15 Years of Forking - Waterfox Blog
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Today marks 15 years of Waterfox!

Title and image from alternativeto.net, to unbury the lede, but linked to the original post.

This year will see Waterfox shipping a native content blocker built on Brave’s adblock library - and it’s worth explaining what that means and why.

The blocker runs in the main browser process rather than as a web extension, which means it isn’t subject to the limitations that extension based blockers like uBlock Origin face. It’s faster, more tightly integrated, and doesn’t depend on a separate extension process or require us to constantly pull in upstream updates. Brave’s adblock library is also mature - it has paid engineers working on it, a wide filterset, and crucially it’s licensed under MPL2, the same licence as Waterfox, which makes it a natural fit. uBlock Origin, as good as it is, carries a GPLv3 licence that would’ve created real compatibility headaches.

For how it works in practice: by default, text ads will remain visible on our default search partner’s page - currently Startpage. The idea is that this is what will keep the lights on. This mirrors the approach Brave takes with their search partner.

Users who want to disable that entirely can do so with a single toggle in settings, and it has nothing to do with any of Brave’s crypto or rewards ecosystem - we’re just using the adblocking library. Everyone else gets a fast, native adblocker out of the box, no extension required.

If you already use an adblocker, don’t worry, you can carry on using it. This will be enabled for new users or users who aren’t already using an adblocker.

In the meanwhile, Waterfox’s membership of the Browser Choice Alliance alongside Google and Opera, is pushing for fair competition and actual user choice in the browser market.

  • Rekall Incorporated@piefed.socialEnglish
    7·
    2 hours ago

    I used to use StartPage in the late 2010s, it was a good Google search proxy.

    They got bought out by an online marketing company called System1 (that recently went public), I dropped StartPage and switched back to mainline Google.

    They say that the StartPage team is seperate, which is almost certainly true, but that’s not a guarantee of anything. They do use contextual ads, but that’s a massive step up compared to behavioural advertising.

    StartPage even states that:

    “Startpage submits your query anonymously, then returns the results to you privately. Google and our results providers never see you and do not know who made the request, seeing only Startpage.”

    However, they don’t provide specifics; what does “never see you and do not know who made the request” mean? Does Google not get the IP of the query? How do they manage Google security requirements?

    I am now on Ecosia for a few years for Google proxy search. They unfortunately send Google your IP with your queries.

    I think it’s fine that Waterfox has this deal with StartPage and their in-built blockers has the ads whitelisted. This is not that big of deal.

    IMO, you should never use in-built blockers made by the browser, it’s simply better to have this feature managed by a separate extension. A browser maker shouldn’t make the call around what and how you block, there is a fundamental conflict of incentives and even goals in this area.

    I.e. Only use UBO! UBO is well respected, last time that I checked the UBO project doesn’t even accept donations.

      • Rekall Incorporated@piefed.socialEnglish
        5·
        6 hours ago

        I believe it depends on how you use Ecosia.

        For French and German languages, they have been experimenting with their own search index. I wish someone would do an in-depth article on how this is going. I know for a fact that Google can be less competitive in other languages compared to their dominance in the English language internet.

        For English, it seems to be a combination of Google and Bing, with the main source being Google (this is true for me, but Wikipedia states that this was true as of 2023 in general).

        The article below suggests some countries (languages) are mostly serviced by Bing:

        https://support.ecosia.org/article/579-search-results-providers

        I am assuming if you get Bing results, Bing gets the IP associated with the query. But Google does get IPs tied to a given query via Ecosia.

        This means that when you search through Ecosia, we work with either Microsoft Bing or Google to provide you with search results and ads. In order to do this, we automatically collect data required by search partners to prevent bot attacks and ad fraud - which includes your IP address and search terms.

        Yeah, Bing also gets IPs associated with a query.

        https://www.ecosia.org/privacy