Google Pushes Unpopular Chrome Update - What to do!
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Manifest V3 is easily the most controversial Chrome update, breaking Ad Blockers and Tracker Blockers on Chrome and all Chromium browsers.Switch to Firefox o...

Most people still haven’t heard of Manifest V3, so if you are one of those not using Firefox, this is for you.

If you’ve been on YouTube or Reddit August last year, you might’ve seen this screen yourself, or a screenshot of someone else getting it. This of course, I am talking about the infamous YouTube ad blocker blocker popup, discussion exploded on Reddit mostly consisting of people complaining about ads, as well as an angry mob storming r/memes, turning it into a Firefox propaganda centre.

About a month later, different adblockrs eventually found their way of bypassing detection, and they work on YouTube again. So natrually Redditors thought they’ve won another war against big tech, completely ignoring Google’s original plan to kill off adblockers by June this year.

So all extensions, including adblockers follows a specification called the Manifest V2. The Manifest allows extensions to do certain things, say accessing browser tabs or to change browser settings. All while putting some limitations, and prevent extensions from doing crazy stuff like installing a virus to your system. But too much limitation, is what pisses off many extension developers about the upcoming ManifestV3.

In this article written by the EFF, they interviewed developers responsible for popular extensions, where most described ManifestV3 as a downgrade, with some accused it for being purposefully bad. I particularly like this one from the creator of SingleFile, “I consider the migration to Manifest V3 to be a major regression from a functional and technical point of view.”

After an update in June this year, a feature called the WebRequest API will be removed, and the adblockers and tracker blockers that depend on this feature will stop working. Since the business model of Google is to track your online activity and then show you personalised ads, it is not difficult to see why this feature is removed.

Not only are they sacrifising user experience for monetary gain, they are forcing the same update on all Chromium browsers as well. I am hereby devastated to inform you that this is not the first time they have done it, and it will not be the last time they will do it.

But there are also good news, non-Chromium browsers will not be affected by the Manifest V3, and if you are already using one, you will be exempt from any future nonsense Google throws in your way. So if you are considering switching to one, unless Safari is your goto browser, which lacks competent extensions support, you can still get your adblockers, another adblockers, all the adblockers.

So are you going to make the switch before the update? Let me know in the comments down below, anyways I will be seeing you in two weeks, have a good one.

An article for more my ranting needs https://gmtex.siri.sh/fs/1/School/Y12/Cssoc/chromium.html

  • iorale@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I liked it, the other comments already suggested some things about your mic so I’ll just ask for subtitles as a non-native speaker, specially because that allows you to add details if needed.

    • siriusmart@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      3 months ago

      i did it, turns out all i need to do was to paste in the full script and it will do the timings automatically, sweet.

  • infeeeee@lemm.ee
    0·
    3 months ago

    Very useful video. I miss that you don’t list the Chromium browsers. A lot of people, the target audience of this video don’t know that edge, opera, vivaldi, brave are all affected some way.

    • siriusmart@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      3 months ago

      well, it’s a video making decision. most people these days have virtually negative attention span, and they would click off the video given the slightest chance, and listing Chromium browsers would be too much time for too little argument made.

      I’ve accepted that I’m not mental outlaw and people wouldn’t be tuning in for a podcast, so the best I could do is the minesweep the video and remove any opportunities, because if I don’t do that, most people won’t get past the first 10 seconds, “getting straight to the point” is one of the things I’ve learnt while doing youtube

      • siriusmart@lemmy.mlOP
        0·
        3 months ago

        also, infographics are great for these explainers video, because i could jam pack so much more information that is otherwise impossible, and in 1:53 I’ve referenced “all chromium browsers” with all their logo on screen, which is insanely efficient because with this visual style of story telling I could brought up two points at the same time:

        • chromium browsers are affected
        • these browsers on screen are chromium browsers
      • siriusmart@lemmy.mlOP
        0·
        3 months ago

        yeah but its not the same, sure you could mod your router or use a pihole to get adblocking, but it is not the same convenience as extensions, and by far ublock origin is the best adblocker no arguments raised.

        moreover companies can’t really do much when they are completely reliant on chromium, and they can’t do much except pulling PR stunts and try to sound like they are doing something while all they’re doing is to merge commits from upstream chromium once in a while

        one example is the “we will continue to support v2” stunt by brave, which is not possible as they have 0 experience maintaining a browser, also vivaldi is absolutely proprietary

      • LWD@lemm.ee
        0·
        3 months ago

        Brave can keep the old APIs but they’ll still be affected, because developers for Chromium-compatible browsers still have to decide whether they want to create or support apps that will only work in a subset of browsers, and figure out how to distribute them outside the Chromium store.

          • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
            0·
            3 months ago

            Which probably makes use of less tracker blocking techniques than specialized extensions. I mean, uBlock is able to do a lot of things, partly because of its scriptlets that lists can invoke for certain sites.

            • LWD@lemm.ee
              0·
              3 months ago

              Both uBlock Origin and Brave would be nothing without the maintainers of the filters they use.

              Except uBlock’s devs are transparent and supportive of the list maintainers, while Brave (AFAIK) really isn’t.

              • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
                0·
                3 months ago

                Yeah, this kinda sucks. Well, this is what I get for recommending Brave to people I know. I feared that Firefox would be too great a leap.

  • cooljacob204@kbin.social
    0·
    3 months ago

    I already switched to Firefox a while back. The new tracking system bullshit was the last straw. Chrome team is too busy trying to invasively track us rather then actually improving the browser for consumers.

  • BallsandBayonets@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    Left for Firefox when they announced this update. I still have to use Chrome when I work in Google drive since basic functions like copy/paste don’t work in non-chrome browsers, but even without this update the minute+ time it takes for chrome to open reminds me I made the right decision.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
      0·
      3 months ago

      I keep Cromite (on Android) and Chromium (pc) around for those sites that are so poorly coded I have to use a chrome-engined browser.

      It’s really annoying.

      At least those 2 browsers are fast (and I keep history turned off because I only use them for crappy websites).

    • macattack@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Same. It was definitely an adjustment as a former ChromeOS user. There were some minor issues like getting playback for streaming services and maybe 1-2% of the unique websites I visit not being built properly for Firefox but it’s pretty infrequent and you develop a quick workflow to resolve the issues. I have a backup version of Chromium that I use as an emergency browser.

      I use a Firefox fork (Floorp) which gives me PWAs capabilities which was the last hurdle for me.

  • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
    0·
    3 months ago

    I like the artstyle, but the Mv3 blocking API has actually been improved to the point where uBO Lite, the Mv3 version of uBlock Origin, can block YouTube ads and only fails in edge cases.

    Also, Safari technically has the same extensions support as Firefox does, but developers have to pay to distribute their extensions. That doesn’t stop the existence of AdGuard.

    • siriusmart@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      3 months ago

      just realised something, if my understanding is correct, MV3 also banned remotely hosted content, with a publish delay up to 2 weeks google (specifically youtube) can easily break uBO lite if they want to, i dont know if that is how uBO lite works, or if the rules will only be enforced after June, but if it is true uBO lite is not gonna live long either

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      it’s not the only propose of uBO to block YouTube ads. It’s purpose is to block ads on as many sites as possible without breaking them, and also to block tracking in the same way. That needs a versatile and nouanced blocking list, with more of specific things to block instead of less of rather general things, and that sadly won’t fit in to that small limit.

      But there’s more. A lot of uBO’s capabilities depend on being able to act on the requests as happening. Content replacement, response spoofing, a lot of things. Look up uBO’s scriptlets and how are they used, is in the repo’s wiki. That won’t be possible with uBO Lite. It’s called Lite for a reason, and gorhill was (and is) furious for a reason.

      Remember, ad blocking is not just hiding them.

      • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
        0·
        3 months ago

        I agree that it is awful to remove the API for reasons you’ve mentioned, but my point was that it’s a misconception that Mv3 broke and limped all adblocking. Currently the list is big enough that only edge case trackers aren’t blocked.

    • siriusmart@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      3 months ago

      I was under the impression the uBO lite wasn’t nearly as good and it missed a lot of ads, it seems like things have changed a bit since I’ve last followed on the MV3 situation.

      Also about Safari extension support, I didn’t research anything on this topic, I just thought it’s extension support must be incompetent because the uBlock Origin installation for Safari seemed like a hassle, turns out im not that far off.

      • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        it seems like things have changed a bit since I’ve last followed on the MV3 situation.

        The keyword is “a bit”. It is now able to do the most basic things, but probably entirely useless in limiting tracking

  • menemen@lemmy.ml
    0·
    3 months ago

    I am on Firefox since I think 2003. Never understood why anyone would use a non-free browser, even if it sometimes works faster. People are weird.

    • asexualchangeling@lemmy.ml
      0·
      3 months ago

      mostly same here, with occasionally trying out some chromium based browsers, never understood why Firefox is referred to as an “alternative” by so many people, chrome is the alternative

    • Skepticpunk@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Chrome had a bigger ad budget and had a good amount of hype when it was released, since Google was still well-regarded when it was released.

      • fluckx@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 months ago

        Firefox also had a period where it was slow AF. I switched to chrome at that point which was a lot faster.

        I’ve ( happily ) been on Firefox these past few years though. Firefox addons on mobile devices is a blessing too.

        I enjoyed vivaldi as well before I went back to Firefox. Too bad it’s chromium based :(.

    • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 months ago

      Same here, even my newly issued work PC always gets the Firefox treatment. Annoyingly, some sites that I need for work (almost, but not quite, zero) just do not work with Firefox, but do with chrome.

      • menemen@lemmy.ml
        0·
        3 months ago

        At my work PC they blocked all, but chrome… And I really don’t think Chrome is superior to Firefox at this point of time.

        • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
          0·
          3 months ago

          They sort of tried at my last job… There’s portable, non admin installs of Firefox available. The tricky part was ssl inspection certificates, but even that is easier than it used to be.

    • S_H_K@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      3 months ago

      I am one of those “Opera back in thr day” guys so you know the story. I eventually gotten back to use Mozilla Firefox. Chrome had it’s good days but it’s a pionner of the enshitification.

  • jherazob@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Any idea what are the “forked degoogled chromium” branches going to do about this?

    • Zerush@lemmy.ml
      0·
      3 months ago

      The can do a lot regarding the browser, but the flaw can be the dependency of the Chrome Store, controlled by Google. In Vivaldi most of the extensions in the Chrome Store are redundant, because of own inbuild features, also with a own e2ee sync service.

  • merthyr1831@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    Already moved to Firefox on my phone. The only browser on mobile that I know of that supports extensions, giving me ad-free youtube and dark mode on websites ever since vanced was shut down.

      • merthyr1831@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 months ago

        My phone uses a split APK which requires root using revanced, but my work profile blocks rooting ;_;

        I could just download the APKs manually but a lot more effort than using Firefox ngl

        • cordlesslamp@lemmy.today
          0·
          3 months ago

          Revanced doesn’t require root. You download the Revanced app from official site then open it and choose YouTube. It’ll tell you what’s the latest recommended version of YT to use. You download that exact version from APKpure. Use Revanced to patch the YT app (I just use default) and install. That’s it. No root.

          Also it requires their new Revanced Gapps package if you want to login to YT (it’ll ask and point you to download link if you don’t have it)

      • schema@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 months ago

        I tried revanced for a while. It worked for a little and one day videos were suddenly buffering for 5 minutes at a time after around a minute of playing. I read online that it might have been yt measures against using a client like this (changing account or logging out didnt do anything. Browser played the videos fine)

        Firefox with adblocker and the extension to be able to play in the background has been my savior. Works flawlessly.

        • cordlesslamp@lemmy.today
          0·
          3 months ago

          Every other month, YT update something that break Revanced.

          So I just went to the Revanced app to see what’s the newest recommended version of YT to download and patch. Then a quick reinstall and everything is back to normal. Don’t even have to re-login.

          Been doing that for over a year. Imo, the native app’s experience is always a thousand times better than the mobile web browser.

        • PhAzE@lemmy.ca
          0·
          3 months ago

          It was, and it was after 30 seconds. You install the updated revanced, and turn on app version spoofing in the settings and no more buffer issue.