Re: Chrome's next update will kill adblockers

On 2026-06-20, Retrograde wrote:

> From the «Raspberry Pi still works» department:
> Feed: Slashdot
> Title: Google Chrome's Next Update Will Mark the End of Popular Ad
> Blockers
> Author: BeauHD
> Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2026 21:00:00 +0000
> Link:
> https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/06/15/205219/google-chromes-next-update-will-mark-the-end-of-popular-ad-blockers?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed
>
> Google is removing Chrome's last remaining workarounds for Manifest V2
> extensions, effectively ending support for legacy ad blockers such as
> the original uBlock Origin. 9to5Google reports: CyberNews points out a
> Chromium commit that removes support for the
> "kExtensionManifestV2Disabled" flag, which is referred to as "dead code"
> seeing as Chrome no longer supports Manifest V2 extensions. This removal
> acts as the final stop for many Manifest V2-based ad blocker extensions
> that were still in use today -- the flag was effectively a loophole to
> continue using these extensions. A Googler on the commit explains: "MV2
> extensions are no longer allowed in any supported version of Chrome, and
> we are removing support for them and the associated functionality. We
> won't be able to provide / maintain this functionality indefinitely due
> to the complexity and tech debt, as well as the security risks it
> entails (we've actually found a number of bugs that are specific to MV2
> lately). Of course, other browsers can continue supporting these if they
> so desire." This will also impact other Chromium-based browsers, though
> the comment notes that "other browsers can continue supporting these if
> they so desire." Neowin points out that Microsoft Edge and Opera are
> likely to follow suit. Chrome 150, set to be released later this month,
> will remove this flag, while other leftover bits of Manifest V2 will be
> removed in the v151 release.

Removing a feature from Chromium because it's not intended to be
supported in Chrome, now that's brilliant :-P

Aaaanyway, there are other browsers out there, some which even support
non-webext extensions.

> Links:
> [1]:
>http://twitter.com/home?status=Google+Chrome%27s+Next+Update+Will+Mark+the+End+of+Popular+Ad+Blockers%3A+https%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F26%2F06%2F15%2F205219%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter

(Really, Slashdot is linking to TSNFKAT?)


-- 
Nuno Silva