Google Chrome is the dominating desktop browser and a strong browser on mobile as well. Google, being an advertising company first and foremost, gets a ton of data from browser use. What weights more is that the company is also in a strong position regarding the introduction of new web technologies. Some of the proposed changes may favor Google's advertising business more than it is improving Internet use for users.
The introduction of Manifest V3 is just one example of that. With Google's stronghold on Chromium development, all Chromium-based browsers face a tough decision: either follow Google's lead and drop support for Manifest V2, or invest resources in keeping Manifest V2 supported. Manifest V3 changes core APIs that extensions have used for a long time. Especially privacy improving and content blocking extensions are impacted by this, and some have suggested that the change is a deliberate move by Google to strengthen its advertising business.
Only some browser makers have the resources to do something about it. Microsoft with its Edge browser is an example, but it seems that Microsoft Edge will support Manifest V3 only going forward. There are plenty of Chromium-based browsers that offer more than Chrome. Vivaldi offers plenty of integrated customizations and a mail client, Brave has a good content blocker and a different business model than many other browser makers, and Opera maintains a browser focused on gaming.
As far as non-Chromium browsers are concerned, there is Firefox, which relies on its own codebase, and Safari, which is maintained by Apple. Firefox will continue to support Manifest V2 but also Manifest V3; this means, that Manifest V2 extensions continue to be supported for the foreseeable future.
Most Ghacks regulars do not use Chrome as their main browser. Some may use it for web development or the rare site that only works in Chrome, but the majority uses a different browser. It is no coincidence that the majority of Ghacks visitors are the go-to people when it comes to tech-related questions.
In the past, many may have suggested to install Chrome instead of Internet Explorer or the first version of Edge. Some may have installed other browsers such as Firefox right away. Now, it is a good time to get less-savvy computer users to use a different browser.
Whether that is going to be Firefox or another Chromium-based browser depends on personal requirements. Chromium-based browsers may offer better web compatibility in some cases, while Firefox is less dependent on Chromium as a whole and will likely maintain better add-on support going forward.
All three browsers and companies are not perfect, and they may be criticized for certain things. Mozilla, maker of Firefox, makes strong political statements from time to time, and a few sites may not work properly in Firefox because of Chrome's dominance. Brave is financed by cryptocurrencies for the most part, and Vivaldi may be too feature-rich for some.
All in all though, these browsers are better options for the vast majority of Internet users.
Now You: which web browsers do you use and suggest that others use?
I’m considering returning to Firefox. I’m not sure what other extensions, outside adblocking, Manifest V3 will break. I use Stylish to custom-design pages that I think have a bad design. It’s unfortunate that a bad advertising company has control over how online browsing will evolve. I feel like it’s time to cut back on technology and the internet because it keeps growing worse with these big tech corporations.
sticking with firefox and variants waterfox, tor, etc
I have been wanting to switch to Firefox for years, but the Android version is broken and I really can’t live without sync between my desktop and mobile browser.
On Pixel devices at least, Firefox for Android’s font scaling is broken. I’ve been trying for years to get it fixed, but the Firefox source code is an impenetrable mess and the bug remains open but unactioned.
The only browsers with decent adblocking on Android AND sync are Firefox + uBO and Brave. If Firefox does not meet your requirements, consider Brave.
More or less I still believe that Kiwi Browser is overall best on Android, it has full Chromium extension support and none of the drawbacks of Firefox. There is no desktop version and thus no sync though. Same for Bromite, but with Bromite the adblocking is worse than what Brave or uBlock Origin offer anyway.
Actually, I’m using Vivaldi on my Samsung Tab S2 and S3 tablets. It’s ad-blocking features seem to work quite well Iron Heart. I don’t know what your thoughts on that are.
Not using Vivaldi on Android, does it support custom lists there? If not, which lists does it use by default?
I don’t think it uses custom lists. I use Easy List. I also disable pages which Vivaldi “prefers”.
Ah OK. I can believe the adblocking is decent if they already base it on the EasyList lists by default. Custom lists are a must though, I am sure they are already working on it in anticipation of the MV3 changes.
Firefox now does tap sharing between devices. If you use 2 different browsers across devices then try Pushbullet.
Did someone say opening a can of worms?
‘too feature-rich’ L.O.L! Just to say something negative for the best option of pure user centric evil-g code based web browser. Unfortunately all web fabric is build around their yes-be-evil-code. If you don’t need a feature just dont use it.
Come home to Firefox, simple as
Device is PC only, I don’t use smartphones.
Browser I use : Firefox. Only. Since practically always. Browsers I’d never use : Google Chrome, Edge Browsers I could use : Brave.
I can’t stand advertisement in its present form : always more, never better. I can even less stand tracking. Lesser even : malvertisement. How could I stand an advertisement company’s software and applications?
No Google Chrome, no Google Mail (comes right after Chrome in terms of privacy intrusion), no Google Search. More generally an awareness regarding all of GAFAM. With that in mind and in behavior I manage to surf relatively quietly. I forgot to mention : I don’t give the slightest damn of market shares, of a majority’s choices. Should we all follow the leaders that we’d never be one. If all designers followed fashion fashion would never change. Where’s freedom when we follow the gurus, the trend as sheep? Where?
@Martin, your article is *most* worthy.
Anything today with the word “smart” in it’s name is a privacy breaching data collecting advertisment device.
Though I do use a smartphone for calls, texting, navigation and, the app for my kids schools. Most of the other stuff it came with doesn’t work, I just get a message, “Your phone can do more if you turn back on all that invasive shite you turned off”.
I use FF for casual surfing like this website and most other stuff but I also use Edge for when I want to be tracked. There are times when I want it to be obvious that it’s really me and when it’s not.
I do have a mobile phone which handles only … phone and sms : it’s not smart, is it? As you write it, indeed, “the word “smart” in it’s name is a privacy breaching data collecting advertisment device.”
Let’s face, or let me, maybe you and a few others (“few” given the “smart dependency”) face it : the Web has become a snake-pit. Within a terribly reduced digital environment (no smartphone, if Windows OS then “[…] I also use Edge for when I want to be tracked. There are times when I want it to be obvious that it’s really me and when it’s not.”
I’m not too sure how to interpret this. I can imagine — for having experienced it — that you need to know from the inside what you aim to combat from the outside. I have in mind Hades [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades].
EDIT : I used the ‘smaller than’ sign which broke what followed it in the paragraph. A pain. —
I do have a mobile phone which handles only … phone and sms : it’s not smart, is it? As you write it, indeed, “the word “smart” in it’s name is a privacy breaching data collecting advertisment device.”
Let’s face, or let me, maybe you and a few others (“few” given the “smart dependency”) face it : the Web has become a snake-pit. Within a terribly reduced digital environment (no smartphone, if Windows OS then prior to version 10), a world-worth arsenal of privacy and security defensive weapons we can hardly manage to sigh without that information being transmitted all over the planet. This is mad, insane.
> “[…] I also use Edge for when I want to be tracked. There are times when I want it to be obvious that it’s really me and when it’s not.”
I’m not too sure how to interpret this. I can imagine — for having experienced it — that you need to know from the inside what you aim to combat from the outside. I have in mind Hades [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades].
Manifest V3 is poison. God damn it. Currently I use Edge and Brave with uBO installed on both of them while Shields is always disabled. Internet is a messed-up place without the undisputed king of content blockers, uBO.
Avoid Chrome, and all other Google surveillance products. But go further: block by default all Google scripts…which just happen to contaminate nearly every website. (Wow, wonder how that ever happened.)
If, on occasion, you “need” to visit a Google property, enable the minimum scripting temporarily.
If you use Android, consider installing a more respectful OS.
Until several years ago, I was an avid user of Firefox but I’m not going to use it anymore because it’s still awful at managing RAM after all these years. Maybe (most of) Chromium-based browsers are nightmares in terms of privacy but they are absolutely superior to Firefox in terms of performance.
@MeH Sounds like a user error
The points you bring up are practically reversed for a year or 2, at least. In 2022 it is Chrome which consumes resources like there is no tomorrow, not FireFox.
Having said that, both consume considerable amounts of resources. I have a old laptop I put Linux on. FireFox came with Linux. It runs fine for weeks, if I just use FireFox with pages that do not contain any video. When I do visit pages with video and/or video ads, I need to reboot every week or so.
When a site like Youtube is visited, I’m lucky if it holds for 2 days without reboot. Tried Chrome on it, it is way worse.
The only browser that keeps a check on things is Vivaldi on this laptop.
I just downloaded Firefox and have been setting it up. Made my mind up that Brave’s crypto gimmick is too shady for me, Vivaldi seems to be working more towards being an OS rather than a browser and gets sluggish. It does seem like Firefox improved since I last used it so I think I will stick with it.
My first browser for mostly all the daily time is Firefox ESR, the best branch ever built with tons of stability strenght, with uBlock origin as alone extension. Best decision ever! My second browser that I use for the electronic identification for government sites is Edge Chromium. I return to Edge after leaving Chrome some months ago because Edge has the best webpage and PDF speech reader ever, it’s amazin to hear entire pages or entire PDF with no mistakes nor mispelling issues. Edge has also the best printer options, three ways of protection and also three ways of security enforcement for all websites. Anyway, Firefox ESR is my preferred choice. About Chrome: it has less configuration options than Firefox or Chrome and also is very difficult to understand what its privacy mode is really doing (for example, I noticed more than 400 third party cookies after a week browsing in “private mode”. How the hell can this could happened? Thanks @Martin for this good article. :]
While there are great (privacy-preserving) alternatives (like Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Calendar and Mega.nz) to Gmail, Google Drive and many of Google services, Chromium has no real rival :( And that’s a bad thing.
Really? Now? When they first took control away from you it wasn’t enough?
I gave up chrome long ago after google decided they didn’t want me using some extension and removed it, from my pc, for me.
The worst about G. is not what they steal – that’s pretty bad, but there is worse – they’ve become a totalitarian, censoring machine, conveniently and blindly protecting any official narrative. Like a Big Brother misinfo propaganda department, with no actual responsibility to anyone or anything; ready to ban/deplatform anyone who dares to question or disagree with said narrative.
On the other hand, jumping from Chrome to Firefox is like hiding in a hyena burrow when the pride is on a hunt. Mozilla are traitorous, woke commies, who will stab you in the back when a lucrative opportunity is at hand. They only “hate” G. because it has become a business model and an attractive slogan to be “against” big tech – it’s populism. In reality, they don’t hate them – they envy them!
Brave is the only browser that can, morally and technically, be called an alternative. I just wish they would have their own extension store. I hope such is in their future plans.
Now You: which web browsers do you use and suggest that others use?
One question, where does that put MS Edge as it follows Chrome’s updates..ouch! https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/extensions-chromium/developer-guide/manifest-v3
Firefox with uBlock Origin forever on LinuxMint – (getaway from M$ too)!
Microsoft being the stupid and dumb greedy pigs they are, don’t realize here’s their one and only shot. Served on a plate. By not going this route with Edge, they could and WOULD (in time) snatch the Chrome users to their own camp. Yes, they would miss out on lots of cash when Edge users would install adblockers but their OS is smack full of ads anyway.. Otherwise this will go like so: Microsoft Edge, the favorite browser to download Firefox. Jokes aside, seems like Vivaldi is the way to go, Brave is shoving that crypto garbage in everyones faces way too much, it should be buried deep deeeeeeeeeeeeep and turned off by default. So those that want to use it can, and those who don’t would never ever see anything about it. Firefox? No thanks. Ancient, bloated, slow garbage run by rancid leftist woke nazis on Googles payroll. NEVER will I use it.
I’m using LibreWolf for a while now as main browser and keep others around for testing, but I would recommend LibreWolf.
This project is an independent fork of Firefox, with the primary goals of privacy, security and user freedom.
LibreWolf is designed to increase protection against tracking and fingerprinting techniques, while also including a few security improvements. This is achieved through our privacy and security oriented settings and patches. LibreWolf also aims to remove all the telemetry, data collection and annoyances, as well as disabling anti-freedom features like DRM.
For work and general at-home browsing, I have used Firefox for many years locked down with uMatrix, uBlock,Temporary Containers, etc. with only whitelisted sites for cookies and scripts. Rarely have a problem.
Some banking sites don’t work well in lockdown mode, so I have a different Firefox profile for those sites with only uBlock installed. Never have a problem.
I have also used Firefox on several Samsung phones with uBlock installed. No problems.
Needless to say, no Chrome-based browsers on any of my machines.
I use Firefox ESR, Chromium (From Woolys) and Edge for business but my everyday browser still is Firefox ESR. Old habbits die hard…
Both Edge and Chrome are super-bloated. Will try Chromium again. it’s like trying to win a carnival game…
Dechrome initiated…switched back to Firefox on desktops and mobiles. Mobile experience is far far better since it can run unblock. F chrome.
still owned and controlled by Google
It provably sends no data to Google, buddy. Don’t talk nonsense, it is most especially not “owned” by Google – only Google Chrome is specifically owned by them.
If you mean that they can’t revert all of Google’s decisions for Chromium, then this is correct, but maybe they don’t need to keep Manifest V2 around at all. There is always the option to adopt the built-in adblockers of Brave or Bromite in Ungoogled Chromium and then call it a day. You don’t know how they will proceed with this as of now.
I use Edge. UBO- minus is currently very deficient in cosmetic filtering. AdGuard MV3 has many shortcomings but has superior performance Using AdGuard MV3 (for cosmetic filtering) + DNS such as AdGuard or Next DNS diminishes the problem somewhat.
I installed and made the best settings in Firefox.
A few rarely-mentioned things that help keep me on Firefox as my main desktop browser:
– On Windows, text rendering is better in Firefox than Chromium browsers. Text is sharper and easier to read. I’m really surprised that more people don’t talk about this.
– The “Multi-Account Containers” add on is super handy. Last time I checked, there wasn’t an equivalent for Chromium.
– Even though the Firefox UI is much less configurable than it used to be, it’s still more flexible than Chromium.
Fair point. I don’t use Windows though.
Major browsers separate cookies and other local data per parent domain for privacy reasons already, e.g. Safari already did this before Firefox did and Brave does it too. Unless you mean advantage, as in, you have multiple accounts on the same website (Why?), in which case containers work better.
> Firefox UI (…) it’s still more flexible than Chromium.
But less flexible than Vivaldi, my dear.
Regarding Multi-Account Containers, yes it’s for managing multiple accounts on the same website, for example if you have multiple Google/Microsoft/Dropbox/Github/Amazon/whatever accounts. Or maybe you don’t have multiple accounts for yourself, but sometimes need to sign into family or friend accounts. Multiple accounts can be can be open simultaneously in different tabs. I find it quite useful.
Regarding Vivaldi, yes it’s very configurable, but my past perception was that the features and configurability were kind of overkill. Brave felt more lightweight and performant to me, so it became my preferred Chromium browser. But admittedly I haven’t tried Vivaldi for a while. Do you have thoughts on Brave vs Vivaldi?
The internet was originally created for the military. Today it is a minefield. To pass through safely, one needs a fully armored tank. As far as I know there are no stealth tanks, so there is no way to get through without being seen or shot at. The guys doing the seeing and shooting are a plutocracy. With Manifest V3 pincer movement imminent, I think it prudent to go with FF ESR – a tank with a cannon on its turret. The other browsers mentioned are more like troop carriers with windows.
> I think it prudent to go with FF ESR – a tank with a cannon on its turret. The other browsers mentioned are more like troop carriers with windows.
This will be an epic laughing stock once Mozilla adopts it too (and ESR only gives you one year of rest anyway). They didn’t sound too enthusiastic about the webRequest API last time either, and are behind extension standardization across browsers.
First I want to see January 2023 come and go and see if all Chromium browsers will be affected by this or not. Is it possible for this to be delayed on other browsers or completely omitted or not?
After that I will weigh my options and see what will I do. I don’t like the direction of Firefox with their constant updating of UI to things more and more uglier and removing UI customizability while they’re at it while ignoring other aspects of the UI that still linger as they were 20 years ago.
It kinda sucks that there are no other options besides Gecko and Chromium. All other alternatives are flat out underdeveloped and unusable.
I use Firefox on both PC and Android. I have no extensions installed on the android version as I have AdGuard installed and running, and that prevents all the ads. I also rarely use the mobile version for anything. I have never been interested in Chrome, it seems to eat RAM more than Firefox does. On my dedicated CCTV system, I use Brave to monitor my PoE cameras, it seems to be the least resource intensive.
“Chrome seems to eat RAM more than Firefox does.” I can tell you it’s absolutely wrong! After all these years, Firefox still sucks at managing RAM. One can easily confirm this fact by using a program like Task Manager or Process Explorer.
I can open hundreds of tabs in Edge or Brave on my older laptop without any problem but my system crashes and reboots whenever I open more than 14-15 tabs in Firefox due to RAM shortage and the fact that Firefox is a resource hog and terrible at managing RAM.
“Now You: which web browsers do you use and suggest that others use?”
I started with Firefox 0.9 when it looked like Netscape Navigator was to be discontinued. Currently using FF 104.0.2 and have no plans to change. Obviously, many changes over the years; just wishing it could become totally independent of Google. For now, FF and/or perhaps one of the its forks, appear to be the best bet going forward.
Then there’s always an unsullied Qt5 WebEngine browser build. As used in Otter or the development-stalled Falkon.
Running in a properly hardened Win10/11 PC, it could just be the ticket to a classic web browsing experience…
I have never installed Google Chrome as I consider it spyware, same with Microsoft’s Edge. So I would never recommend them to anyone who values their privacy.
Instead for years now I have only used Firefox ESR which has been tweaked for maximum privacy (using Arkenfox as a template). But I also prefer Firefox because it still allows access to keyboard shortcuts while in full screen mode, of particular importance bookmarks via ALT+B. In comparison chromium based browsers require that you drop out of full screen mode as well as there is no comparable two key shortcut to easily access bookmarks.
The only chromium based browser I use is ungoogled chromium but only for very few trusted websites in order to limit the potential risk from all the frequent zero day vulnerabilities that seem to happen often in the chromium code base. I also use it for the built-in flag “Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents” that when enabled will display a website in a dark theme.
Alternative opinion: We shouldn’t have switched to Chrome in the first place. The Internet is a hellscape now because of it–webmasters feel they have to keep bending now to the mighty whims of whatever Google wants to standardize.
I never made Chrome my main browser and I’m all the more glad for it.
The answer is simple.. don’t rely on extensions. Use system level protection on your phone and desktop.
Use Adguard. Buy it from StackSocial and get multiple lifetime licenses for like $30. It’s worth every cent. Adguard also has a VPN but it’s not needed unless you REALLY need a VPN too.
Been using Vivaldi for a couple years now on Android, Windows and Linux Have been totally satisfied with everything Sticking with it and not going to change unless something major changes.
Personally I like Pale Moon.
Among the others, I would recommend that my friends or family members use Brave. It’s just so dead simple to set up properly, and the academic studies have been showing that it is the most private in its default settings.
The only javascript-enabled browsers that aren’t heavily using google’s browser code are Pale Moon and Netsurf. And Netsurf’s javascript implementation is very limited. If you actually want to escape the google orbit, Pale Moon is one to check out.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Please click on the following link to open the newsletter signup page: Ghacks Newsletter Sign up
Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.