How to Remove Suggested “Articles for You” from Android Chrome | Hacker News Reader

How to Remove Suggested “Articles for You” from Android Chrome

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Firefox for Android has become quite nice, syncs all your stuff with desktop Firefox, inc passwords, via Lockwise, a nice password manager for Android and integrated in Firefox desktop.

Edit: Just sayin', when you want to rip the Google out of Chrome, why not go for something that suits you better? With less unwanted features that please the company not the user.

The best part of Firefox for Android is that browser extensions work with it. That means you can have uBlock Origin on your phone.

If anyone reading this is interested, there's an app called kiwi browser that is Chrome for Android with extension support. Downloading extensions is a bit annoying (the web store hasn't been designed for mobile at all) but it's worked flawlessly for me for a few months now.

The only annoying thing is a lack of sync, but I also download chrome for when I need to look through my desktop history or whatever. If you use a password manager that's pretty much the only thing you lose

Although my main mobile browser is Firefox, I can't deny that chrome is better on performance and battery life (even with ad blockers installed in FF). I can understand why people use a Chrome(-based) browsers on mobile.

The replacement for Firefox for Android is coming along nicely but it's nowhere near completion yet.

Improving stuff like this makes Chrome somewhat bearable until Firefox can match Chrome in performance.

I feel quite the opposite - stock Pixel 2, FF is snappier even with uBlock and SmartHTTPS enabled. I also enjoy features like the "Switch" popup bar when you open a new tab, once I have to use Chrome again for that one random website and start opening tabs from clicks I instantly start missing the ease of use FF mobile brings which Chrome does not in my use patterns.

Also, it's a lot easier to de-clutterify the main default screen and set a simple about:blank as the home page without having to dig into about:config (chrome://flags) - Chrome loves to hide things from you and force their world view (NTP), Firefox makes it all simple to disable and live a clutter-free mobile life. $0.02 USD :) (I just counted - I have to go disable 5 NTP chrome://flags to de-clutter the home page, whereas Firefox I just use standard menu choices to set a default home page)

Firefox also has this, so..

That, and I also switched my search engine to DDG. I also use Lawnchair as my home launcher, and you can also change the search engine there too.

After logging out of my google account, I was horrified to see "articles for you" contains some of the worst clickbait I've seen. Of course it goes away after you log in and they realize it won't appeal to your profile. This garbage content is being distributed without context every single time the average layman opens chrome to perform a google search on their phone.

I cannot believe nobody has called Google out for this yet. To me, this seems far more dangerous than clickbait on Facebook--where you can at least add a comment and let grandma know the article she posted is fake.

Worse yet, I suspect they highly favor AMP content in articles for you.

Wait until you figure out what types of no-talent mainstream artists they're promoting out of obscurity with frontage features (looking at you, Lil Yachty and Lil Uzi Vert - and worse).

front-page*, on YouTube, to be clear.

Browsing YouTube logged out is a similar experience.

Related to this topic (but possibly offtopic):

I have recently discovered the value in blocking the "related content" lists a lot of websites put on the side of their pages.

Think of the "more from Viral" list on the right side of the imgur page, the viral articles on the right of the news article you're currently reading, and even the "hot network questions" on stack overflow.

I've found myself visiting a website with the desire to consume a specific piece of content and get sidetracked by those lists. That's the reason those side lists are there and of course there are metrics tracking their efficiency.

I've noticed a jump in browsing QoL once I started blocking those lists.

Use Firefox for Android, please. You even get ublock origin to protect you from the cancer of mobile ads that are impossible to avoid clicking.

I have disabled, then enabled, then disabled this feature several times now.

Sometimes, it is spot-on with recommendations that I enjoy reading.

Other times, I get horrible clickbait. Because I searched for `nirvana discography` once, I get celebrity spam about Cobain's daughter. Cringe.

My policy: Any web search remotely related to celebrities or politics must be done in Incognito mode.

I often quite like these but I'm extremely annoyed by them at the moment as I saw a huge spoiler for a TV show I was wanting to watch. I've avoided all online newspapers but I open a new tab and Google go and spoil it for me.

There's no way to leave feedback. Google are way too big and arrogant for that.

Nobody is talking about it, but Google Discover is working wonders for publishers. Think 10 times the traffic Google News ever sent.

I have found lightning browser [0] to be a very minimalist replacement for chrome, waterfox, fennec and the like. It's also on F-droid, which is a plus.

[0] https://github.com/anthonycr/Lightning-Browser

This should just link to the Firefox page on the app store, can a moderator update the link?

I clicked the link thinking this was going to save me from all the "Suggested Articles" clickbait at the bottom of so many websites. Sigh.

I wasn't able to read the article (hn's hug of death?), but why would anyone want to remove these?

I personally find them quite "useful" in the sense that, most of the time, they are articles (GitHub repos, ...) that are really of interest to me.

I find it even better than the standalone News app or the 'Discover' feed.

To reduce distractions.

1. Switch to Firefox.

2. Profit!

by getting a linux phone?

chrome://flags

Search for "for you"

Disable.

Saved you a click

Direct link:

chrome://flags/#enable-ntp-remote-suggestions

Every time I find a useful Chrome flag they remove it in the next release and make you install extensions. Not sure if it's different on Android.

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