![]() In the long run, this could become a catalyst for some Chrome users to switch to Firefox. Acknowledging these apprehensions, Mozilla announced last year that Firefox would continue to support the webRequest API to block entire categories of HTTP requests in its implementation of Manifest V3, but would also support a compatible version of declarativeNetRequest API, proposed by Google as a replacement for webRequest.Ĭompared to Firefox users, who will continue to benefit from the full functionality of ad blocking extensions, Chrome’s 3 billion users may soon find themselves at a disadvantage when it comes to ad blocking. Still, Google’s response has been too slow and so far has failed to assuage developers’ concerns. Being one of the founders of The World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) WebExtensions Community Group (on par with Apple, Mozilla, and Microsoft), Chrome solicited feedback on Manifest V3 from extension developers and welcomed criticism. To its credit, though, Google has sought to address these concerns. We too have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the negative impact Manifest V3 may have on Chrome developers and users. Google claims that the changes to the API will make extensions “ more secure, performant, and private-respecting by default.” However, lingering concerns over their impact on ad-blocking prevent some experts from embracing the new platform. ![]() And we would like to see that transition go as smoothly as possible. Ultimately, with Chrome being a dominant force in the browser market, once Google depreciates Manifest V2, extension developers will either have to adapt to Manifest V3 or lose users. Hopefully the former will take our arguments into account. We have proposed an increase in the number of dynamic rules and rule sets and are championing these changes to Manifest V3 in ongoing discussions between browser vendors and the content blocking community. However, there’s still a glimmer of hope that the situation will improve. This means that ad blockers will be slower to respond to changes on the site, as developers will have to upload a new version of the extension each time something changes - and wait till it passes a review, which is not a quick process in itself. Essentially, developers will have to define what their extension will do with specific requests in advance, and not *ad-lib* as it used to be before. However, if you use more than one extension, this can become an issue: extensions will compete for the remaining rules, and some won’t be able to squeeze into the limit.Īnother problem is that Google wants developers to have all the rules already built into the extension at the time of installation. The number provided by Google is sufficient if you have only one extension that relies on the declarative NetRequest API in Manifest V3 to block ads. ![]() Since at the core of any ad-blocking extension is the filtering rules that teach it to detect ads, such restrictions can become a real snag. As for user-added (“dynamic”) rules, they are capped at mere 5,000. Namely, Chrome has set a guaranteed minimum limit of 30,000 built-in (“static”) rules per extension and a total limit of 330,000 static rules. The problem with Manifest V3 is that it limits the number of built-in and user-added rules for extensions installed by an individual user. Google notes that this will prevent extensions, including ad blockers, from accessing “potentially sensitive user data,” and will make them “safer to everyone.” The downside is, this change will also cause ad blockers to lose some of their functionality. The new, narrower API gives the right to modify requests to the browser itself, while the extension simply announces or “declares” a set of rules by which the browser should respond. For example, previously the browser would ask a content-blocking extension what to do with a particular web request, and the extension would respond by either greenlighting, blocking or redirecting it. The API introduces significant changes to the rules that extensions have to follow, such as which browser features an extension has access to and can modify. ![]()
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