How Google is KILLING your AD BLOCKERS and tracker blockers with Manifest v3
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#manifestv3 #google #adblock
00:00 Intro
00:41 Sponsor: 100$ free credit for your Linux or Gaming Server
01:40 How browser extensions work, and what is Manifest v3
03:26 Network Request API: severe limits
05:37 Ad Blockers harm Google's Business Model
07:55 Chrome controls how the web works
09:57 2 main ways this can go
12:42 Sponsor: get a device that runs Linux perfectly
13:46 Support the channel
So, web browser extensions all work in relatively the same way: they use a file called manifest.json. It's basically a description of the extension and a list of what it wants to do on your browser.
As of now, most browser extensions use manifest V2, and, as with all specifications, manifest v2 is being updated with manifest v3. Its biggest changes are in using service workers instead of background pages, and using a new API to block or modify network requests.
The new API is where the problem with manifest v3 lies.
Right now, with manifest v2, extensions have access to a feature called WebRequest. To summarize it quickly, it lets the extension look at the data going through a web browser, notably the calls it makes to various URLs, and it lets extensions act on them, stuff like blocking them, or modifying them.
This feature is the backbone of all privacy and adblocking extensions.
In Manifest v3, pushed heavily by Google, the Web Request API is gone. It's replaced by a new one called Declarative Net Request, and this new API basically prevents any extension from monitoring traffic. Extensions must declare in advance how they'll handle certain types of requests, or they can't handle them at all. These extensions also won't be able to load code from outside of the currently displayed website.
It means extensions lose some capabilities, notably the ability to act after the websitse server has answered the requests the browser made. Extensions need to say beforehand what they'll block, which means they need to know in advance what constitutes an ad or a tracker, and what isn't, when before, they could react in real time as the website called to various resources.
https://blog.chromium.org/2019/06/web-request-and-declarative-net-request.html
And that's where the problem is: this new API severely limits what browser extensions can do, and will make all ad blockers and privacy focused extensions a lot less useful.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/chrome-users-beware-manifest-v3-deceitful-and-threatening
This spec specifically destroys the capabilities of everything that currently hurts Google's business model.
Chrome and the chromium engine control the whole web. Chromium based browsers are about 85% of all desktop browsers. Globally, it's about 63% if we count mobile.
This means that extension developers, if they want their extension to reach users, HAVE to develop it for Chrome and chrome based browsers.
Firefox is compatible with Chrome extensions, mostly, and developers generally don't have a ton of work to do to ensure that their extension runs on it as well. But with manifest v3, developers will have to maintain 2 versions of their extensions. One that runs on Chrome and chromium based browsers, and one that runs on Firefox.
Why would you do some extra work to maintain your extension for a browser that has very little market share worldwide?