Skip to main content

Chrome will limit full ad blocking to enterprise users

The days of easily blocking ads in Google Chrome may soon be over thanks to a proposed change to the browser's extensions system called Manifest V3 that Google announced back in January.

Manifest V3 would prevent current ad blockers from working efficiently and despite overwhelming negative feedback, the search giant is sticking to its guns concerning Chrome's ad blocking changes. However, enterprise users will not be affected and will be able to continue utilizing current ad blocking capabilities going forward.

Once Manifest V3 goes into effect, Chrome's extension system will see a revamp to its permissions system as well as a fundamental change to how ad blockers operate. 

Ad blockers such as uBlock Origin and Ghostery, which rely on Chrome's webRequest API to block ads before they're downloaded will no longer be able to do so as under the Manifest V3 proposal, Google will deprecate the API's ability to block requests before a page is loaded.

Manifest V3

Now that months have passed since the changes were first proposed, Google has responded to some of the issues raised by the community by offering more details on how permissions and ad blockers will be affected.

Extensions developer advocate, Simeon Vincent clarified the company's changes to ad blocking and privacy blocking extensions in a Google Group discussing Chromium extensions, saying:

“Chrome is deprecating the blocking capabilities of the webRequest API in Manifest V3, not the entire webRequest API (though blocking will still be available to enterprise deployments).”

Essentially Google is saying that Chrome will still be able to block unwanted content but this feature will now be restricted to paid enterprise users. However, enterprise users will likely not be blocking ads and will instead develop in-house Chrome extensions that can block unwanted content for employees.

Now that ad blockers can no longer use the webRequest API, they'll have to switch to a rules-based system similar to the one currently in use by AdBlock Plus. However, Chrome imposes a limit of 30,000 rules which will likely makes things difficult for developers trying to switch to a rules-based approach.

Advertising is Google's main revenue stream and by allowing ad blockers to continue to operate unchecked, the company was cutting off a significant portion of its own revenue. Enterprise users will be able to continue blocking ads because they pay for the company's services unlike most of its users.

Via 9To5 Google



from TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://bit.ly/2VZmaDr
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The future of Magic Leap's promising AR efforts dim after layoffs

The Magic Leap Two is now further away than ever, unfortunately. Today in a blog post the augmented reality pioneer announced major layoffs and has decided to cut up to half of its workforce, according to some reports. The original Magic Leap One was supposed to be one of the first mainstream augmented reality headsets when it launched in 2018, but a high price point and lack of interest from developers left the headset high and dry after launch. According to the blog post, Magic Leap says it will be focusing its efforts on enterprise solutions (a statement HTC has made recently as well) and shift its focus away from consumer technology… at least for the time being.  The company has been open about creating a second headset that would offer improved specs for some time, but how that work will now have to go forward without half of the team , according to some estimates, remains to be seen. Is the window closing on augmented reality?  Although it’s just one company, Magic...
Post a Comment
Read more

Airship acquires SMS commerce company ReplyBuy

Airship is announcing that it has acquired mobile commerce startup ReplyBuy . The startup (which was a finalist at TechCrunch’s 1st and Future competition in 2016) works with customers like entertainment venues and professional and college sports teams to send messages and sell tickets to fans via SMS. It raised $4 million in funding from Sand Hill Angels, Kosinski Ventures, SEAG Ventures, Enspire Capital, MRTNZ Ventures and others, according to Crunchbase . Airship, meanwhile, has been expanding its platform beyond push notifications to cover customer communication across SMS, email, mobile wallets and more. But CEO Brett Caine said this is the first time the company is moving into commerce. While sports and concerts tickets might not be a booming market right now, Caine suggested that the company is actually seeing increased purchasing activity “in and around the Airship platform” as businesses try to drive more in-app purchases. He also suggested that both the COVID-19 pandem...
Post a Comment
Read more