Google Pushes Unpopular Chrome Update - What to do!
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Manifest V3 is easily the most controversial Chrome update, breaking Ad Blockers and Tracker Blockers on Chrome and all Chromium browsers.Switch to Firefox o...

Most people still haven’t heard of Manifest V3, so if you are one of those not using Firefox, this is for you.

If you’ve been on YouTube or Reddit August last year, you might’ve seen this screen yourself, or a screenshot of someone else getting it. This of course, I am talking about the infamous YouTube ad blocker blocker popup, discussion exploded on Reddit mostly consisting of people complaining about ads, as well as an angry mob storming r/memes, turning it into a Firefox propaganda centre.

About a month later, different adblockrs eventually found their way of bypassing detection, and they work on YouTube again. So natrually Redditors thought they’ve won another war against big tech, completely ignoring Google’s original plan to kill off adblockers by June this year.

So all extensions, including adblockers follows a specification called the Manifest V2. The Manifest allows extensions to do certain things, say accessing browser tabs or to change browser settings. All while putting some limitations, and prevent extensions from doing crazy stuff like installing a virus to your system. But too much limitation, is what pisses off many extension developers about the upcoming ManifestV3.

In this article written by the EFF, they interviewed developers responsible for popular extensions, where most described ManifestV3 as a downgrade, with some accused it for being purposefully bad. I particularly like this one from the creator of SingleFile, “I consider the migration to Manifest V3 to be a major regression from a functional and technical point of view.”

After an update in June this year, a feature called the WebRequest API will be removed, and the adblockers and tracker blockers that depend on this feature will stop working. Since the business model of Google is to track your online activity and then show you personalised ads, it is not difficult to see why this feature is removed.

Not only are they sacrifising user experience for monetary gain, they are forcing the same update on all Chromium browsers as well. I am hereby devastated to inform you that this is not the first time they have done it, and it will not be the last time they will do it.

But there are also good news, non-Chromium browsers will not be affected by the Manifest V3, and if you are already using one, you will be exempt from any future nonsense Google throws in your way. So if you are considering switching to one, unless Safari is your goto browser, which lacks competent extensions support, you can still get your adblockers, another adblockers, all the adblockers.

So are you going to make the switch before the update? Let me know in the comments down below, anyways I will be seeing you in two weeks, have a good one.

An article for more my ranting needs https://gmtex.siri.sh/fs/1/School/Y12/Cssoc/chromium.html

  • menemen@lemmy.ml
    1001·
    9 months ago

    I am on Firefox since I think 2003. Never understood why anyone would use a non-free browser, even if it sometimes works faster. People are weird.

    • Skepticpunk@lemmy.worldEnglish
      521·
      9 months ago

      Chrome had a bigger ad budget and had a good amount of hype when it was released, since Google was still well-regarded when it was released.

      • fluckx@lemmy.world
        512·
        9 months ago

        Firefox also had a period where it was slow AF. I switched to chrome at that point which was a lot faster.

        I’ve ( happily ) been on Firefox these past few years though. Firefox addons on mobile devices is a blessing too.

        I enjoyed vivaldi as well before I went back to Firefox. Too bad it’s chromium based :(.

    • S_H_K@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      16·
      9 months ago

      I am one of those “Opera back in thr day” guys so you know the story. I eventually gotten back to use Mozilla Firefox. Chrome had it’s good days but it’s a pionner of the enshitification.

    • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
      14·
      9 months ago

      Same here, even my newly issued work PC always gets the Firefox treatment. Annoyingly, some sites that I need for work (almost, but not quite, zero) just do not work with Firefox, but do with chrome.

      • menemen@lemmy.ml
        4·
        9 months ago

        At my work PC they blocked all, but chrome… And I really don’t think Chrome is superior to Firefox at this point of time.

        • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
          7·
          9 months ago

          They sort of tried at my last job… There’s portable, non admin installs of Firefox available. The tricky part was ssl inspection certificates, but even that is easier than it used to be.