Google once again stalls Chrome content-blocker shakeup

In September, when Google delayed its Chrome extension platform makeover, we predicted, "This may not be the last time Google revises its transition timeline." Now, in mid-December, just a month before Google planned to begin experiments to turn off legacy Chrome extensions in its Canary, Dev, and Beta channels, the transition …

[elsergiovolador]

Interefence

For several years, Google has been revising the way browser extensions work in Chrome and its open source Chromium foundation because the legacy API, known as Manifest v2 (MV2), was too easily abused and could interfere with browser performance.

It's funny that they are not concerned how their ads are interfering with browser performance. It's often not possible to reasonably browse the internet without a kind of ad blocker turned off, otherwise laptop gets down on its knees and fans start to spin like it is going to launch itself into space any minute.

That being said, has Google ever mentioned how their ads are needlessly cause devices to consume excessive energy? Maybe excess consumption on a single device may look trivial, but if you multiply that by billions devices in use, there is a huge wastage going on that is certainly not green.

As more people are using ad blockers (and rightly so), Google is scheming to limit their usefulness and make people continue to waste energy and contribute to climate change only so that Google can enjoy more profit.

Do no evil, eh?

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Interefence

Oops I mean to say:

It's often not possible to reasonably browse the internet without a kind of ad blocker turned off on

[MajorDoubt]

Google???

I believe that most of the people using google chrome have no idea what browser they are using and had some third party crap ware install it.

Because, why would you use this spyware crap if you knew anything?

[Alumoi]

Re: Google???

Hmm, maybe because a lot of banks and government agencies have a 'not working with anything but chrome' policy?

[nematoad]

Re: Google???

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

George Santayana was right.

This is like the situation in 1999. Then it was IE6, now it's Chrome and all its derivatives. It seems as if the pursuit of profit does indeed induce amnesia.

What was the phrase? "You cannot get someone to understand something when their income depends on not understanding."

Something like that anyway.

Mono-cultures are bad and that is what we have now got, again.

[Pete B]

Re: Google???

"Hmm, maybe because a lot of banks and government agencies have a 'not working with anything but chrome' policy?"

Govt maybe but the bank I was most recently dealing with on browser compatibility said "only Internet Explorer" - one of their sites has updated to use Edge, but only in IE compatibility mode. Banks seem to be about the worst there is for clinging to long-dead stuff, and not following best practices.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: Google???

There are other Chromium browsers, without at least some of the worst misfeatures of Chrome.

I use Pale Moon with NoScript and other protections for my primary browser, but when I have to deal with sites that don't work with Pale Moon (nearly always for no good reason, but web development is generally even worse than software development at large), I use Comodo Dragon.

Anyone who's technically competent enough to be able to choose a non-default browser should be able to find a non-Chrome Chromium browser.

[Notas Badoff]

Horseshit before the cart before the horse

Shouldn't they have started with a list of functional requirements from existing extensions, especially the most visible?

You can keep saying you've thought of everything, but you're not actually doing any checks against reality. You're just moistening your finger and sticking it up where you won't feel a breeze. Pull it out, your design stinks!

[tiggity]

Re: Horseshit before the cart before the horse

.. The whole V3 idea was to break decent adblockers / privacy tools, as they were not in Googles interest. Last time I tried vanilla chrome was on a new work machine (no addons installed) and its performance was woeful, any supposed "performance issues" in V2 are irrelevant in comparison to the huge hit the machine takes when you have a few tabs open with ads & needless JS running

.. Mainly use Firefox / Brave on mobile (Firefox mobile is awful) for personal stuff, but Chrome / Edge mandated on work machines.

[b0llchit]

Antitrust

There might be another reason for google to suspend forcing mv3 upon the world. The wilful blocking of functionality which stands in the way of google's profit is problematic and could probably be seen as an illegal action because of the market dominance. I can imagine a new investigation by the EU by that time and a hefty fine.

[Rich 2]

V3

Why are Moz etc also implementing (bits of) v3? It’s a completely different codebase - just because chrome implements it doesn’t mean Moz has to

[Falmari]

Re: V3

@Rich 2 "Why are Moz etc also implementing (bits of) v3? "

I assume that by supporting both v2 and v3 they can run apps which ever API they support.

[Dan 55]

Re: V3

They have to now as they've hitched their add-ons to Google's horse.