As It continues, the war on ad-blockers
Continuing the battle against ad blockers that started months ago with YouTube, Google has removed the well-known extension uBlock Origin from the Google Chrome Web Store.
In particular, many users have recently reported that uBlock Origin is now listed as unavailable in the Chrome Web Store, with the extension’s page stating that it no longer complies with Chrome’s “best practices.” However, in some areas, such as our country and the European Union in general, the page is still accessible. Nevertheless, within the EU, a warning message has been added, which typically states:
“This extension may soon be deprecated because it does not follow best practices for Chrome extensions.”
This decision is part of Google’s broader effort to move Chrome extensions from Manifest V2 technology, which has been supported for many years, to Manifest V3, which will be much more limited.
Google introduced Manifest V3 in 2018, claiming it would improve security by limiting extensions’ access to specific browsers and web data. However, this new technology version limits the functionality of well-known extensions, such as uBlock Origin, which rely on deeper access to effectively block ads.
Developers of such popular tools have expressed concern about these restrictions, as it will force them to adapt their extensions to a more restrictive framework, resulting in less effective versions such as uBlock Origin Lite.
However, for users still relying on uBlock Origin, the extension will continue to work until June 2025 under a Google policy that allows the temporary use of Manifest V2 extensions. After that deadline, uBlock Origin and similar tools will stop working in Chrome unless they comply with the new Manifest V3 framework. As a result, Chrome users will likely have to switch to alternative ad blockers or other browsers entirely.
