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Google’s battle against ad blockers is in full swing, with YouTube committed to detecting and blocking ad blockers and Chrome aiming to roll out its Manifest V3 extension platform to limit ad blockers in June 2024. It has turned into.new article From Engadget A closer look at the “arms race” around ad blocking brings up an interesting point about the power of YouTube and Chrome in this battle. That’s a dramatic update advantage over ad blockers.
In addition to restricting Chrome’s extension platform without any real user-centric legitimacy, Manifest V3 also puts a roadblock in front of extensions. update, which delays the ability of extension developers to quickly respond to changes. While YouTube can switch ad serving systems on the fly, that won’t be the case for extension developers once Manifest V3 becomes mandatory. If ad blocking were a cat-and-mouse game of updates and counter-updates, Google would force the mouse to slow down.
Chrome’s Manifest V3 brings dramatic changes to the Chrome extension platform. The current platform, Manifest V2, has been around for over 10 years and works fine, but it’s also very powerful, giving extensions full filtering control over the traffic they see in their web browsers. Masu. This is great for protecting your privacy, speeding up the web, and blocking ads, but it also means you can download a browser from the world’s largest advertising company and use it to block ads. And it only lasted so long.
Google’s first attack on ad blockers is to blow up the main API it uses, the WebRequest API, and replace it with a more limited filtering API that gives Google more control.new Declarative NetRequest Extension added to API listen Chrome can block network requests on your behalf, set arbitrary limits on the number of filtering rules, and how effective is it Individual rules are also possible.
We have already discussed this. But we haven’t talked about the other side of the equation yet. This means that ad blocking rules can no longer be updated immediately. Ad blockers and privacy apps are now able to distribute filter list updates themselves, often using large open source community lists. Manifest V3 prevents this by restricting what Google describes as “remotely hosted code.” All updates, even innocuous ones like filtering lists, must be done by updating the full extension through the Chrome Web Store. All of these are subject to the Chrome Web Store review process, which involves significant time delays.
Anthony Ha of Engadget interviewed several developers in the filtering extension community to explain their constant cat-and-mouse game with YouTube. ghostly Krzysztof Modras, director of product and engineering, said YouTube is “adapting.” [its] I now use methods more often than ever. To combat changes to ad serving and ad blocker detection, you should update your block list at least daily, and possibly more frequently. While all players in this space are innovating, some ad blockers just can’t keep up with these changes. ”
uBlock Origin FAQ Regarding YouTube’s ad blocker detection, it said that “YouTube regularly changes detection scripts,” adding that ad block users “may subsequently be blocked for a short period of time.” [YouTube changes] Before updating the scripts and filters. ”
Once Manifest V3 becomes mandatory, updates that must be delivered “at least daily” will no longer be optional. Restricting remotely hosted code seems like a perfectly reasonable restriction until you realize it. Like most of Manifest V3’s changes, it seems to have been carefully crafted to cripple ad blockers more than other extensions. It’s an update to the filtering list, which is essentially just a list of websites. Really What should be restricted by the “No remotely hosted code” policy?
Chrome’s popularity has essentially forced Firefox to support Manifest V3 extensions, but it won’t be dropping support for Manifest V2 any time soon. Firefox’s Manifest V3 implementation has no filtering restrictions, and its parent company Mozilla promise Users wrote: “Despite these changes to Chrome’s new extension architecture, Firefox’s implementation of Manifest V3 allows users to use the most effective privacy tools available, including uBlock Origin and other content blocking and privacy protection extensions. Please rest assured that you will be able to access .
All filter list updates must go through the Chrome Web Store, so how long will reviews take? multiple sources Deploy from anywhere on the web From a few hours to 3 weeks, subject to the whims of Google’s review system. Please note that these timelines are: in front Google will significantly increase the review load on the Chrome Web Store by requiring all changes to go through a review process.
it is Another important weapon. In the future, YouTube will be able to roll out new ad block updates at any time as needed, and ad blocker support may be slowly rolled out by the Chrome Web Store. Ghostery’s Modras believes this is the future, and told Engadget. “Through Manifest V3, Google will close the door to innovation in the ad blocking environment and introduce another layer of gatekeeping that will slow down how quickly ad blockers respond to new ads and advertisements.” Online Tracking Methods. ”
Google Claim Manifest V3 claims to improve the browser’s “privacy, security, and performance,” but comments from groups that are not large advertising companies all dispute this statement. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published Google’s Manifesto V3 communication as “deceptive and threatening”, both EFF and Mozilla criticize most of Google’s user-focused project justifications. both groups I agree to Manifest V3 Not very useful for securityThat’s because it doesn’t stop extensions from doing what they normally do: spying on your browser history. Manifest V3 extensions have access to as much data as before.ghost There is a page Regarding Manifest V3, it warns that “nothing Manifest V3 introduces in its current state will help protect privacy,” calling the project “ultimately hostile to users.”
For now, Chrome will work as it always has, but Manifest V3 will start being required in June 2024.