Google Chrome ad blockers live on after API changes postponed

Google Chrome extensions are set to see another year of support for enterprise use following the company’s decision to postpone their deletion from the Chrome Web Store until January 2024.

The announcement on the Google Chrome Developers blog offers a stay of execution for sweeping changes to the Chromium engine that privacy advocates say will neuter web browser extensions designed to block advertisements.

But no such reprieve is being offered to personal Chrome users, who Google say will be subject to extensions built on the existing Manifest V2 (MV2) API being temporarily phased out in a series of “experiments” next year.

Google Chrome’s phased API changes

Though the new enterprise policy will give businesses more time with extensions critical to their workflow, Google Chrome extension developers have less time to adapt to the browser’s adoption of the Manifest V3 (MV3) API.

From January 2023, Google says that it will no longer highlight MV2 extensions on the Chrome Web Store, as it looks to “raise the security bar” on the platform. 

Then from June 2023, MV2 extensions will no longer be able to be published with their visibility set to public. Extensions already public on the store will become “Unlisted”. This is an especially egregious change, as it means they’ll be undiscoverable to new users, while still being functional for enterprises.

Google is also warning developers that their MV2 extensions may still stop working at “any time” following the release of new Chrome versions next year. 

January 2022 will also see Chrome 112  allow a gradual phase-out of Manifest V2 in Canary, Dev, and Beta versions of the browser. While in June, Chrome 115 will allow this phasing out of MV2 to occur in Stable versions of Chrome - the version with the largest consumer user base.

Central to the controversy is WebRequest, an API critical to blocking web content such as advertisements, and which Chrome’s implementation of MV3 will remove. 

READ MORE

> Check out our list of the best endpoint protection right now

 > Some Google Chrome ad blockers could stop working next year

 > The most popular Firefox extensions of 2021 were both adblockers

In the wake of the changes, the developers behind Mozilla Firefox have announced their intention to retain WebRequest in their implementation of MV3.

“Content blocking is one of the most important use cases for extensions, and we are committed to ensuring that Firefox users have access to the best privacy tools available,” Mozilla said.



from TechRadar - All the latest technology news https://ift.tt/DZS24Fd

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

F1 live stream: how to watch every 2021 Grand Prix online from anywhere

Image
The 2021 season is in full swing, but even after just four races we're already seeing a pattern emerging – will the winner be Verstappen or Hamilton? Well, we've got plenty of time to find out, as this year we've got a full house of 23 events, a welcome relief from last year's truncated calendar. Read on as our guide explains how to watch an F1 live stream online from all over the world - and where you can watch absolutely free! 2021 F1 live stream Season dates: March 28 - December 12 Next race: Monaco Grand Prix, Circuit de Monaco (May 23) Live streams: Sky Sports (UK) | ABC/ Sling TV (US) | Fox/ Kayo Sports (AU) | F1 TV (selected regions) Watch anywhere: try No. 1 overall VPN 100% risk-free In terms of positioning, last week's Spanish GP was much the same as the Portuguese GP before it, with Hamilton, Verstappen, and Bottas all gracing the podium in the same order for the second time - but that's not to say we were bored seeing it happen. Ver...
Read more

Best blogging sites of 2021: Free and paid blog platforms

Image
Best free blogging site 1. Wix 2. WordPress 3. Blogger 4. Weebly 5. Penzu Read on for our detailed analysis of each service Free blogging sites have come a long way in recent years, and it’s now easier than ever to create a professional-looking blog to share a hobby with like-minded people, express your opinions, and establish an online presence.  These free blogging sites are aimed at hobbyist bloggers – blogs are created and managed online, and hosted on the blogging platform’s own servers. If you want to create a self-hosted blog, the downloadable version of WordPress is an excellent option, with total flexibility, support for third-party plugins , and as much storage as your hosting plan allows. If you're interested in making a static website rather than an online journal, take a look at our guide to the best free website builders . Our advice would be to steer clear of free blogging sites if you can, as it isn't always a good option for the majority . How...
Read more

Tableau launches new enterprise plans, big data tools

The cloud analytics firm Tableau has unveiled a number of new data and analytics platform capabilities in addition to new enterprise subscription plans designed to help customers' digital transformation efforts. The Salesforce -owned company aims to empower everyone in an organization by giving them access to trusted and governed data at a time when 87 percent of IT and business leaders are concerned that security and governance are slowing the pace of innovation according to a new report from Mulesoft . Tableau's new enterprise subscription plans will also make it easier to procure and deploy its analytics platform across an entire organization. This is because the company has made the decision to bundle analytics with Data Management and Server Management. We've built a list of the best cloud analytics available These are the best cloud computing services on the market Also check out our roundup of the best online collaboration tools Chief product officer at...
Read more