Google Pushes Unpopular Chrome Update - What to do!

Manifest V3 is easily the most controversial Chrome update, breaking Ad Blockers and Tracker Blockers on Chrome and all Chromium browsers.

Switch to Firefox or Safari as they are not affected by Manifest V3.

Manifest V3 will come out in June 2024.

Links:

0:00 Adblocker war of 2023
0:39 Manifest v3
1:40 Chrome is not your friend
2:03 What to do
2:27 Outro

[TatharNuar]

I used to use both Firefox and Chromium side-by-side. Now I'm only using Firefox. Ad blockers are a security requirement.

[Baldeur]

Firefox: *does literally nothing*
Chrome: *keeps sabotaging itself*
Damn this business strategy sure is working

[hyun-shik]

Google blocking ad blocking is itself an ad for Firefox. I love it.

[taemien]

The biggest issue with ads is how they are vetted. Or rather the lack thereof. It used to be that ads were images or clips hosted locally on the website servers of the website you were visiting. So you were going to say microsoft and they had an ad on the side, that image was hosted on microsoft's server.

Sometime in the early 2000s, this method was replaced by ad agencies who you would put a little code into your website and the ads would come from the ad agencies servers.

Eventually this got 'smarter' and they started sending ads based on browsing history by looking through your cookies. This was a bit of a breach of privacy that only got worse over time as the methods of collecting data got more indepth, more intrusive, and such data was being stored and sold.

The worst part was the ad agencies would not vet the ads they were displaying. You could see links to fake companies that could be phishing attempts to get information and steal identity by posing as real businesses, but also the ads were (and still do) had scripts on them that could hijack certain functionalities of your browser and install malware onto your computer.

Allowing ads after they were no longer hosted by local servers for websites was always a security risk for the users and ad blockers also has the benefit of blocking the scripts so that users' computers were protected.

With the update to chromium trying to remove ad blockers, they are putting many more computers at risk and users at risk for things like data corruption, malware infection, and identity theft.

[botk]

Louis Rossman said it best, that he just doesn't understand how people are not supposed to use adblockers(recommended by the literal FBI for safe internet usage), when a majority of ads that google adsense shows you have malicious links in them.

[migueltoledo]

I vaguely remember the FBI or some other government agency saying that using an ad-blocker is a security requirement.

A *government agency* that spies on people is telling others that an AD BLOCKER is a security requirement.

[HalfEclipsed]

Considering the fact that the FBI consider an ad blocker a must when using the internet. Makes this objectively a safety regression.

[ElectricityTaster]

I'll watch google's ads when Google pays me for selling my eyeballs and personal info to the advertisers.

[Joemame]

it's crazy how youtube starts pushing several. 20+ second long unskippable ads and when people get adblockers to do something about it youtube just starts chucking a hissyfit

[Voltra_]

Google: Let's make an update everybody will hate

Also Google: Where'd the user base go???

[ehtrude]

As a Firefox user, I see this as an absolute win.

[omri]

Ad block is required to prevent my eyes from burning due to mobile gaming ads

[lucadivine]

Me who's been maining Firefox for the last 10 years: "interesting..."

[cammyshill]

The moment ad blockers stop working on Chrome for whatever reason it's the moment I switch immediately.

[blackum]

the moment rumors about v3 started appearing i switched and never regret it since then

[catlover]

Firefox is adopting Manifest V3 to ensure cross-compadibility, however they are not removing blocking webRequest and Manifest V2 support will be retained for the foreseeable future.

[knownstone]

This really is a safety concern since even FBI themselves recommends using ad blockers on the internet. Ads deally are a cesspool

[chernobyl]

Made the switch in August after the announcement. The SingleFile guy has it right: v3 is a major regression technically that takes away developers' ability to perform specific core functions that make ad blockers work correctly. Expect ad blockers for Chromium-based browsers to have an "unblockable ads" exception in their descriptions.

[brianviktor]

Watching ads would drive me insane, regardless of security concerns. Even if it's an image. If it's an animated graphic, or has sound, or worse, has both, my biggest priority just became to remove it. I don't care, I hate it, and I am not a consumerist moron. Plus advertisement will rather cause me to NOT buy the product that was advertised out of spite.

[PlayerEngineer]

I feel like most of the chrome userbase isn't going to do anything about it and just drown themselves in ads.