Waterfox to integrate Brave adblock engine, with search ads enabled by default

@20cello@lemmy.world 2026-04-04 16:24

That’s bad

@orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-04-04 16:33

I’m not sure if I like this. I hope it can be configured in about:settings.

@gravitas@lem.ugh.im 2026-04-04 16:48

I miss when people made web browsers without appeasing advertisers. Remember when mozilla introduced the popup blocker and netscape actually incorporated that into their mainstream product? You never see stuff like that anymore because advertisers control everything on the internet now.

Open ##968920

@PixelatedSaturn@lemmy.world 2026-04-04 17:27

Haha, Im here for people flipping out comments :)

Open ##969094

@brianpeiris@lemmy.ca 2026-04-04 19:36

I don’t quite understand the concerns in the comments here. The original blog post seems reasonable: www.waterfox.com/blog/15-years-of-forking/#what-w…

Open ##969368

@mrnobody@reddthat.com 2026-04-04 16:52

God, it's not hard to read an article instead of speculate in the comments. "*The new built in blocker will use Brave’s adblock library and run in Waterfox’s main browser process rather than as an extension. Kontos says this should make adblocking faster, more tightly integrated, and less dependent on extension APIs or constant upstream updates.*" *He also said **Brave’s library was chosen partly because its MPL 2.0 license** is a better fit for Waterfox, while deeper integration with a blocker like uBlock Origin would be more complicated because of its GPLv3 license.* *Waterfox will still make one exception by default by **allowing text ads on its default search partner page, currently Startpage, as a way to support the browser financially. The team clarified that this is Waterfox’s own revenue decision and not something inherited from Brave’s adblocking technology.** Users who want stricter blocking will be able to disable all ads with a single setting, while people who already use third party blockers can keep using them as usual.* This, to me, is fine, because I change the default regardless. There's nothing stopping anyone else from doing the same. Sure, this *could potentially* open the door for additional "greedy" decisions down the road, but let's not jump to conclusions.

Open ##1178466

@hornedfiend@piefed.social 2026-04-04 16:32

I'm glad I stuck with Librewolf.

Open ##1178468

@Liketearsinrain@lemmy.ml 2026-04-04 16:37

They (used) to be owned by an advertising company. Use librewolf

Open ##1178475

@lukalix98@programming.dev 2026-04-04 16:31

What does this mean? Waterfox turning into Brave-like browser, which is Chromium, but for Mozilla forks?

Open ##1178480

@Willoughby@piefed.world 2026-04-04 17:53

_toss_ Next!