Why will it no longer be possible to block ads on Google Chrome? –

Google Chrome is the most popular internet browser ever.

One of its good features is that it offers a lot of extensions. There are extensions for productivity, notes, and calendar, among other things.

Behind the scenes, these extensions work on Google Chrome’s extension platform called Manifest.

Google recently announced that it will soon bring Manifest V3 and this news may not be good for those who use ad blockers.

What is Manifest Three?

In a blog post, Google said that Chrome will take a gradual and experimental approach to shutting down Manifest V2 so that users don’t experience any inconvenience during the phase-out process.

According to the Times of India, the company said, “We want to make sure that developers have the necessary information and enough time to migrate to the new manifest version and make changes for our customers.”

What is the timeline for manifest v3?

Google has specified that starting in January in Chrome 112, Chrome may experiment with disabling support for Manifest V2 extensions in the Canary, Dev, and Beta channels.

Additionally, starting in June in Chrome 115, Chrome may experiment with turning off support for manifest v2 extensions in all channels, including the stable channel.

In June 2023, the Chrome Web Store will no longer allow publishing manifest v2 items. Which means old extensions will stop working.

Starting in January 2024, old extensions will be removed from the Chrome Web Store if developers of extensions don’t migrate to Manifest V3.

Why is this a problem for ad blockers?

According to a report by technology news website ARS Technica, ad blockers will become useless after this version arrives.

The report states that many ad blockers rely on an API called WebRequests, which exists in Chrome.

In Manifest V3, developers will have no choice but to use an API called Declarative NetRequest, according to the report. That will force them to use a block list of specific URLs.’

Basically, Google will create a list of block urls and this list is limited to 30 thousand links only.

Ad blockers list more than 30 thousand links to work effectively. Many privacy groups are opposing Google’s manifesto V3 initiative.

The privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a December 2021 blog post that “Manifest V3 is yet another example of the inherent conflicts of interest that Google has in controlling both the dominant web browser and the largest Internet advertising networks.” comes from.’

This privacy group believes that moving to Manifest V3 will limit the capabilities of web extensions. ‘In particular those designed to monitor, modify and calculate your browser’s interaction with your website.’