• Google has been working on its Manifest V3 Chrome extension for four years.
• In January 2023, Manifest V3 will be rolled out in Chrome 112, with it lessening the effectiveness of ad-blocking software.
• Manifest V3 will become a prerequisite from the beginning of next year.

In a blog post published last week, Google provided a new timeline for its Manifest V3 platform for Chrome browser extensions.

It has been something that Google has been working on for the past four years and while it may seem fairly innocuous to some, for those running ad-blocking software, it is a rather contentious new offering from the company.

This as Manifest V3 is more restrictive in terms of the efficacy of ad-blockers, which presents several problems for the companies behind such software, and the internet users not wanting to see intrusive ads while browsing.

One such software provider, Brave, which has built its entire ecosystem on the fact that it can effectively block ads, highlighted why Manifest V3 poses such a problem in a recent Twitter thread.

Google's upcoming Manifest V3 update for extensions has the potential to break many ad blockers.

But Manifest V3 will not prevent Brave from blocking ads. We built ad blocking into the browser itself so it will not be affected by Google changing its rules for extensions.

— Brave Software (@brave) September 27, 2022

“With Manifest V3, Google is harming privacy and limiting user choice. The bottom line, though, is that Brave will still continue to offer leading protection against invasive ads and trackers,” the company noted.

With Google yet to officially respond to those concerns, it remains to be seen what the reactions for developers will be as we near the rollout of Manifest V3.

To that end, Google plans to make it available from the beginning of next year. The company detailed its timeline for the rollout, as well as how it plans to phase out V2.

• “In January 2023, use of Manifest V3 will become a prerequisite for the Featured badge as we raise the security bar for extensions we highlight in the store.
• In June 2023, the Chrome Web Store will no longer allow Manifest V2 items to be published with visibility set to Public. All existing Manifest V2 items with visibility set to Public at that time will have their visibility changed to Unlisted.
• In January 2024, following the expiration of the Manifest V2 enterprise policy, the Chrome Web Store will remove all remaining Manifest V2 items from the store.”

Also voicing their concern was the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which characterised the rollout of this new extension platform as “deceitful and threatening” late last year.

“Manifest V3, or Mv3 for short, is outright harmful to privacy efforts. It will restrict the capabilities of web extensions—especially those that are designed to monitor, modify, and compute alongside the conversation your browser has with the websites you visit,” the EFF explained.

“Under the new specifications, extensions like these– like some privacy-protective tracker blockers– will have greatly reduced capabilities. Google’s efforts to limit that access is concerning, especially considering that Google has trackers installed on 75% of the top one million websites,” it added.

With Google also working to manage how third-party cookies are handled online, it looks like the company is gaining more control over the browsing experience of users. Given the popularity of Chrome, it will be interesting to see whether people choose to leave the platform as a result of this upcoming change.

[Image – Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash]