a short guide to unfucking your browser.

all black fit, call me danny phantom.

(subtitle from “BADDEST” by joey valence and brae.)

In talking to various friends, it’s come to my attention that people are still suffering under an ad-laden, AI-riddled internet experience. This was gonna be an email to a friend, but then I was reading Phrack Magazine and they called out the importance of information sharing:

...resources like this have become increasingly rare. Whether it's due to economic, social, or political forces, sharing information about how 
systems actually work is usually against the interest of those in power. 

One of the most fundamental philosophical beliefs I hold is: Information Wants To Be Free. Information, like Laura Dern, will find a way.

So here is a VERY basic guide on how to unfuck your browser. I have no idea how many of you will already know all this, but please please please share it with your less-savvy family & friends. We don’t have to live like this!!!

ONE. Download Firefox.

So first of all, stop using Chrome. (And if you’re using Edge…. we just want to help.) Download Firefox. In literally hundreds of tests, Firefox performs as well or better than Chrome.

thanks to tumblr user nudibutch, who made this powerpoint to convince their parents, much like i’m now trying to convince you.

Crucially, Firefox can be installed on your phone and, if you have an android, with all your extensions. This will drastically improve your mobile experience. Imagine ads not getting in your way of reading an article on your phone! Make sure to do both steps: download on laptop and mobile, and log into both places.

TWO. install uBlock Origin.

You simply must install an ad-blocker. Why? An ad blocker is basic internet safety: it stops you from accidentally or purposefully clicking on shady shit you shouldn’t be clicking on.

Ad-blocked browsing also speeds up you browser because your computer isn’t spending extra energy on loading ads. Fewer things to load > less RAM utilization > faster computing.

uBlock Origin is pretty universally acknowledged as the best ad-blocker out there. If you don’t have it already, I am BEGGING you to download it:

A note for Chrome users:

There were some issues around December 2024 with Chrome blocking uBlock Origin from being installed. (Yet another reason to ditch Chrome.) But I just installed it on Chrome on a computer a few weeks ago, so uBlock seems to have fixed that. That’s the great thing about uBlock: Google might try to block us from stopping their crap, but you can’t stop all of us. There are always updated scripts. The uBlock subreddit is a great resource to hear about the latest.

THREE. Block a bunch of AI.

I am so, so tired of AI. The Phrack Staff put it best:

While hype has always been a thing, in the past few years (2020-2024), we have witnessed several large pushes to integrate untested, underdeveloped, and unsustainable technology into systems that were already Going Through It. Once the charm wears off, and all the problems did not just magically disappear, they drop these ideas and move on to the next, at the cost of everyone else.

But we don’t have to just sit here and take it. So let’s get you some solutions.

Once you’ve installed uBlock Origin, you can do cool shit like add blocklists. This is a constantly-updating list, all you have to do is import it once and toggle it to auto-update!

The AI blocklist I use, which includes step-by-step instructions on how to download: https://github.com/laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist/blob/main/README.md

This blocklist helpfully blocks all of Google Search’s AI bullshit, which will help us…

FOUR. Fix Google Search.

Google Search sucks ass now. Them’s just facts. Now, I could suggest you use a different search website altogether, but I want this to be low barrier. So instead, I want to walk you through how to fix Google.

The two google search fixes are:

&udm=14 is an AI-free search. It makes Google use Web instead of All¹

&tbs=li%3A1 forces Google to use Verbatim instead of All Results²

These are little bits of code you paste at the end of a search, like so:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14&tbs=li%3A1

But who the hell wants to be doing that every time?

Instead, what you’re going to do is:

1. Use the AI blocklist to essentially get the "&udm=14” results all the time

2. Install this extension: Unfuck Google. This makes google web verbatim search your default.³

FIVE. Block ads on Youtube.

One of the biggest reasons you should use a browser instead of a mobile app. On mobile, there are solutions to block youtube ads - but only if you don’t use the app. Going to the actual youtube website on your mobile browser is a workaround, but… it’s not great, bc ofc the Google engineers are pushing you to go use their app where it’s nigh impossible to block ads. None of it’s as simple as forgoing the mobile addiction altogether and using a real computer browser.

Meanwhile, as they make your experience worse, Youtube is purposely adding elements to their site that slow down computers. This should be illegal, because it’s literally property destruction (and last I checked, we care more about property than human life in this country), but 1) it’s Google so the law doesn’t apply to them 2) it probably isn’t illegal because our legislators are crooked and dumb.

So, how do you block Youtube ads? It’s incredibly simple.

1. Install uBlock Origin

2. Follow these instructions. If you need a more step-by-step, follow me to the footnotes.⁴

I just did this on a laptop: I installed uBlock Origin on Chrome, then unclicked “quick fixes,” and it instantly got rid of all youtube ads. It’s literally that easy.⁵

SIX. Other Resources.

Tired of every goddamn article getting paywalled? Put this link in your bookmark toolbar and utilize it. It will hop any paywall for you: https://12ft.io/

Another Firefox Extension: Decentraleyes. Block a little bit more of the panopticon, and it compliments uBlock.

For ppl who still use facebook for some reason: Facebook Container. Prevents Facebook from tracking you around the internet. TELL YOUR PARENTS ABOUT THIS ONE. Install it for them if you have to!

Two things for iOS users:

1. Settings > Apps > (any app) > Siri > Learn From This App. TOGGLE IT OFF. They have enabled this for every single app you have. You will have to do this every time you have an iOS update. Sometimes it toggles and sometimes it doesn’t. Even for “small” updates. You need to look every time.

2. Turn off “Enhanced Visual Search.” That’s buried in Apps > Photos > Settings > General. More AI learning from your data.

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There’s more, of course. There is so much more to know, and I encourage you to go out there and explore. The power is ours. As the Phrack Staff wrote:

We can move forward through this bullshit. We can work together to maintain good information, and amplify the voices of those who are creating and curating it. We can learn how things actually work, share the details, and use these mechanisms to do some good. We can devise new methods of communication and collaboration, and work both within and between our communities to jam the trash compactor currently trying to crush us to death.

Hacking is both a coping mechanism and a survival skill. It represents the pinnacle of our abilities as humans to figure out how to use whatever tools we may have, in whatever way we can, to do what we need to do. Hacking is a great equalizer, a common dialect, a spirit that exists within all of us. It has the power to shape the world into one we want to live in.

The hacker spirit breaks any spell.

1. Read more about AI-free and Web vs. All search here

2. Read more about Verbatim Search here

3. NOTA BENE: this will limit your searches in odd ways sometimes; the longer my search string gets, the more verbatim struggles. But this is extremely rare in my experience, and you can go incognito into a window without the extension if you’re really struggling.

4. Go to the hamburger stack in the top right of your Firefox browser, and go down to Firefox’s Settings. In Settings, very bottom right, you’ll see Extensions & Themes. You’ll see uBlock Origin there - click on the three dots (…) in order to see Preferences/Options on Mac/Windows (right under Remove). Preferences is where you want to be. Then you’ll see what the screencaps show: Filter Lists et al.

5. for now. like i said, its always a moving target. if your browser starts lagging, or ads come back, or something else, you’ll need some inquisitive spirit to search for & implement the next solution. usually, though, these things last at least a few months, if not over a year. and it’s better than those awful ads on every single goddamn video you watch.