A focus of this issue’s main feature is chrome is shifting from Manifest V2 extensions to V3; the process is expected to be complete in January 2023. According to the Chrome peeps, it will offer “increased safety and peace of mind”. Until then, Manifest V2 will gradually be turned off. In June 2023, Chrome may run “experiments” to turn off selected V2 extensions and halt any publication of V2 extensions.
By January 2024, it’ll all be over – it’s V3 or nothing. Anything that isn’t V3 won’t earn Chrome’s Featured badge (its mark of a highstandard extension). Not everybody is happy. (When are they ever?–Ed) The WebRequest API, used by content blockers, has been replaced by a less flexible version. Apparently, it’s not too bad if you use one blocker, but if you use multiple blockers or run custom filter lists, you may run into “issues”. Those issues are artificial limits set by Google, and we know where it makes its money. Mozilla has confirmed that it will continue to support the Manifest V2 WebRequest API, so blockers such as the popular uBlock Origin will continue to work. If you want to minimise your exposure to adverts, trackers and so forth, the choice just got easier. Concerns over being flooded by adverts in Chrome may be a little premature, though demand for decent content filters in Chrome is going to make a juicy target for developers.