Blocking ad blockers: Google Chrome to remove popular feature
The feauture will be disabled starting June 2024 (photo: Unsplash)
Google has announced its intention to end support for the Chrome Manifest V2 API and transition to Manifest V3. The new version of the API will be incompatible with current ad blockers, informs 9to5Google.
In particular, extensions oriented towards Manifest V2 will be disabled in Chrome Dev, Canary, and beta builds starting June 2024 with the release of Chrome 127 and subsequent versions.
However, exact timelines for discontinuing support for the old API in the stable version of the Google browser have not been announced. Interaction with extensions is determined by their capabilities.
Google began developing Manifest V3 in late 2018 and initially planned to implement it in 2019. However, radical changes sparked outrage among developers, leading the company to postpone the implementation.
One of the most controversial changes in Manifest V3 is the redistribution of functionality in the chrome.webRequest API. Now, this function will be used for data collection, while blocking will be carried out through the chrome.declarativeNetRequest API.
Google justified this change by stating that extensions using the Web Request API have access to changing all network request data, theoretically allowing transformations in any user actions on the internet. This mechanism is the basis for the operation of ad blockers such as uBlock Origin.
Recall that Google will add an unusual feature to its search engine related to online shopping.
