Google resumes Chrome's transition to the browser extension Manifest V3 API

[grg994]

Summary

Google resumes Chrome's transition to Manifest V3. The mandatory migration of Chrome browser extensions to the new API was previously put on hold for about a year because of concerns from the developer community and privacy advocates. Over the last months the API received some slight changes and additions. Now a new official timeline is published for the phase-out of Chrome browser extensions relaying on previous Manifest V2 API - the removal of them will start in June 2024.

 

Quotes

Quote

[Interviews in theverge.com source]

 

So far, the changes [recently done to the Manifest V3 API] garnered a positive response from AdGuard chief technology officer Andrey Meshkov. In a post published earlier this month, Meshkov says the changes should allow ad blockers to “offer nearly the same quality of filtering that they demonstrated with Manifest V2.”

 

However, Alexei Miagkov, the senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, tells The Verge Manifest V3 still puts unnecessary limitations on developers. “These are helpful changes, but they are tweaks to a limited-by-design system,” Miagkov says. “The big problem remains the same: if extensions can’t innovate, users lose and trackers win... We now all depend on Google to keep evolving the API to keep up with advertisers and trackers.”

 

My thoughts

The major concern is still how much ad blockers in Chrome will be impacted. We will have to see this in practice soon, as I think it is impossible to predict in advance how anti-adblock methods will try to exploit the limitations of Manifest V3 based adblock extensions.

 

For myself I don't see any reason nowadays to not avoid this whole issue by using - and recommend everyone to use - Firefox (with uBlock Origin) instead of Chrome.

  - Firefox already implemented support to keep "Chrome's to-be-removed Manifest V2 only" API parts (especially webRequest) in Firefox's Manifest V3 API variant for Manifest V3 Firefox extensions.

  - Firefox has no plan to disable Manifest V2 only extensions in for the foreseeable future

 

Sources

https://developer.chrome.com/blog/resuming-the-transition-to-mv3/

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/16/23964509/google-manifest-v3-rollout-ad-blockers

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/google-chrome-will-limit-ad-blockers-starting-june-2024/

https://9to5google.com/2023/11/16/chrome-extensions-disabled/

[Mark Kaine]

honestly at that point just stop using chrome and use........   YEAH WE ARE SCREWED 

[williamcll]

Would it be possible for other chromium builds to re-implement Manifest V2?

[grg994]

15 minutes ago, williamcll said:

Would it be possible for other chromium builds to re-implement Manifest V2?

Google said: "Enterprises using the ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy to ensure the continued functioning of Manifest V2 extensions in their organization will have one additional year - until June 2025 - to migrate the Manifest V2 extensions in their organization. Browsers with the policy enabled will not be impacted by the rollout of the deprecation until that time." (https://developer.chrome.com/blog/resuming-the-transition-to-mv3/)

 

That means until June 2025 it is guaranteed that Chromium can be built with Manifest V2 support. After that Google is not going to maintain the Chromium code necessary to build with Manifest V2 - it will not be removed immediately but and it is up to them if they will accept patches from others to keep it buildable thereafter. Or Microsoft+Opera+Brave can unite and maintain a fork which keeps V2.

 

eg. Brave already maintains a fork with its own browser-built-in ad block filtering implementation

[Poinkachu]

1 hour ago, grg994 said:

The major concern is still how much ad blockers in Chrome will be impacted. We will have to see this in practice soon, as I think it is impossible to predict in advance how anti-adblock methods will try to exploit the limitations of Manifest V3 based adblock extensions.

 

Soon maybe ??

 

Ready Player One is a fun movie btw.

[LAwLz]

Has anyone here read the new version of Manifest V3 and seen which changes were made and what risks still exists? 

[CephDigital]

*laughs in Firefox*

 

Although I bet the vast majority of people won't care about it though and keep using Chrome. 

[grg994]

18 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Has anyone here read the new version of Manifest V3 and seen which changes were made and what risks still exists? 

Quote form r/uBlockOrigin discussing a proof-of-concept Manifest V3 uBlock Origin port (https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/181g5mw/ublock_origin_154_announcement_thread_celebrating/kacomvz/?context=3) :

Quote

Quote

[...] I wonder will uBlock compatible with Manifest v3 in future?

uBO requires MV2. It will no longer function once MV2 support is removed from Chrome.

uBO Lite (uBOL) is an MV3-based content blocker, but it is very limited compared to uBO due to the restrictions imposed by MV3:

•     Filter lists update only when the extension updates (thus no fetching of up-to-date lists from servers)
•     Many filters are dropped at conversion time due to MV3's limited filter syntax
•     No importing of third-party filter lists
•     No crafting of your own filters (thus no element picker)
•     No strict-blocked pages
•     No per-site switches
•     No dynamic filtering

uBOL is not designed or intended to be a replacement for uBO.

[...]

 

[grg994]

7 hours ago, CephDigital said:

*laughs in Firefox*

 

Although I bet the vast majority of people won't care about it though and keep using Chrome. 

Honestly I really should just be happy that Google doing this all.

 

Mozilla had major financial limitations in the recent years due to the low usage of Firefox, and I care a lot more about Mozilla gaining even a little back on this situation, then caring about any of the normies having their Chrome filled of ads.

[TetraSky]

Google waited until all the major browsers (except ff) switched to Chromium to pull this garbage, now they have us all by the balls.

I will switch back to Firefox in a heartbeat if Vivaldi drops support for MV2.

[Kisai]

22 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Google waited until all the major browsers (except ff) switched to Chromium to pull this garbage, now they have us all by the balls.

I will switch back to Firefox in a heartbeat if Vivaldi drops support for MV2.

You mean

"Google waited until absolutely everything used it's browser, or the CEF (Chromium Embedded Framework) to pull this to ensure it controls the web"

 

These changes don't just impact Chrome. It impacts Edge and Opera, who basically just reskin Chrome. It affects nw.js (which is basically just chrome without any of the UI bits) , apache cordova (for embedded webviews in games/apps), electron (inc figma, slack, discord, signal, teams), Steam, Epic Game Store, and plenty of games built using RPG Maker MV/MZ.

 

[RejZoR]

On 11/22/2023 at 8:01 PM, CephDigital said:

*laughs in Firefox*

 

Although I bet the vast majority of people won't care about it though and keep using Chrome. 

The way it was initially painted was to look like extensions are broken and than bad performance and broken webpages are adblockers fault and not Google's fault for nerfing WebRequests API making it miserably bad. They later raised the limits, but question is, why the f**k those limits even exist outside of Google's ad related interests?

[Senzelian]

On 11/22/2023 at 2:00 AM, jagdtigger said:

Still using firefox, still dont care...... Those who still have a somewhat functioning brain will drop chrome, as for the rest. Well they deserve whats coming........

Thanks for the insult. 10/10 quality comment, as usual.

[jagdtigger]

8 hours ago, Senzelian said:

Thanks for the insult. 10/10 quality comment, as usual.

You know very well that this topic got chewed upon so much that not even a bone left to pick hence the short opinion. Google got in a controversy in terms of abusing their market position that i dont even care to count but for some incomprehensible reason ppl just stick their in the sand shouting "I have nothing to hide, im not effected!". Writing up a small novel for the umpteenth time for the exact same thing many have for several years now is pointless because it will get ignored and/or dismissed as usual for being "tinfoil hat theory". But I have grave news for the ignorant masses, the lion is till there and it will eat you whether you see it or not....

And id appreciate if you would refrain from snarky comments like that when you know very well the reason why a comment is kept short like in this case.

[Senzelian]

41 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

And id appreciate if you would refrain from snarky comments like that when you know very well the reason why a comment is kept short like in this case.

I don't give a single shit about the length of your comment. It has nothing to do with anything here.

 

41 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Writing up a small novel for the umpteenth time for the exact same thing many have for several years now is pointless

... but insulting others really helps the world to become a better place, right?

In the same way as marking someone's comment ironically as "funny" and then expecting someone to listen to your shitty rant and to take it seriously.

 

[Monkey Dust]

On 11/22/2023 at 1:25 AM, grg994 said:

Google said: "Enterprises using the ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy to ensure the continued functioning of Manifest V2 extensions in their organization will have one additional year - until June 2025 - to migrate the Manifest V2 extensions in their organization. Browsers with the policy enabled will not be impacted by the rollout of the deprecation until that time." (https://developer.chrome.com/blog/resuming-the-transition-to-mv3/)

 

That means until June 2025 it is guaranteed that Chromium can be built with Manifest V2 support. After that Google is not going to maintain the Chromium code necessary to build with Manifest V2 - it will not be removed immediately but and it is up to them if they will accept patches from others to keep it buildable thereafter. Or Microsoft+Opera+Brave can unite and maintain a fork which keeps V2.

 

eg. Brave already maintains a fork with its own browser-built-in ad block filtering implementation

I wouldn't count on MS joining a V2 fork. They are pivoting to a 'harvest all your data' & sell advertising space business model.

 

Hopefully it drives a revival of Firefox. Having so much of the browser market being Chrome, and Chrome in disguise, is really not a great place to be.

[LAwLz]

On 11/25/2023 at 8:42 PM, Monkey Dust said:

I wouldn't count on MS joining a V2 fork. They are pivoting to a 'harvest all your data' & sell advertising space business model.

 

Hopefully it drives a revival of Firefox. Having so much of the browser market being Chrome, and Chrome in disguise, is really not a great place to be.

Microsoft were also on board with the original V3, even posting dates on when they were going to remove v2 support. So I don't see them joining a v2 fork either. 

[Donut417]

On 11/25/2023 at 2:42 PM, Monkey Dust said:

Hopefully it drives a revival of Firefox.

I recently went back to Firefox. I dont see myself going back to Chrome. The only Google services I use is Gmail, authenticater app and Cloud Storage (free tier).

[Stahlmann]

I'm not instantly going to torch every browser switching to Manifest V3. Let's see where this goes and how big the impact on extentions really is before picking up the pitchforks. If you're really that upset beyond any point of reason, you're probably already not using a Chromium browser to begin with. In end all that counts is how many people still use their browser. If they lose 1% of their users to firefox but can make 2% more money off the other 99% of people, it's worth it for them.

[TetraSky]

I will see how Vivaldi handles it. Will be switching to Firefox or another browser based on it if they handle it poorly.

[Franck]

On 11/21/2023 at 7:52 PM, Mark Kaine said:

honestly at that point just stop using chrome and use........   YEAH WE ARE SCREWED 

use Brave