I am going to try Brave or Firefox.
I Googled Grassroots Motorsports on my phone and the very first link that came up for me informed me that I could get Grassroots Motorsports on Ebay. That being said, is there a way to remove Amazon, Ebay ect from my search so I can find a legitimate link for a product?
In reply to Noddaz :
Use duck duck go instead of Google. Get a good ad blocker. Ublock origin, abp, adguard. I actually run 2 ad blockers on all my devices, but I berkeleying hate being advertised at.
In reply to Noddaz :
I went from Chrome to Firefox to Brave. I really like Brave. Think like I've been using it over a year now.
I google'd the same, there's no ad anywhere around. I wonder if you have some unfriendly browser blugin or something.
Why "or"?
I may have Browser ADD, but Firefox, Brave and Vivaldi are essentially my daily drivers.
Firefox has one privacy feature the others don't, and that is the support for containers. This started out as the "Facebook container" that, well, contained the Meta stuff an isolated it from the rest of the webpages you visit. Kinda like using a completely separate browser for Meta stuff that doesn't cross-pollinate any other sites you visit. They also off a Multi-account container plugin that allows you to create multiple different containers and assign sites to them. I use that, and for example have a container for Google stuff, another one for anything related to online banking, yet another one for river-based shopping sites and so on. None of the Chrome based browsers have that capability. Oh, and if you're using Firefox, make sure to install uBlock Origin for ad blocking as Firefox is the only browser of the three mentioned that doesn't have an ad blocker installed by default. Or use LibreWolf (basically Firefox without the telemetry and a couple of other not so privacy friendly features removed) as AFAIK that already comes with uBlock Origin installed.
Brave works pretty well out of the box, although all browsers benefit from cranking up their privacy settings. It's probably the least featureful and most "lightweight" browser and IME just works. It's missing a couple of features I really like in Vivaldi and Firefox like pop-out video players.
Vivaldi follows a similar philosophy to Brave, but has a lot of additional functionality in the UI including (IIRC) even a mail client. It offers ad blocking and anti-tracking features similar to Brave, and the combination of tab stacking and workspaces it hard to beat if you're like me and seem to have about half the internet open in separate tabs at any given point in time.
I don't think you can go wrong with any of the three options I mentioned as long as you then follow one of the reputable privacy guides available out there to crank up the tracking protection a bit more. Even without that, they're a massive improvement over plain Chrome, which IMHO is more of a survellance tool than a web browser at this point, and a bit of a privacy nightmare.
Oh, and using a search engine that doesn't belong to a company that makes almost all its money from ads (and produces pretty crummy results recently) is also a good idea. I tend to use DuckDuckGo as already mentioned, or Qwant (a European more privacy-friendly search engine) that also produces decent results.
DuckDuckGo is still a private industry, so remember that while their brand is based around "not selling your data" they still easily could.
I'm adding a +1 for What BoxheadTim said; I've been using firefox with uBlockOrigin for years with no issues, even going as far as adding NoScript to the mix too to REALLY kill anything malicious. I genuinely might see 1% of the ads others see. I have no experience with Brave, or Vivaldi- but loosing the Firefox modularity may hurt your experiences since you can tailor it.
Also, consider a lightweight linux distro like Mint. I've used mint all the way through college for years on my laptop and it was phenominal.
DDG routes every result page you click on through their site with tracking parameters, and they've been caught sharing info with MS/Bing before, so I don't really trust them. I browse with a heavily modified Firefox, there's an old plugin called uMatrix that gives you a ton of control in one app but you kind of need to be a web developer to know how to use it. Startpage serves up anonymized Google results, I use them a lot. Will check out Qwant.
GameboyRMH said:DDG routes every result page you click on through their site with tracking parameters, and they've been caught sharing info with MS/Bing before, so I don't really trust them. I browse with a heavily modified Firefox, there's an old plugin called uMatrix that gives you a ton of control in one app but you kind of need to be a web developer to know how to use it. Startpage serves up anonymized Google results, I use them a lot. Will check out Qwant.
DDG uses MS/Bing as the main backbone of their search engine, so of course things would be routed through there... The question is how much of your info are they passing along to them with the search query?
In reply to WonkoTheSane :
It's not just a matter of what was technically necessary, they were exempting third-party cookies from Microsoft-owned sites from their browser privacy controls:
A bit off topic but the YouTube algorithm has got really bad. If you so much as click on somthing not related to what you usually watch and only watch the first 30 seconds of the video because it was bad you will get hammered with related videos on that topic to the point that the search function basically ignores what you are searching for and suggests more content related to that one off outlier of a video you did not like.
StartPage is a really good search engine. Based in Europe. That's what I use
Don't use the internet? Sure you may not see the ads, but literally everything you do is tracked.
And I promise, no one posting here is that interesting that government or advertisers care.
z31maniac said:Don't use the internet? Sure you may not see the ads, but literally everything you do is tracked.
And I promise, no one posting here is that interesting that government or advertisers care.
thanks man i'll be sleepin' way betterer tonight
Who pays any attention to ads? I don't even notice them.
In reply to ddavidv :
at the beginning of EVERY single Youtube video. Sigh.
I'm on Chrome. My grassroots motorsports search brings up the GRM website.
I don't get Youtube ads either.
I'm running Adblock Plus and almost never see advertisements and never see popups. I'm also running Ublock Origin, Disconnect, and HTTPS Everywhere. They are supposed to be pretty efficient at shutting down requests. The only place I really see ads is Facebook and their targeting algorithms are terrible so I'm in no danger of impulse buying anything they advertise.
GameboyRMH said:In reply to WonkoTheSane :
It's not just a matter of what was technically necessary, they were exempting third-party cookies from Microsoft-owned sites from their browser privacy controls:
Ah, okay, that's a browser thing.. I hadn't read about that before, thanks for the link!
Indy - Guy said:In reply to ddavidv :
at the beginning of EVERY single Youtube video. Sigh.
It's no different than most any streaming service. If you want ad-free, you pay for a subscription.
As a content creator myself, those ads are rather important. It's the only way I get paid. I do try to limit the mid-roll ads, as YT can sometimes seemingly double up on how many they autofill. 10-15 seconds of ads at the beginning is a small price to pay to me.
I've just accepted it at this point.
If you want to level up, raspberry pi + pihole. I forget how bad the ads are whenever I'm not on my home network
An interesting opinion piece from Wired that came across my feed this morning. Consider the source, but if that's true they're changing your search terms behind the scenes in order to run a search that is similar to what you actually asked to search for but one that will earn them more revenue.
z31maniac said:*snip*
And I promise, no one posting here is that interesting that government or advertisers care.
I disagree. The advertisers do care, or they would not be tracking.
Indy - Guy said:In reply to ddavidv :
at the beginning of EVERY single Youtube video. Sigh.
And maybe several times during the video. And of course, right before the end.
Just like the big networks! (ABC, NBC, CBS)
wae said:An interesting opinion piece from Wired that came across my feed this morning. Consider the source, but if that's true they're changing your search terms behind the scenes in order to run a search that is similar to what you actually asked to search for but one that will earn them more revenue.
From the article: It’s also a guaranteed way to harm everyone except Google. This system reduces search engine quality for users and drives up advertiser expenses. Google can get away with it because these manipulations are imperceptible to the user and advertiser, and the company has effectively captured more than 90 percent market share.
Are you kidding me? Wh doesn't know that this is happening?
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