“Downloads will not be available soon” Google warns to remove ad blockers such as uBlock Origin

The end of Chrome’s most popular ad blocker is coming. After months of warnings that extensions like uBlock Origin would be removed after Chrome’s Manifest V3 extension platform update, Google is now telling users who try to download them from the Chrome Web Store that they will not be supported soon. It is conveying the message, “It may not be possible.”

recently released Chromebook for reviewThe download button was completely disabled, making it impossible to install uBlock Origin at all.

Google’s new warning message that uBlock Origin “does not follow best practices for Chrome extensions” was first spotted on X and reported by Bleeping Computer. Most of the popular commercial ad-blocking solutions have been updated to be compatible with Manifest V3, but private developers at uBlock Origin still maintain Manifest V2 to highlight problems with the updated standard.

Google using its dominant Windows browser market share anticompetitively to shore up its ad monopoly by blocking ad blockers –

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) October 12, 2024

An alternative is Manifest V3 compatible, but with limited functionality. uBlock Origin Lite version has been released. According to the Chrome Web Store, uBlock Origin has 39 million users. The number increases even more if you include Firefox and other Chromium-based browsers. On the other hand, the new uBlock Origin Lite currently only has 700,000 users.

Update: A Google representative issued an official statement in response to this article. The contents are as follows.

“Currently, more than 93% of actively maintained extensions in the Chrome Web Store are running Manifest V3. The top content filtering extensions all offer a version of Manifest V3. These include AdBlock, Adblock Plus, There are also options for users of Adblock Plus, uBlock Origin, and AdGuard.”

uBloc Origin developers were not the only ones raising issues with Google’s changes. In a recent interview with PCWorld, the developer of the Ghostery ad blocker said Manifest V3 does not improve privacy or security as Google claims. He explained that restricting the browser’s network layer hinders the effectiveness of major ad-blocking extensions, but in effect, there is no choice but to follow the standard.

Ghostery CEO Jean-Paul Schmetz recommended that users who value the effectiveness of ad blocking switch to Firefox. Firefox is the only browser that is not based on the open source Chromium project, which is controlled by Google. uBlock Origin developer Raymond Hill is also working with Mozilla some problemsHowever, the existing Ublock Origin still works in Firefox.

“If we were talking in a bar, I would try to convince people that Firefox is the best choice,” Schmetz said. “It’s possible that in the future Firefox will be the only browser that can block certain ads using an ad blocker.” .
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