Google Chrome ad blockers could stop working next year
The creator of a Google Chrome ad-blocking extension has acknowledged that their most recent update has “much point” because numerous essential features had to be eliminated. Raymond Hill, who made the popular uBlock Origin Chrome extension, said this when he updated it and posted it on GitHub. He was talking about Google’s upcoming switch to its Manifest v3 (MV3) API.
Hill advised users to continue using the MV2 extension if they want to take advantage of uBlock Origin’s current range of features, citing the decision to withhold “broad read and modify data permissions” from Chrome developers under MV3 as the “limiting factor” in the development of the new version of the extension. Google’s new MV3 API, which has been in development since 2018, is said to protect users’ security and privacy while also making them much faster.
Chrome users may find privacy tools harder to find and use in the future and may instead look to VPN services and the best VPN routers to be safe online or simply another web browser. Since January, Google has already prohibited the creation of new MV2 extensions, and by January 2023, developers will no longer be able to create them.
It’s not clear if the Chrome versions of ad blockers and privacy tools will have much of a future in the new year. This is because, in the future, users of the Google Chrome ad-blocking extension may see more pop-ups on websites asking them to accept cookies before they can continue browsing, and they may also be sent away from websites more often without being asked.