Google Chrome's next update will mark the end of popular ad blockers
21 points by freddyb
21 points by freddyb
An advertising company killing off ad-blockers... Who would have imagined?
I’m going to choose a browser created by one of the largest advertising companies in the world, because it has extensions to block ads, which I’m sure will never go away!
I mean, lets be honest here. Chrome has had extensions for well over a decade (2009ish) and for all that time adblockers have been on the store. And even now with MV3 adblocking is still possible although somewhat limited (see the other comment thread about uBO lite.
/me shrugs
So, I don't generally use Chrome except for at work, where I have uBO Lite installed. I haven't seen any ads. What am I missing here? Is it that it tends to affect sites like YouTube or Twitch that I don't look at at work?
Like, I hate Google (which is why I don't use Chrome usually), but this doesn't seem to actually have impacted my ability to block ads.
There was a recent paper presented at PoPETS '26 that found
no statistically significant reduction in ad-blocking or anti-tracking effectiveness for MV3 ad blockers compared to their MV2 counterparts, and in some cases, MV3 instances even exhibit slight improvements in blocking trackers
So, yes, in practice uBO Lite may be just as effective. The only thing I've found that uBO Lite can't do, unlike the MV2 uBO, is to selectively block JS for a given site. That's why I still use the MV2 uBO in my browser (Helium, Chromium-based).
But I have uBO Lite on my phone, and don't see ads.
Same.
I believe uBO Lite doesn't get updates to the lists as often and there are less customisations but it's been good enough for me.
Whatever manifest v3 blocker I have installed seems to work well without leaking my browsing.
Will this just result in more "Brave Browser" like projects where instead of an extension, the ad block technique is just welded into the fork?