Will Estrange Those On The Fence

[yewscion]

Aside from the irredeemable effects something like this would have on the world wide web—which many others have mentioned in both straightforward, serious issues or essays as well as satire on and off this website—I'd like to mention something that a corporation may also care about.

I think I might offer a unique perspective, as I have (stubbornly) never blocked ads: The concept made me visualize a world where the actual web was allowed to degrade while its users were unaware due to filtering.

I don't use chromium or its derivatives as my daily driver for browsing, but I do use it for web applications I generally leave running in the background, simply because it is the easiest way to reliably access those services. However:

If this is implemented in chromium, I as a user who has never blocked ads will move to actively avoiding using chromium-based browsers in my daily life.

The idea that using chromium or its derivatives, even in passing or just for web applications, would mean tacitly supporting something like this is more than enough to motivate me to find another browser to fit my needs. And no, I don't really care enough about javascript-riddled websites to limit myself to 'firefox or chromium'. Honestly, I could get away with something like Midori or Nomad for most of my needs.

This is anti-consumer, anti-competition, and worst of all anti-social behavior, and will make people who are on the fence about Google products fall towards whichever side Google is not on.

Just my $0.02.