Explained: Why blocking ads on Google Chrome may soon be a problem – Times of India

Google Chrome The most popular internet browser ever. one of the nice features about chrome – and other browsers too – is that it offers too many extensions to get the most out of it. There are extensions for Productivity, Notes, Calendar, among other things. Behind the scenes, these extensions work on Google Chrome’s extension platform called Manifest. Google recently announced that it will be rolling out Manifest V3 soon and this may not be good news for those who use ad blockers.

What is Manifest V3?

In a blog post, Google said that it will take a gradual and experimental approach to shutdown Chrome Manifest v2 to ensure a smooth end-user experience during the phase-out process. “We want to make sure developers have the information they need, have enough time to transition to the new manifest version, and for our users to make changes,” the company said.

What is the timeline for Manifest V3?

Google has made it clear that starting January in Chrome 112, Chrome Canary may be running experiments to turn off support for the Manifest v2 extension in the Dev and Beta channels. Also, starting June in Chrome 115, Chrome can run experiments to turn off support for the Manifest v2 extension in all channels, including the stable channel. In June 2023, the Chrome Web Store will no longer allow Manifest V2 items to be published – meaning older extensions will stop working. From January 2024, if the developer of the extension is not moved to Manifest V3, old extensions will be removed from all Chrome Web Stores.

Why is this a problem for ad blockers?

According to a report by Ars Technica, ad blockers will become useless once this version is rolled out. The report states that a lot of ad blockers rely on an API called webRequest, which is present in Chrome. With Manifest v3, developers will have no choice but to use an API called DeclarativeNetRequest which, according to the report, will “force them to use a blocklist of specific URLs”. Essentially, Google will create a list of blocked URLs and that list is limited to only 30,000 entries. Ad-Blockers come with a list of over 300,000 entries to work effectively. Several privacy groups have stood up against Google’s move to Manifest V3.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group, said in a December 2021 blog post, “Manifest V3 is another example of the inherent conflict of interest that comes from Google controlling both the major web browsers and the largest Internet ad networks.” . ,
The privacy group believes the move to Manifest v3 will restrict the capabilities of web extensions — “particularly those that monitor, as well as interact with, the websites you visit of your browser.” are designed to be modified and computed.”