Google once again postpones Chrome content-blocker shakeup
(2022/12/13)
- Reference: 1670887808
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/12/12/google_v3_chrome_extension/
- Source link:
In September, when Google delayed its Chrome extension platform makeover, we predicted, "This may not be the last time Google revises its transition timeline."
Now, in mid-December, just a month before Google [1]planned to begin experiments to turn off legacy Chrome extensions in its Canary, Dev, and Beta channels, the transition is being [2]postponed again .
For several years, Google has been revising the way browser extensions work in Chrome and its open source Chromium foundation because the legacy API, known as Manifest v2 (MV2), was too easily abused and could interfere with browser performance. The ad giant claims its reworked API, known as Manifest v3 (MV3), is more secure and better performing, though it lacks support for certain capabilities used heavily by makers of advert and content blocking and privacy extensions.
[3]
Despite repeated [4]objections raised by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Raymond Hill, the creator of uBlock Origin, Jean-Paul Schmetz, CEO of Ghostery, and others that MV3 is harmful, Google has maintained that its browser platform changes are necessary and that it intends [5]to support common use cases like content blocking under MV3.
[6]
[7]
Rival browser makers have agreed to support MV3, though privacy-focused vendors like [8]Brave and [9]Mozilla plan to retain some of what Google is getting rid of, or to offer alternative capabilities.
But it has been difficult to assess what MV3 will actually allow because Google's timeline had MV2 extensions going away while the MV3 spec was incomplete and not fully functional. Developers thus have been tasked with rewriting their extension code for a platform that is half-baked and [10]bedeviled by bugs .
[11]
For example, in October, developers complained about this [12]"show-stopper" bug in the MV3 implementation of Service Workers. In MV2, developers could use persistent background pages to process data in the background.
MV3 does away with persistent background scripts, which were deemed to be too resource intensive. In their place, Google offered Service Workers, scripts that run briefly then shut down. But presently, Service Workers in Chrome extensions sometimes shut down and cannot be revived.
A similar issue – Service Workers being forcibly shut down after five minutes – has been an [13]open bug report since November, 2020. Developers commenting on this issue have repeatedly criticized Google for failing to make MV3 functional enough to port their extensions.
[14]
"The breakage caused by MV3 is really larger than I thought," wrote one developer [15]in March, 2022 . "Imagine breaking TCP protocol because you want some sort of extra 'security' and 'performance' but [you] end up breaking millions [of] apps in the process. This is a clear management failure of Google's." And the bug report thread is full of such sentiment.
[16]Mozilla will begin signing Mv3 extensions for Firefox next week
[17]Google delays execution of doomed Chrome extensions
[18]Ad blockers struggle under Chrome's new rules
[19]How I made a Chrome extension for converting Reg articles to UK spelling
Simeon Vincent, who oversees developer relations for Chrome extensions, acknowledged developer complaints in [20]a post to the Chromium extensions developer forum on Friday.
"As we head towards Manifest V3 migration, we are intently monitoring comments from the developer community to help inform our timelines," said Vincent. "We’ve heard your feedback on common challenges posed by the migration, specifically the service worker’s inability to use DOM capabilities and the current hard limit on extension service worker lifetimes. We’re mitigating the former with the Offscreen Documents API (added in Chrome 109) and are actively pursuing a solution to the latter."
Vincent said Google is "committed to providing developers solutions to migration challenges with new functionality, bug fixes, and adequate time for adoption." And thus the company has decided to postpone its plan in January to begin disabling MV2 extensions in pre-release channels – various versions of Chrome used by developers. It is also reconsidering "all downstream milestones" too.
Vincent said to expect an update in March next year. "Our guiding principle will be to give developers sufficient time to update and test their extensions after the launch of these new capabilities before turning off Manifest V2," he said.
More time will certainly be required, it seems. [21]According to chrome-stats.com , only about 30,000 of about 166,000 extensions in the Chrome Web Store have been converted from MV2 to to MV3:
"As of today, only 17.84 per cent of all items in [the] Chrome Web Store have migrated to Manifest V3. If the timeline is strictly followed, the vast majority of Chrome extensions may stop working." Most of [22]Google's own extensions have yet to be converted.
At some point, MV2 extensions will be disabled in Chrome. We should learn more within three months or so. ®
Get our [23]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/30/google_manifestv3_chrome_extensions/
[2] https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/mv2-sunset/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y5gG9M776Mq8H-xAkrO07wAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/08/ad_blockers_chrome_manifest_v3/
[5] https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/intro/mv3-overview/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5gG9M776Mq8H-xAkrO07wAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5gG9M776Mq8H-xAkrO07wAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://twitter.com/brave/status/1574822800971501568
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/17/mozilla_next_week_will_begin/
[10] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?q=MV3&can=2
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5gG9M776Mq8H-xAkrO07wAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1371432
[13] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1152255
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5gG9M776Mq8H-xAkrO07wAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1152255#c100
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/17/mozilla_next_week_will_begin/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/30/google_manifestv3_chrome_extensions/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/08/ad_blockers_chrome_manifest_v3/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/22/chrome_extension_howto/
[20] https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-extensions/c/zQ77HkGmK9E
[21] https://chrome-stats.com/manifest-v3-migration
[22] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/collection/by_chrome_extensions?hl=en-US
[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Now, in mid-December, just a month before Google [1]planned to begin experiments to turn off legacy Chrome extensions in its Canary, Dev, and Beta channels, the transition is being [2]postponed again .
For several years, Google has been revising the way browser extensions work in Chrome and its open source Chromium foundation because the legacy API, known as Manifest v2 (MV2), was too easily abused and could interfere with browser performance. The ad giant claims its reworked API, known as Manifest v3 (MV3), is more secure and better performing, though it lacks support for certain capabilities used heavily by makers of advert and content blocking and privacy extensions.
[3]
Despite repeated [4]objections raised by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Raymond Hill, the creator of uBlock Origin, Jean-Paul Schmetz, CEO of Ghostery, and others that MV3 is harmful, Google has maintained that its browser platform changes are necessary and that it intends [5]to support common use cases like content blocking under MV3.
[6]
[7]
Rival browser makers have agreed to support MV3, though privacy-focused vendors like [8]Brave and [9]Mozilla plan to retain some of what Google is getting rid of, or to offer alternative capabilities.
But it has been difficult to assess what MV3 will actually allow because Google's timeline had MV2 extensions going away while the MV3 spec was incomplete and not fully functional. Developers thus have been tasked with rewriting their extension code for a platform that is half-baked and [10]bedeviled by bugs .
[11]
For example, in October, developers complained about this [12]"show-stopper" bug in the MV3 implementation of Service Workers. In MV2, developers could use persistent background pages to process data in the background.
MV3 does away with persistent background scripts, which were deemed to be too resource intensive. In their place, Google offered Service Workers, scripts that run briefly then shut down. But presently, Service Workers in Chrome extensions sometimes shut down and cannot be revived.
A similar issue – Service Workers being forcibly shut down after five minutes – has been an [13]open bug report since November, 2020. Developers commenting on this issue have repeatedly criticized Google for failing to make MV3 functional enough to port their extensions.
[14]
"The breakage caused by MV3 is really larger than I thought," wrote one developer [15]in March, 2022 . "Imagine breaking TCP protocol because you want some sort of extra 'security' and 'performance' but [you] end up breaking millions [of] apps in the process. This is a clear management failure of Google's." And the bug report thread is full of such sentiment.
[16]Mozilla will begin signing Mv3 extensions for Firefox next week
[17]Google delays execution of doomed Chrome extensions
[18]Ad blockers struggle under Chrome's new rules
[19]How I made a Chrome extension for converting Reg articles to UK spelling
Simeon Vincent, who oversees developer relations for Chrome extensions, acknowledged developer complaints in [20]a post to the Chromium extensions developer forum on Friday.
"As we head towards Manifest V3 migration, we are intently monitoring comments from the developer community to help inform our timelines," said Vincent. "We’ve heard your feedback on common challenges posed by the migration, specifically the service worker’s inability to use DOM capabilities and the current hard limit on extension service worker lifetimes. We’re mitigating the former with the Offscreen Documents API (added in Chrome 109) and are actively pursuing a solution to the latter."
Vincent said Google is "committed to providing developers solutions to migration challenges with new functionality, bug fixes, and adequate time for adoption." And thus the company has decided to postpone its plan in January to begin disabling MV2 extensions in pre-release channels – various versions of Chrome used by developers. It is also reconsidering "all downstream milestones" too.
Vincent said to expect an update in March next year. "Our guiding principle will be to give developers sufficient time to update and test their extensions after the launch of these new capabilities before turning off Manifest V2," he said.
More time will certainly be required, it seems. [21]According to chrome-stats.com , only about 30,000 of about 166,000 extensions in the Chrome Web Store have been converted from MV2 to to MV3:
"As of today, only 17.84 per cent of all items in [the] Chrome Web Store have migrated to Manifest V3. If the timeline is strictly followed, the vast majority of Chrome extensions may stop working." Most of [22]Google's own extensions have yet to be converted.
At some point, MV2 extensions will be disabled in Chrome. We should learn more within three months or so. ®
Get our [23]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/30/google_manifestv3_chrome_extensions/
[2] https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/mv2-sunset/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y5gG9M776Mq8H-xAkrO07wAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/08/ad_blockers_chrome_manifest_v3/
[5] https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/intro/mv3-overview/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5gG9M776Mq8H-xAkrO07wAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5gG9M776Mq8H-xAkrO07wAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://twitter.com/brave/status/1574822800971501568
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/17/mozilla_next_week_will_begin/
[10] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?q=MV3&can=2
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5gG9M776Mq8H-xAkrO07wAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1371432
[13] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1152255
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5gG9M776Mq8H-xAkrO07wAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1152255#c100
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/17/mozilla_next_week_will_begin/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/30/google_manifestv3_chrome_extensions/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/08/ad_blockers_chrome_manifest_v3/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/22/chrome_extension_howto/
[20] https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-extensions/c/zQ77HkGmK9E
[21] https://chrome-stats.com/manifest-v3-migration
[22] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/collection/by_chrome_extensions?hl=en-US
[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Google???
MajorDoubt
I believe that most of the people using google chrome have no idea what browser they are using and had some third party crap ware install it.
Because, why would you use this spyware crap if you knew anything?
Horseshit before the cart before the horse
Notas Badoff
Shouldn't they have started with a list of functional requirements from existing extensions, especially the most visible?
You can keep saying you've thought of everything, but you're not actually doing any checks against reality. You're just moistening your finger and sticking it up where you won't feel a breeze. Pull it out, your design stinks!
Interefence
For several years, Google has been revising the way browser extensions work in Chrome and its open source Chromium foundation because the legacy API, known as Manifest v2 (MV2), was too easily abused and could interfere with browser performance.
It's funny that they are not concerned how their ads are interfering with browser performance. It's often not possible to reasonably browse the internet without a kind of ad blocker turned off, otherwise laptop gets down on its knees and fans start to spin like it is going to launch itself into space any minute.
That being said, has Google ever mentioned how their ads are needlessly cause devices to consume excessive energy? Maybe excess consumption on a single device may look trivial, but if you multiply that by billions devices in use, there is a huge wastage going on that is certainly not green.
As more people are using ad blockers (and rightly so), Google is scheming to limit their usefulness and make people continue to waste energy and contribute to climate change only so that Google can enjoy more profit.
Do no evil, eh?