Google to push ahead with Chrome's ad-blocker extension overhaul in earnest
- Reference: 1717154115
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/05/31/google_prepares_for_chrome_extension/
- Source link:
The banner will say that legacy Manifest V2 browser extensions will stop working soon. Those extensions include ad-blockers and other content filters that rely on the Manifest V2 API. And though leading ad-blocking extensions more or less support Manifest V2's successor, conveniently named Manifest V3, there is still some argument that these filters will be disadvantaged under version 3 when they are no longer allowed to use version 2.
In any case, users are going to be warned that V2 is on the way out.
[1]
"This will be followed gradually in the coming months by the disabling of those extensions," said David Li, product manager for Chrome Extensions, in a [2]blog post published Thursday.
[3]
[4]
"Users will be directed to the Chrome Web Store, where they will be recommended Manifest V3 alternatives for their disabled extension. For a short time after the extensions are disabled, users will still be able to turn their Manifest V2 extensions back on, but over time, this toggle will go away as well."
The manifest file for a browser extension is where developers declare its capabilities via the [5]Chrome Extension APIs .
[6]
The transition from Manifest V2 to Manifest V3 has been underway for at least five years. It makes new APIs available to browser extensions and removes old ones. The most salient of these is the blocking version of the [7]webRequest API, which is used to intercept and alter network traffic prior to display. Under Manifest V2, it's what extension developers use to stop adverts, trackers, and other content appearing on pages, and prevent certain scripts from running.
The new MV3 architecture reflects Google's avowed desire to make browser extensions more performant, private, and secure. But the internet giant's attempt to do so has been [8]bitterly [9]contested by makers of privacy-protecting and content-blocking extensions, who have argued that the Chocolate Factory's new software architecture will lead to less effective privacy and content-filtering extensions.
As a result of this multi-year tussle and concessions Google has made to frustrated extension developers, the current version of MV3 is generally perceived to be better than initially proposed, but [10]hasn't entirely addressed developer concerns or provided functionality that's equivalent to what's being removed.
[11]Google's in-house docs about search ranking leak online, sparking SEO frenzy
[12]Not even Chromebooks can escape AI PC craze: Google to inject Plus laptops with LLM juice
[13]Giving Windows total recall of everything a user does is a privacy minefield
[14]Another day, another Google cull: Chocolate Factory axes 49 malicious Chrome extensions from web store
Li acknowledged the issue by noting the ways in which Google has been responsive, by adding support for user scripts, for offscreen documents that have access to the DOM API, and by increasing the number of rulesets in the declarativeNetRequest API (the replacement for webRequest ) to 330,000 static rules and 30,000 dynamics ones. Those rules can be used by ad-blockers to weed out adverts and other stuff for users.
Manifest V3 is now supported to varying degrees by other browsers, such as Edge, Firefox, and Safari. And by the beginning of 2025, when the API changes have been available for some time in the Chrome Stable channel, Manifest V2 extensions will stop working.
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Enterprises using the [16]ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy will be spared until June 2025.
According to Li, more than 85 percent of actively maintained extensions in the Chrome Web Store support Manifest V3, "and the top content filtering extensions all have Manifest V3 versions available – with options for users of AdBlock, Adblock Plus, uBlock Origin and AdGuard."
For users of [17]uBlock Origin , which runs on Manifest V2, "options" means using the less capable [18]uBlock Origin Lite , which [19]supports Manifest V3. ®
Get our [20]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zln0J3qCXA7nJD2VbyFQEwAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://blog.chromium.org/2024/05/manifest-v2-phase-out-begins.html
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zln0J3qCXA7nJD2VbyFQEwAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zln0J3qCXA7nJD2VbyFQEwAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/api
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zln0J3qCXA7nJD2VbyFQEwAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/api/webRequest
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2019/02/20/chrome_extension_google/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/08/ad_blockers_chrome_manifest_v3/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/18/google_kills_legacy_extensions/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/29/internal_google_search_documents/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/28/google_ai_chromebook/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/22/windows_recall/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/15/google_malicious_chrome/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zln0J3qCXA7nJD2VbyFQEwAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/#ExtensionManifestV2Availability
[17] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm
[18] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ublock-origin-lite/ddkjiahejlhfcafbddmgiahcphecmpfh
[19] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/tree/master/src/js
[20] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
That might solve the issue on an individual scale, but Chrome has rigorously infested both the corporate and K-12 education market share to an absolutely absurd extent, and in both of those environments you often don't _get_ a choice on what client to use.
Chrome is sitting at ~65% of the total browser user base in most statistics, with Firefox making up a measly 3%. If they can forcefully drag even a fraction of them back into an ad-infested tracking-burgeoned internet, why wouldn't they? What is the captive audience going to do, stop working / attending digital learning platforms in protest?
I really don't care about what corporate does in its own space. Corporate has money, and it is responsible for its own decisions.
The US education market is a joke anyway.
For the rest, intelligent, knowledgeable users will know how to manage Chrome in a suitable way. And that includes Firefox users, however much you seem to look down on 3% of the market.
Personally, I don't mind being part of the 3%. NoScript is a blessing.
Chrome has rigorously infested both the corporate and K-12 education market share
Well my company has decided that the only supported browser will now be Edge. Chrome is absent from new builds, although you can still install it until the end of the year, then it will be removed. Extensions are forbidden on Edge, so no Ublock or NoScript, but at least the corporate firewall does a decent job of filtering ads.
I've been able to sneak in a copy of Firefox, and so far updates and extensions go through, but I don't know how long it will take the Browser Police to detect and remove it.
I really hope Brave's adblocker is more deeply rooted into Brave than the average plugin so it can bypass this manifest stuff. At this rate Brave might be one of the few remaining Chromium-based browsers that can block ads.
But the problem is the same for Brave as everyone else. If you show ads, there's money to go round that might support the development and maintenance. If you don't show ads, then you find the harsh reality that too few people will pay to support the necessary work (much like journalism). At the moment Brave is funded by a collection of investors. How will they get their money back, with a return?
Unlike Chrome, Brave's developers aren't in the business of serving ads; whether their browser displays a web site's ads or not has nothing to do with their income.
In that regard, AFAIK, only Chrome and Edge are beholden to the interests of the advertising industry.
Brave serves ads too and it has a lot to do with their income.
[1]https://brave.com/brave-ads/
[1] https://brave.com/brave-ads/
Correct. I don't mind ads per se - well, okay, a bit, but some of my peripheral vision for content is a trade I'm willing to make.
The first problem I have with ads, by far, is tracking. My personal data is not a currency I want to trade for content, especially not without my informed knowledge and consent. In fact, I consider grabbing personal data without informed knowledge and consent to be unethical, and I support efforts to make it illegal.
That problem is so widespread that I just adblock everything, even though I recognize that ads are the only viable source of revenue for many services I use. I do not believe tracking is required for ads to be valuable. I will stop using adblocks if and when I become convinced that the GDPR is being properly enforced. We are not even close.
The second problem I have with ads is intrusiveness. My central vision is a lot more valuable. I might be willing to trade some of it, but only in limited circumstances. I don't consider shoving ads on top of content to be unethical, but it does make it extremely likely that I'll adblock it and/or stop using that service.
The second problem I have with ads is resource consumption. I do not appreciate ads and their related machinery taking up a large proportion of a web page's resource usage. Serve images with a sensible resolution, short clips, no scripts. I'll still see the ad. Showing me a high-res video with full surround sound is not going to make me more likely to click, and may make me adblock if it makes the page load slow on a crap connection.
I really don't think I'm killing the Internet with these requirements. Untargeted ads and contextual ads have worked for literal centuries.
I might be killing the ad targeting industry, to which I say good riddance, make sure to bury it deep. Targeting is something you do to enemy combatants, not to your customers.
For users of uBlock Origin, which runs on Manifest V2, "options" means...
... switching to Firefox.
TFTFY.
"users will gradually be warned the end is near"
The end of people using Chrome, hopefully.
Re: "users will gradually be warned the end is near"
People will continue using Chrome because "that's what the cool kids use" (I really heard that!), and because the Manifest 2 vs. 3 debate is totally uninteresting to them, even if they were able to understand what it means.
Unfortunately nothing can stop people from using Chrome nowadays. Remember back when Chrome was a new, inferior browser which covertly replaced their usual browser, and yet they started using it without hesitation. Why would they change now it has become a de facto standard, and an ever-increasing number of websites go the " Best Only viewed in Chrome" way?
Google managed to do what Microsoft failed to achieve back then, to build a de facto, unchallenged browser monopoly. They just keep a vestigial Firefox alive so they can't be accused of being the only choice. Apple helps with that too.
(Written using Firefox)
Great!
Everyone move over to Firefox please!!
This ploy to hamper Ad-blockers is going to cost Chrome a lot of market share and could be Firefox's savior.
Use Privoxy and a customized hosts file ..
Use [1]Privoxy and a customized [2]hosts file.
[1] https://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/quickstart.html
[2] https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
Hi it looks like you want people to stop using your web browser, do you need help with that?
At least [1]Supremium browser will continue to support Manifest V2 once Google removes it. Librewolf is my primary browser with Chrome as secondary.
[1] https://github.com/win32ss/supermium
"This will be followed gradually in the coming months by the disabling of those extensions..."
And a complete removal of Google Chrome before then if you have any sense.