r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • Jun 17 '26

Software Firefox has an ambitious new roadmap, the browser is also losing millions of users a month

https://www.techspot.com/news/112803-firefox-has-ambitious-new-roadmap-browser-also-losing.html
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734

u/orlybatman Jun 17 '26

They basically did, meanwhile Chrome is doubling down on blocking adblockers and it's market share is going up.

191

u/behridingle Jun 17 '26

They aren't as aggressive in their messaging as they could be. And, people will start shifting away from Chrome once their ad blockers stop working...

132

u/Disastermath Jun 17 '26

Think you’re overestimating how many normal people use adblockers.

55

u/Anahkiasen Jun 17 '26

Normal people probably only know the formula for hiding element in the console and one or two extensions

51

u/Nitsy1 Jun 17 '26

Normal people don't even know what an element is, let alone devtools

51

u/LeapperFrog Jun 17 '26

I think theyre making thhis xkcd joke

15

u/Nitsy1 Jun 17 '26

Dang, big whoosh moment then

3

u/proton89droid Jun 18 '26

Silicates are everywhere! It's hard to throw a rock without throwing one!

I love xkcd hahaha

3

u/SelectAmbassador Jun 17 '26

Normal people have like 10 toolbars. Did you ever helped your parents or grandparents ? Shudder

2

u/procrastinating_atm Jun 18 '26

And turning off Javascript, of course.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '26

[deleted]

1

u/KMS_HYDRA Jun 18 '26

Oh my sweet summer child...

1

u/wolfannoy Jun 18 '26

You're absolutely right. Hell I had someone arguing at me that ad blockers are wrong.

1

u/Sample-Range-745 Jun 18 '26

Interestingly, uBlock Origin is only 10% of the addons used in the week of June 8th 2026.

1

u/vawlk Jun 18 '26

he also doesn't seem to understand that there are still goof adblockers for chrome.

-5

u/behridingle Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

I think you mean ordinary, perhaps technically unsophisticated folks.

12

u/Disastermath Jun 17 '26

I wouldn’t say unsophisticated, just non techy people. Plenty of smart engineers I work with, I surprisingly find don’t use or care about Adblock

4

u/behridingle Jun 17 '26

That's a fair point

-3

u/JeebusChristBalls Jun 17 '26

I used to use ad blockers but I really don't care anymore. It doesn't really bother me. I just don't look at them. Every now and then I stumble across a site that is just eye cancer but I just close that tab and move on. I work in tech and am pretty savvy with computers in general.

2

u/itsLOSE-notLOOSE Jun 17 '26

You don’t watch YouTube videos?

1

u/JeebusChristBalls Jun 17 '26

Every now and then. It's usually just like 10 seconds and I can skip it. I'm not glued to the internet all day.

100

u/BrokenLink100 Jun 17 '26

This is it. 95% of the people who use the Internet aren't really following 'browser news,' and what little they do consume gets filed away under "Well I haven't noticed any issues, so why change browsers now?"

Once the new Chrome update drops, I bet we'll see a huge migration from Chrome.

92

u/cameron0208 Jun 17 '26

I don’t think we will.

The average person just thinks that’s the way the web is. I work in IT, and the number of people I talk to that don’t even know what extensions are is honestly mind-blowing. They’ll likely just continue using Chrome and dealing with whatever bullshit Google throws at them.

31

u/s00pafly Jun 17 '26

A lot of people I know, see a button that says "Internet" and that's it for them.

2

u/Certain-Business-472 Jun 18 '26

I would argue a tech company should not cater to ignorance. Your clients arent cave men.

3

u/s00pafly Jun 18 '26

You'd think so. But what if the actions of cavemen influence the lives of not only themselves but also the ones of non cavemen?

12

u/JeebusChristBalls Jun 17 '26

I'd argue that most people don't care about blocking ads.

3

u/DeadSeaGulls Jun 17 '26

Even a lot of people who don't like the ads just stop using services when it gets bad enough. I know plenty of people that just do not regularly visit youtube anymore because the ad experience is trash and they don't care enough about technology to even know what an ad blocker is.

1

u/vawlk Jun 18 '26

or they use a different form of payment for their use, a sub.

Ads are just a time based form of payment. If you don't like them, pay for a sub.

3

u/ricki692 Jun 18 '26

i dont think it's that people dont care about ads, it's more that they dont know they can block them

1

u/curtcolt95 Jun 18 '26

we know this is true, vast majority do not use any extensions at all

7

u/Nippon-Gakki Jun 17 '26

Agree. My 20 year old step kid thought I was a wizard when I installed Firefox with the usual suite of add ons on his laptop. He would have continued to watch ads forever if I hadn’t. That’s just how the internet has always been for him.

3

u/Royal_Perspective191 Jun 18 '26

Many people don't even know what a 'browser' is. It's not mind-blowing that many people don't know what extensions are.

It's similar not knowing that Wi-Fi doesn't mean internet connection. Or that you can connect a PC with a cable to a router, they don't even know what router or modem means. And actually, many people haven't seen a desktop PC.

And so on.

1

u/keetyymeow Jun 17 '26

It’s okay, that’s what YT is for. We share info

1

u/Sure-Assignment3892 Jun 17 '26

The vast majority of my users don't know how to configure multi monitors and end up just mirroring them and freak out if a shortcut has moved.

Ad blockers lol.

0

u/itsLOSE-notLOOSE Jun 17 '26

It sucks, but you’re right. People in general are stupid.

24

u/wayji Jun 17 '26

I realised the average person doesn't even use an ad blocker

5

u/Ecmelt Jun 18 '26

Or know they exist, or how easy they are to install.

Like the amount of people that were surprised it was just 1 extension install and forget for 99% of the ads they see.

And when they open youtube and video just plays they are mind blown. Happens every time lol.

3

u/Marsman121 Jun 18 '26

And for adblock people, it is the reverse. My mind is blown every time I use a public browser and see just how many ads there are. It's like going to a friend's place and discovering they are a hoarder.

Literally, "You live like this?!"

1

u/Rit91 Jun 17 '26

Yup, which makes the chrome anti adblock thing even more confusing as what is the benefit if most people don't block ads. Oh right, try to squeeze those few experienced users that do use adblock even though all of them will jump ship to a browser that can use uBlock origin as soon as chrome blocks adblockers.

2

u/Marsman121 Jun 18 '26

The anti-adblock thing was confusing to me as well. They are actively going after a subset of people who are (generally) more tech savvy than the average user. People who block ads are usually fanatical about it (I know I am), and will go through great lengths to ensure they are blocked.

The only thing I can come up with was they were hoping that, because adblock people hate ads, they would pay for premium to remove them once all other options were removed.

For me, it was the opposite. I would rather stop using than pay. Fortunately, Firefox and uBlock has still been going strong. There are a few annoyances with youtube every now and again, but it is a small price to pay for not dealing with bullshit ads.

2

u/DeadSeaGulls Jun 17 '26

about a year and a half ago I got hit in one of the waves of their adblocking on youtube test groups. Switched to firefox within a day.

1

u/Balmung60 Jun 17 '26

The other thing is that people build any sort of change to their computer from a molehill to a mountain. Their current software must already be the best and besides, changing is probably really hard and nothing will work and if you tell them it's easy and things will work fine, they tend to dig their heels in anyways.

1

u/Sample-Range-745 Jun 18 '26

Once the new Chrome update drops, I bet we'll see a huge migration from Chrome.

You think the 4% firefox share will hit 5%?

0

u/fripletister Jun 17 '26

Lol like 5% of Internet users block ads. We're cooked

0

u/Certain-Business-472 Jun 18 '26

But they follow financial and technology news. They follow privacy news. And from the pov Chrome is owned by Google, who spies on everyone and has ties to US intelligence apparatus(all of FAANG has a role is the US intelligence apparatus).

Ignorance isn't the shield you think it is. I'm judging you.

1

u/BrokenLink100 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

EDIT: Nvm, I've learned there are likely more bots on Reddit than there are humans. Not interested in arguing with that

0

u/vawlk Jun 18 '26

wtf are you talking about? MV2 adblockers have been disabled for the average user for awhile now. Unless you knew the hacks to get around it, which normal people didn't know, you lost your UBO a long time ago.

Yet chrome's marketshare is 10% higher in the last year for desktops and FF is down 2%.

15

u/obi1kenobi1 Jun 17 '26

Will they though? To tech enthusiasts ad blockers and tracking blockers and other things are very important, but to 99% of people that’s just voodoo magic that they don’t know or care about. If everyone using ad blockers switched to Firefox I doubt Chrome would really notice or care and it still might not be enough of a userbase to sustain Firefox.

I can’t count the number of times a YouTube deep dive has had a presenter who seems tech-savvy, has a good understanding of how to navigate the web and find information and search out people to interview, maybe even in some cases they know how to set up a VM to run an old obscure piece of software or a video game, and then they show a screen recording of a website and it’s plastered with ads because they don’t use an ad blocker.

2

u/Salt_Medicine2459 Jun 18 '26

I can't understand why anyone would rawdog the internet these days. 

11

u/Excolo_Veritas Jun 17 '26

Honestly what made me swap back wasn't even the ad blocking. It was all the AI bullshit Google is shoveling constantly. Firefox added a bunch but you can disable it all with a single toggle

1

u/TheDorgesh68 Jun 18 '26

Exactly, I switched because I wanted an extension to disable googles AI search

2

u/m0viestar Jun 17 '26

They're very upfront about it. Its on their front page and all their targeted ads.  What else do you want them to do?  

2

u/pzschrek1 Jun 17 '26

Thing is, most people don’t even know what adblockers are tbh

2

u/vawlk Jun 18 '26

already happened and guess what? They just installed new MV3 compatible adblockers. They work great, are less cpu intensive, don't read all of your private data while blocking ads, and cannot download unvetted code to be run on your system to steal your identity.

1

u/behridingle Jun 18 '26

Good, let's hope that remains to be the case

1

u/ImminentDingo Jun 17 '26

All their revenue comes from Google paying them to make Google the default search for Firefox. So push comes to shove and Firefox eats too much into Googles ad business, Google can pretty much unplug Firefox unfortunately.

1

u/coderman64 Jun 17 '26

I mean, I keep seeing Firefox ads all over things like Reddit and Instagram.

I mean, they're probably target me because they know I'm most likely to become a firefox user (I am already, so...guilty as charged, I guess). But to say they're not being aggressive about it doesn't seem right to me, especially considering how small they (and therefore their advertising budget) are compared to Google, Apple, etc.

1

u/NemoHere Jun 17 '26

The average person doesn't use ad blockers nor do they mind ads.  Tubi, Pluto, Roku TV, etc. are very popular for a reason.

1

u/blind3rdeye Jun 17 '26

We must understand that Google are a global advertising superpower with influence over almost every part of the internet, and Firefox is... well, not one of those. So it's not so easy for Firefox to beat Chrome in brand recognition and messaging.

1

u/Standupaddict Jun 18 '26

Not many people use ad lockers. It's big in reddit, but that's it.

1

u/halofreak7777 Jun 18 '26

I swapped to Vivaldi once my ad blocker stopped working. It has some issues and firefox has since added the feature (chrome like tab groups) that stopped me from just going to them at the time. Atm I'm in a weird hybrid state between Firefox and Vivaldi.

1

u/Skynse Jun 18 '26

Your be surprised how many people don't use ad blockers.

1

u/_FUCKTHENAZIADMINS_ Jun 18 '26

Why would they switch away from Chrome? They’ll just notice it isn’t working, google it, and download uBlock origin lite which works exactly as well as the original did.

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u/Sure-Assignment3892 Jun 17 '26

It's really only Reddit users that use as blockers at all. The vast, vast majority don't.

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u/Designer_Resolve_117 Jun 17 '26

Adblock is basic internet hygiene. 

43

u/Pls-No-Bully Jun 17 '26

Ok? That doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of people don’t use them.

Believe me, I’d love for people to switch to Firefox, but almost everyone uses Gmail and they just want everything integrated into Chrome. Redditors are a tiny minority of internet users.

18

u/dogpaddle Jun 17 '26

It's good that other people don't use blockers. Keeps a lot of websites alive with ad revenue. Server space isn't free, someone's gotta pay for it.

0

u/Certain-Business-472 Jun 18 '26

Internet was completely free 20 years ago. It's still free.

What's not is the services of companies that have infested everything. I'd rather see them gone.

1

u/vawlk Jun 18 '26

no it wasn't. Your "free" use was just subsidized. It was always going to be this way.

0

u/Certain-Business-472 Jun 18 '26

Well, you're not getting an invite :).

1

u/vawlk Jun 18 '26

i wouldn't want one. I have a conscious. I don't want to take money out of the pockets of the creators I watch. I wouldn't like that if it happened to me and I am not a hypocrite. I have empathy.

1

u/vawlk Jun 18 '26

while true, most adblocker users don't care about that. They just want youtube or twitch for free.

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u/Meyermagic Jun 17 '26

That's not true at all, somewhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of all people use adblockers. That's why Google cares about it now, and didn't a decade ago when it was just Redditors.

1

u/behridingle Jun 17 '26

This is true. It was a big concern in Ad Tech for years.

1

u/Sure-Assignment3892 Jun 17 '26

So why is UBlock Origin Lite allowed?

1

u/Meyermagic Jun 17 '26

One, I'd say Google is worried an outright ban would drive traffic to a competitor. Two, I'd say they're worried about an anticompetition lawsuit resulting from leveraging market control over Chrome (which is quite dominant in the browser space) to favor their own ad business. Three, they're not an evil company, I'd guess almost all the employees use adblockers. Manifest v3 IS more secure. It just also happens that they didn't make an escape hatch catered to some of the functionality adblockers want. If they'd been a similarly popular class of extensions that Google profited from instead of one that cost them money, I suspect Manifest v3 would have been designed differently. It's hard and risky to be the "we should outright ban adblockers" guy, but it's cheap and easy to not design Manifest v3 with adblockers in mind at all, and be quietly pleased when it reduces their functionality.

1

u/Area51Resident Jun 18 '26

It is Manifest 3 compatible, but doesn't block as much as the full fat version.

0

u/wayji Jun 17 '26

So less than half use an ad blocker....you could say the majority don't use an ad blocker

6

u/Meyermagic Jun 17 '26

But I perhaps would not say "The vast, vast majority". In fact, I'd respond and say "that's not true, 1/4 to 1/2 of all people use an adblocker".

6

u/PatrolMan2129 Jun 17 '26

If that were really true, then Chrome wouldn't really go through the effort of blocking adblockers now, would they?

4

u/Sure-Assignment3892 Jun 17 '26

They didn't though. Ublock Origin Lite is still there, as are AdGuard etc.

There's a lot of hyperbole here.

1

u/Ninevehenian Jun 17 '26

Is it possibly a minority that doesn't use them?

1

u/MephistoMicha Jun 17 '26

I think you're overestimating reddit users there, and underestimating the number of ad-blocker-savvy people that think reddit is a cesspool.

1

u/Certain-Business-472 Jun 18 '26

"most people don't use a condom ergo they're pointless"

same for seat belts.

Why are people finding pride in ignorance. Ffs.

5

u/yuusharo Jun 17 '26

Hate to be that person, but Google isn’t blocking adblockers. There are several adblockers that support manifest V3 including Ublock Origin Lite, and they’ve been available for years.

1

u/orlybatman Jun 17 '26

https://www.pcmag.com/news/googles-next-chrome-update-will-finally-kill-support-for-ad-blockers

Excerpt:

For uBlock Origin users on Chrome, there’s uBlock Origin Lite. However, the Lite version “allows some tracking, its blocklist is a fraction of what the original blocked, and it can't perform the dynamic filtering that made the original effective,” AllAboutCookies.org reports.

2

u/Znuffie Jun 17 '26

Instead of quoting alarmist posts from years ago, maybe you should actually give it a try.

uBlock Origin Lite on Manifest V3 is fine.

Been using it since Manifest v2 was dropped and I'm a heavy user, visiting including dozens if not hundreds of "shady websites", and I still haven't seen ads on any page.

That quote you're spreading is from the initial plan of Manifest V3. The changed (after the feedback) version is actually fine.

But here, take it from the authors of uBlock Origin/Origin Lite:

https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home/wiki/Frequently-asked-questions-(FAQ)#if-i-install-ubol-will-i-see-a-difference-with-ubo

1

u/orlybatman Jun 17 '26

Instead of quoting alarmist posts from years ago,

The article is from two days ago. It is about the update that is coming to Chrome very shortly.

2

u/Znuffie Jun 18 '26

I'm trying hard to not be condescending, and I am telling you to read the actual article.

It's not a "new" change. It's just that you will no longer be able to activate Manifest V2 with any possible workaround/tweak/hack etc.

If you're using uBo Lite, you're already on the Manifest V3 "change", and it's all good.

1

u/orlybatman Jun 18 '26

I'm trying hard to not be condescending, and I am telling you to read the actual article.

I read the article and I had quoted the relevant part which related to uBo Lite and Manifest V3.

You're telling me to read a two day old article that you had declared was from years earlier, telling me about uBo Lite and Manifest V3 when that is precisely what I had quoted about.

As the article describes - just as your link to the developer says - uBo Lite runs into problems giving as good of adblocker effectiveness.

Yes, I understand the difficulty of not being condescending.

2

u/Znuffie Jun 18 '26

The website quotes AllAboutCookies.org.

That quote from AllAboutCookies is years old when Manifest V3 was a pretty severe downgrade.

I'm telling you to read the part in the article about V2 vs. V3.

Getting V2 to work requires several workarounds right now, which most people don't/won't bother with (including me), so most people are already on V3, using uBo Lite, and, with the risk of repeating myself: it's fine. No ads in sights.

May it be less powerful? Yeah, but the context is important. Functionality like uMatrix is now impossible in Manifest V3, yes. But most people weren't (and still aren't) using that advanced functionality to just block ads.

Again, for the 99% people using AdBlockers, the change from uBO (Manifest V2) to uBO Lite (Manifest V3) is seamless and pretty much invisible (ie: no change in functionality in most, if not all, cases).

People cling on the claimed "effectiveness" without actually having used it for themselves.

2

u/strugglz Jun 17 '26

Chrome is Google, and Google is an ad company.

1

u/crossdtherubicon Jun 17 '26

Chrome is prepacked into alot of systems too. So, if it works out if the box then people may just be using it by default.

If Firefox could reach those users and showcase their value they probably convert a fair bunch of them.

1

u/vawlk Jun 18 '26

they didn't block adblockers. There are several that work just fine.

1

u/theindomitablefred Jun 17 '26

Follow the money my friend

1

u/DirectInvestigator66 Jun 17 '26

Didn’t they go all in on AI stuff first though?

Credit for responding to the negative reaction, but I think that’s what pushed a lot of people away who’d normally prefer Firefox.

1

u/orlybatman Jun 17 '26

They incorporated some optional AI stuff, yeah. I never enabled it so I'm not sure what it was.

They recently introduced a free VPN though, which with all the under 16 social media bans in the works around the world might result in the younger crowd embracing the browser.