Google’s Manifest V3 — What is it and what does it mean for BLADE?
We look at the proposed updates for Google’s Chrome browser
Google has been discussing changes to the Chrome browser for many months now. Most recently they released Manifest V3, which you can read here. It is important to note that this document is a draft and can be changed at any time — this is not a set in stone plan for any changes that Google is planning to make. With that in mind, you can see that the changes they are proposing are focused on three areas of improvement: Security, Privacy and Performance.
Adbank’s Tech Lead Conor Watt dug into Manifest V3 so we could let the community know what to expect and how this will affect BLADE as a Chrome extension.
In the past week or so, there have been several articles circulating claiming that Chrome ad block extensions will be restricted to only enterprise users. What Conor found was that these claims are not substantiated in the document and there is actually no mention of restricting ad block extensions in Manifest V3.
What changes will affect BLADE?
What the document does contain is information on how Chrome may change the way it interacts with ad block extensions. Google has proposed to restrict the blocking capabilities of the webRequest API (what’s in use right now) and replace it with the new declarativeNetRequest API.
Says Simeon Vincent in a recent Chromium blog post:
“There’s been a lot of confusion and misconception around both the motivations and implications of this change, including speculation that these changes were designed to prevent or weaken ad blockers. This is absolutely not the goal. In fact, this change is meant to give developers a way to create safer and more performant ad blockers.”
Google released Manifest V3 in draft format so as to provide the community with information that they could provide feedback on. In fact, there is extensive feedback from the ad blocking community, which you can read here.
The bottom line for BLADE:
We hate to be a broken record, but we must repeat: Manifest V3 is a draft document which means that there is still room for changes. With that being said, from the changes that are detailed in the document, only the API switch will have any effect on BLADE. The API switch would require changes to the way the extension is written, but as Simeon Vincent stated above, this will not prevent or weaken ad blocker functionality.
