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Comment by rc_kas | Hacker News Reader

How is this different that the uBlock Origin addon for Firefox that I have been running for the last 5 years?

It uses browser provided APIs for filtering, instead of running script injection on every page. This improves security, and performance at the cost of some capability. The reduction in capability comes from the inability to do all kinds of cosmetic filtering, but it lets you enable this on a per site basis.

Check the details on the extension page for more information.

> improves security, and performance

> reduction in performance

huh?

Typo, reduction in capability. Corrected above.

> The reduction in capability comes from the inability to do all kinds of cosmetic filtering

Oh, that's too bad. The cosmetic filtering is incredible. I wonder how much I would be impacted by switching to Lite. Guess I'll try one day.

It's definitely jankier without cosmetic filters. You end up with content holes and weird layouts when trackers or ads don't load -- much like browsing on bad wifi. You still avoid (most) ads.

The new method will almost certainly allow site/ad network operators to work around the block filters more easily than they could uBlock Origin.

Are there stats on performance differences?

Anecdotally, I find that blocking ads and associated garbage massively improves page loading, and FF performs fine even with hundreds of tabs open

Would be nice to see benchmarks, I agree. Will take a stab at it, if I remember #ideas.

"Cosmetic filtering" sounds unimportant, but it's what most people expect from ad blockers. It's a bizarre term.

Yeah I personally prefer "element hiding" as the (once) good old ABP calls them.

thank you for the information

The biggest loss is the ability to add custom Block Element rules, and currently filter lists must be selected from a pre-set list.

Actually as a volunteer for the project, I personally consider the lack of regex filters, `redirect-rule` and unable to fast updates are more severe than "hiding elements" ability.

I'm going to use it and not the original uBlock Origin for a week and see how it goes. Only sure way to tell.

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