Chrome users are now facing an imminent disruption to ad-blocking extensions like uBlock Origin, which could soon disappear from the browser as Google’s Manifest V3 update moves forward. After months of warnings, Google has started notifying users in the Chrome Web Store that uBlock Origin “may soon no longer be supported.” On some Chromebooks, even the download button for uBlock Origin is disabled, signaling that this popular extension might soon be inaccessible.
The warning was first identified on social media and later confirmed by BleepingComputer, which reported that uBlock Origin no longer meets Chrome’s updated “best practices” under the Manifest V3 standards. Unlike most commercial ad blockers that have adapted to Manifest V3, the unpaid developer of uBlock Origin, Raymond Hill, has kept it on Manifest V2, citing the limitations imposed by the new standard. These restrictions, especially on Chrome’s network capabilities, hamper the ability of ad blockers to efficiently filter content.
Hill has created an alternative, uBlock Origin Lite, which complies with Manifest V3 but offers fewer features than the original. Despite this, the original uBlock Origin remains the favorite, boasting 39 million users on Chrome alone, while the newer Lite version has just 700,000 users.
Google released a statement on the matter, noting that “93% of actively maintained extensions in the Chrome Web Store are running Manifest V3, and the top content filtering extensions have Manifest V3 versions available.” Still, developers from other ad-blocking services, like Ghostery, argue that Manifest V3 does little to enhance privacy or security. Ghostery CEO Jean-Paul Schmetz advises users who prioritize effective ad blocking to consider Firefox, which remains the only major browser not based on Google’s Chromium project. Schmetz noted that if Manifest V3 continues to evolve in its current form, “only Firefox will allow ad blockers and be able to block certain kinds of ads.”