#also I'd put money on the fact that at least half of the 'firefox not chrome' proponents couldn't outline the merits of mv2 or mv3

[avaantares]

Firefox also does things that Chrome doesn't like allow adblockers

Me, every time this statement comes across my dash:

People. Friends. Tumblr groupies. Fam. Cool kids. Kittens. Please pay attention.

CHROME. ALLOWS. AD. BLOCKERS.

Chrome has always allowed ad blockers. Chrome still allows ad blockers, even in the latest (as of Feb 2023) version, which is the one all the (inaccurate) panic posts were going around saying was going to ban all privacy features. Chrome not only still allows customized privacy settings, but supports extensions that reduce or disable cookie-based tracking, boost security, screen pages for malicious code, and pretty much anything else you can think of to protect your web presence. Yes, you can argue the relative merits of inbuilt MV2 vs. MV3 traffic blocking (believe it or not, there are pros and cons on both sides! not that Tumblr ever let facts stand in the way of opinions), but third-party extensions are still fully supported.

I'm not just picking on this post; there are so many of these anti-Chrome posts going around, full of misinformation, because... I guess people want to take some kind of moral stance against Google and generate more hate for them, so they feel justified in spreading (easily-disproven) lies about their products? I honestly don't know why else so much of this would come across my dash -- surely not everyone on Tumblr is so bad at research that they can't Google (or, y'know, some other search engine that isn't a beloathed megacorporation) "does Chrome allow ad blockers?" before posting a tirade against it.

Case in point: I've also seen multiple posts that say things like, "Firefox is much better than Chrome because it allows uBlock Origin!" Well, wouldn't you know it, so does Chrome. In fact, I have uBlock Origin running right now, alongside my password manager and anti-web-tracking extensions (things I've also seen touted as Firefox-only features):

In addition to uBlock Origin (my preferred ad killer), there are Chrome extensions available for AdBlock, AdBlock Plus, AdBlocker Ultimate, AdLock, AdGuard, Total Adblock, Surfshark Cleanweb, and... well, that was just one page of results, but there are plenty more. Point being, you can have your choice of third party add-ons even beyond the browser's settings.

To be clear, I have absolutely nothing against Firefox -- it's a good browser with lots of nice features, and I use it occasionally when I don't need the specific stuff I have installed on Chrome -- but Chrome users have access to a lot of those features as well (and should probably be using them, for security reasons). The main differences between Firefox and Chrome are that Chrome is integrated into other Google services, which is a pro for some users (Workspace and business functionality) and a con for others (out-of-the-box privacy concerns), and that it performs the same kind of data collection as using Google's search engine (much of which can be managed or disabled in your privacy settings). Both of them are superior to whatever default browser came preinstalled on your OS (usually Edge/Safari), and neither of them are inherently as privacy-oriented as DuckDuckGo.

Ultimately, you should choose the browser that works best for your needs. If you don't like Google's data collection and don't want to use their product, by all means use a different browser! But don't pretend it's because Chrome lacks features or third-party extension support or is somehow functionally inferior to Firefox.

Getting really sick of all the "There's No Place Like Chrome" ads on youtube. There's Firefox. Firefox saves your passwords. Firefox autofills things if you want. Firefox also does things that Chrome doesn't like allow adblockers, and it does not mine your data and sell your information for advertising purposes. Google is really trying to push people to use Chrome so they can take as much data from users as possible in order to make as much money as possible and it's borderline sinister.

Anyway, download Firefox.