Google’s Manifesto V3 will make the fight against third-party ad blockers even worse
After years of delayGoogle is finally introducing its Manifest V3 Chrome extension framework and encouraging extension developers to make the move as support for Manifest V2 begins to drop on Chrome Beta, Dev, and Canary channels.
Google has even sent emails to users informing them when an extension is no longer supported and has been disabled, according to user X (formerly known as Twitter) Leopeva64.
One of the biggest concerns surrounding this move is breaking ad blockers that rely on V2’s framework, as V3 is much more restrictive. For example, UBlock Origin requires about 300,000 lines to work properly far exceeds V3’s hard limit of 30,000 – and the former’s song doesn’t even contain updated lines.
Chrome also removed the blocking version of the webRequest API and replaced it with declarativeNetRequest API in V3. Unlike V2, this gives the browser the final say on changing requests instead of the adblock extensions, making said extensions much less effective at blocking ads and tracking requests.
Users and privacy advocates are sounding the alarm about the potential ripple effect this will have on online privacy and security. However, you could argue that since V3 is still a work in progress, many of these issues can be fixed in the future by both Google and third-party developers (although they will exist in the current version).
What’s Google’s incentive to support ad blocker functionality with Manifest V3?
While I sincerely believe that the developers will come up with solutions to these problems, it will instead be stymied by Google every step of the way. You only have to look at how the tech giant has fared its tactics against adblock extensions are escalating is used in the Chrome browser for YouTube.
Recently users have reported that YouTube videos are skipped automatically to the end if they have an adblock extension enabled in their browser, as well Video buffering issues and error messages that claim content is not available in the app. There’s even a new tactic being tested called ad injection on the server, where websites integrate advertisements directly into video content on the server. Not only does this bypass adblock on Chrome browsers, but it even seems to work for Mozilla users with the uBlock extension. Fortunately, developers like Sponsorblock – who broke the news about SSAI in the first place – are already working on solutions.
In other words, Google is using Manifest V3 to continue its crusade against third-party ad blockers, along with all these other tactics and tools it’s currently testing on YouTube. If developers want to stay ahead and run functioning extensions, they’ll have to accept that Google will fight them tooth and nail.
If users are concerned about their privacy and security, it’s time to switch to Mozilla Firefox for now. It is one of the few browsers that does not run on Chromium and offers a large number of extensions that protect your internet privacy at every level. It also recently announced this would not deprecate Manifest V2 support as it continues to build on previous MV3 Chrome compatibility in new updates.
In other words, do what you should have done years ago and switch to Firefox if you’re really concerned about Chrome’s upcoming privacy issues. It’s clear that despite what Google is trying to do with ad blockers, Mozilla is committed to giving developers the tools they need to fight back.