The Blubber

Google Chrome will limit ad blockers starting June 2024, per Ars Technica.


Chrome's renewed plan to limit adblock extensions is in motion. The company had halted the introduction of the new "Manifest V3" extension format a year ago due to concerns about its impact on Chrome's popular extensions. Despite some modifications, Chrome is set to host less effective filtering extensions.

According to Google's blog post, the plan to phase out Manifest V2, the current extension format for Chrome, will resume in June 2024. On this date, Google will disable Manifest V2 for pre-stable versions of Chrome, including the Beta, Dev, and Canary channels. Google states that "Manifest V2 extensions [will be] automatically disabled in their browser and will no longer be able to install Manifest V2 extensions from the Chrome Web Store."

The timeline for the stable channel rollout is vaguely stated. Google mentions, "We expect it will take at least a month to observe and stabilize the changes in pre-stable before expanding the rollout to stable channel Chrome, where it will also gradually roll out over time. The exact timing may vary depending on the data collected, and during this time, we will keep you informed about our progress." The nature of the data being referenced is unclear, but it might be related to user reactions if an extension crashes or stops working.

Enterprise users with the "ExtensionManifestV2Availability" policy enabled will receive an additional year of Manifest V2 compatibility.

Google's rationale for Manifest V3 is to make the browser lighter on resources and enhance user privacy by restricting extensions. However, this limitation may expose users more to the broader internet. The Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized Google's portrayal of Manifest V3 as "deceitful and threatening," expressing doubt about its impact on security.

Firefox's Add-On Operations Manager also disputed claims of privacy benefits, stating that malicious add-ons could still compromise data even with the current webRequest API. The EFF emphasized that Google's "lighter on resources" argument doesn't align with the actual resource usage observed in the Chrome Task Manager.

The controversial aspect of Manifest V3 is its adverse impact on ad blockers. Google is imposing an arbitrary limit on the number of "rules" that content filtering add-ons, crucial for combating numerous ad-serving sites, can include. Despite initial outrage, Google increased the limit from 5,000 to a "more generous" 30,000 rules. However, popular extensions like uBlock Origin come with over 300,000 filtering rules, making the imposed limit restrictive for users seeking comprehensive ad blocking.