Google has reportedly changed its extension support on Google Chrome, which is bad news for some of the best adblockers.
This news comes from a recent report by PC World, which states that Google has recently changed its extension support from the Manifest V2 framework to the newer V3. Google promises that this means no more remotely hosted code alongside a host of APIs and improvements to the platform. However, it is bad news for one of the most popular adblockers on the market, uBlock Origin.
uBlock Origin, which claims to have over 30 million users on Google Chrome alone, still works at the time of writing. However, the app will soon be automatically disabled by upcoming Chrome updates. Google will allow users to reenable the feature for a time, but that option will eventually be removed as well, leading to users having to find either a new browser or a new adblocker.
All is not lost for fans of uBlock, as the company behind it have released uBlock Origin Lite. This version is compliant with Manifest V3 but comes with some trade-offs. For instance, while it does use the same core ad-blocking features, it doesn't offer dynamic filters for blocking scriptlet injection. uBlock Origin Lite is also less capable fighting anti-ad-blocking systems.
According to a recent GitHub post, uBlock developer Raymond Hill has no plans to replace the original Web Store page with the new version, "I consider uBO Lite to be too different from uBO to be an automatic replacement. You will have to explicitly find a replacement to uBO according to what you expect from a content blocker. uBO Lite may or may not fulfill your expectations.”
Google has been testing ways to counter adblockers. For instance, a recent update was accused of deliberately affecting adblockers functioning on YouTube. This only recently followed YouTube's latest method for thwarting adblockers. The truth is that adblockers often violate many of these site's terms and services, so it is only a matter of time before the companies find ways of blocking them.
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