Manifest V3 transition is delayed again to the relief of Chrome users everywhere:
For several years now, Google has wanted to kill Chrome's current extension system in favor of a more limited one, creating more restrictions on filtering extensions that block ads and/or work to preserve the user's privacy. The new extension system, called "Manifest V3," technically hit the stable channel in January 2021, but Chrome still supports the older, more powerful system, Manifest V2. The first steps toward winding down Manifest V2 were supposed to start January 2023, but as 9to5Google first spotted, Google now says it delayed the mandatory switch to Manifest V3 and won't even have a new timeline for a V2 shutdown ready until March.
[...] In a post about the delay, Chrome Extensions Developer Advocate Simeon Vincent says, "We've heard your feedback on common challenges posed by the migration, specifically the service worker's inability to use DOM capabilities and the current hard limit on extension service worker lifetimes. We're mitigating the former with the Offscreen Documents API (added in Chrome 109) and are actively pursuing a solution to the latter." After adding that every step of the timeline is on hold, Vincent said, "Expect to hear more about the updated phase-out plan and schedule by March of 2023."
[...] Google's post does not mention filtering add-ons, so it does not sound like the world's biggest ad company is having a change of heart about ad blockers. The big problem for those extensions is killing the "WebRequest API," which allows ad blockers and other filtering tools to modify Chrome's network requests on the fly. Usually, this is used to create huge lists of websites (ad servers) the extensions want to block access to. Google has sort of thrown these extensions a bone by creating a new API that allows for a limited list of URL blocking, but this is only a static list of 30,000 URLs, while a typical uBlock Origin install comes with 300,000 dynamic filtering rules. Some ad blockers will try to play within these rules with the Manifest V3 version, but Google's going to erode their effectiveness and doesn't want to implement any of the common-sense solutions that would allow them to keep functioning at the current level.
[...] The Chrome team seems committed to a heel-turn lately. The group also refused to block tracking cookies until it can first build a tracking and advertising system into Chrome (this has also been repeatedly delayed). If people get tired of Chrome's user-hostile changes that prop up Google's business model, there are alternatives. Some Chromium-based forks like Brave and Vivaldi have pledged to keep Manifest V2 running when Google turns it off. Of course, there's also always Firefox, which says it will transition to Manifest V3 along with Google but will re-add the WebRequest API that filtering add-ons rely on.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday December 16, @07:00PM (15 children)
and install a DNS sinkhole like pi-hole or an ad blocking proxy. Google can't touch those, and you don't have to rely on browser extensions that try to dance with the devil.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday December 16, @07:32PM (5 children)
Right up until you load a site and it will return "Access to ad-network failed. Please disable pi-hole." since you won't be able to disable the script anymore.
compiling...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday December 16, @07:45PM (3 children)
Site that try to force me to disable my ad blocker can fuck right off. Avoidable ads are despicable, but unavoidable ads are particularly heinous. I make a point of never visiting any site that engage in those shenanigans. So problem solved.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday December 16, @09:31PM
Most sites won't have a choice as the cloud providers will join hands with the ad networks to require adding their scripts in much the same way all network television and streaming services moved/are moving towards forced ads. In the end, only big corporate-sponsored sites will be able to afford no-ads tiers and the smaller sites will be censored by the need to appease the advertisers.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday December 16, @10:59PM
That's great, until such a site is for a mandatory government function.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Monday December 19, @05:03PM
Have you tried accessing sites like youtube or news sites without uBlock Origin? It's worse than looking at 1997 geocities nightmare. It's straight to of the Idiocracy level of ads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj7c0J_V1L8 [youtube.com]
So yes, you can say, fuck you internet, but most if it will be unusable.
The only alternative for now will be to use Firefox.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19, @02:33AM
This happens to me now just by using Firefox. A friend is in need of financial assistance but the site chosen for donating through requires loading scripts from a site that describes itself as spyware in that it tracks all actions and scrapes all data including on pages where you are entering credit card information. Thanks, Firefox, for blocking this crap, but it means I can't well no won't donate via this website. It is not Firefox blocking the site now it is what the crappy third party site is doing with data. Firefox just highlighted the issue by hard blocking it.
I guess this is how the future will go. If you can't access the site then nothing happens.
Why do so many banks use third party javascript trackers on the login pages?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bart9h on Friday December 16, @07:43PM (2 children)
or just use a sane(r) browser without these bullshit limitations
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday December 16, @11:03PM (1 child)
This. My browser of choice is Brave.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19, @02:36AM
Try Palemoon or LibreWolf
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16, @07:47PM (2 children)
Likewise for bypassing Chrome by using FireFox. Some of the pages I need to open are required by customers and thus I need to keep Chrome available when FireFox just doesn't work. I use EFF Privacy Badger with both, it gets rid of most of the crap (and, in theory, all the trackers).
Unfortunately, Google isn't helping with that either -- Chrome support is ending for Windows 7 (and 8.1) in early 2023
https://www.engadget.com/google-chrome-windows-7-8-1-201122191.html [engadget.com] I'm a die-hard Win 7 user, don't want to upgrade to any of the newer versions that have forced updates from MS (co-workers are always reporting these come at the most inconvenient time).
I still need Windows for customer requirements, but maybe I'll have to set up a Linux box (Rasp pi?) to run current Chrome for those needs? Does Chrome on Linux work identically to Chrome on Windows (in terms of dealing with stupid corporate sites)?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday December 17, @03:12AM (1 child)
Modernist... my everyday is still WinXP!
I have current Chrome on Win10 and on a couple species of linux, with the same extensions and bookmarks, and can't tell the difference.
Tho I have found a lot of sites are recently broken in anything but the latest version.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17, @04:36AM
My older Win XP ThinkPad T43 is struggling, screen's dead (using an external SVGA monitor) and it only boots in Safe Mode. But I still use it occasionally for one volunteer gig (well backed up).
Good to know that Chrome on Linux works the same as on Win. I've also run into sites that insist on the latest Chrome, I may have to restart Chrome if it's been up for a week.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday December 16, @08:01PM (1 child)
Some blockers such as uMatrix allow very selective blocking, custom tailored to each site. Pi-hole does not offer that. In the browser it is just a click away, that matrix appears, you can tweak which permissions you want to allow for which domains.
Pi-hole is not an option at work.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19, @02:38AM
I downloaded the matrix package, created a new local package, and loaded it onto the work computer as a dev plugin. Works fine :)
They block all plugins, but you can still load 'dev' plugins. The power of having the source.
(Score: 1) by DiarrhoeaChaChaCha on Saturday December 17, @09:36AM
Could pihole this be defeated by Chrome ignoring your network DNS settings and e.g. connecting to a hardcoded DoH server?
I've been running pihole for quite some time and redirect any DNS requests on the network there. It's very effective but I worry about devices such as "smart" tvs or tv boxes being configured in ways no longer allow capture of DNS requests.
Of course, I'll try avoid putting these on the network in the first place but one never knows what a system update might nefariously change.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16, @08:38PM
Maybe the Manifest V3 adblockers will use less RAM.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Immerman on Friday December 16, @10:52PM (2 children)
Why do you all hate freedom? Google is just trying to protect your freedom to see ads from those horrible, no-good, immoral ad-blocking extensions.
Now, maybe you're thinking "I don't want to see ads, that's why I installed the blocker!", but Google knows better. Google knows that deep in every soul is the craving to see ads designed to make you feel insecure, inadequate, or just momentarily crave something with no lasting value.
You only think differently because those vile ad-blocking companies have wormed their way into your psyche, manipulating you into thinking that you don't crave annoying distractions from what you're doing. They may even have convinced you that it's a good thing to be satisfied with what you have, rather than pouring your hard-earned money into advertisers' wallets in exchange for the brief endorphin rush of acquisition.
Google knows better. Google is looking out for you. Google wants you to enjoy the freedom and deep spiritual bliss of sinking ever deeper into debt chasing the cheap thrill of a quick shopping fix.
Trust Google. Remember the motto that has guided them since their founding: "Don't. Be evil."
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Monday December 19, @05:26PM (1 child)
This may be funny, but this logic is exactly the logic used by the Kremlin when they talk about "international freedom" and "democracy".
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday December 20, @02:53PM
And Trump & co. trying to protect us from the ability to vote him out of office. And every other actual and wannabe despot in the world.
The age of openly despotic warlords is (mostly) over - modern dictatorships all try to wrap themselves in a veneer of "for your own good".