- August 5, 2024
- Posted by: Editor
- Categories: Google, Technology, Trending
Google Chrome Manifest v3 is poised to block popular ad blocking extensions such as uBlock Origin
A new version called uBlock Origin lite is being developed as a replacement that works with the new V3 but lacks certain previous features such as the ability to access the remote lists that ad blockers use to keep updated. Instead, ad blockers that want to update their lists will now need to do so through the Chrome Web Store’s approval process.
While Google has stated that their reasons for the changes are for “improving the security, privacy, performance, and trustworthiness of the extension ecosystem,” many detractors such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have criticized the move as doing little to really to improve security. Many believe the new polices are simply designed to frustrate the process of ad blocking, a key revenue generator for Google.
This change does not only affect ad blockers but in fact affects all extensions that are still on v2. While v2 extensions may work for a little while longer, some have reported seeing notifications and warnings that their installed v2 extensions will no longer be supported and that they should look for alternatives in the Chrome Web Store.
It’s worth noting that Mozilla Firefox has expressed support for keeping Manifest v2 and have gone as far as intentionally backporting v3 features into v2 meaning that developers won’t have to create more limited versions of their extensions but allowing them to still write multi-platform extensions should they choose.
A Chrome extension manifest is a JSON file named manifest.json that provides important information about your extension to the browser. This file is required for every Chrome extension and includes details such as the extension’s name, version, description, permissions, and the files it uses.