–] dinckelman@kbin.social 8 points 2 years ago

Just to clarify what's happening here - The top 15% of the screenshot? That's the website itself. The rest is an ad. That's actually insane.

I've been wishing for an ability to blacklist search results somehow, because of websites like this. For tech, stuff like CNET or Zdnet. For gaming, it's gamesradar, or CBR, or especially gameranx. All just garbage information with 300 cookies to feed the ad networks

[–] Anonymousllama@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Spot on for what browsing without adblockers looks like. What a hellscape

[–] technologicalcaveman@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Calyxos+firefox+ublock for phone

Gentoo+librewolf+ublock for the home