Google Chrome's new rules for extensions may disable your favorite browser tools

Google is moving toward a new platform for Chrome extensions that promises greater safety and security. However, critics charge that the platform will block ad blockers and that it's too advertiser-friendly.

In development for the past six years, Google's Manifest V3 extension platform is designed to replace version 2 with tighter controls over the behavior of extensions. Malicious or suspicious extensions are a problem for any browser, including Chrome. To address this issue, Google claims that the new platform will better ensure that extensions offered in the Chrome Web Store are safe and reliable.

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In a May blog post and a Chrome Extensions Timeline page, Google announced that starting June 3, users on the Chrome Beta, Dev, and Canary channels would start seeing a warning on the browser's extensions page telling them that certain extensions would no longer be supported. Going directly to an extension's page in the store would display a similar message. The warnings refer to extensions that still use Manifest V2 and therefore would not be supported under V3.

At this point, even the regular public version of Chrome now displays the warning message. I checked the extensions page in Chrome version 127 and was told that three of my installed extensions -- Google Docs Offline, xBrowserSync, and uBlock Origin -- may soon no longer be supported.

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Over the coming months these extensions will gradually be disabled, Google said in its blog post. For a limited period, you'd still be able to turn these Manifest V2 extensions back on. But eventually, even that capability would go away. Instead, users would be directed to the Chrome Web store to find an alternative. The goal, according to Google, is to completely replace Manifest V2 with V3 for consumers by the start of 2025.

If you've ever installed a buggy or even malicious extension in Chrome, Manifest V3 sounds like a positive step. We all want safe and secure extensions that run properly in the browser. But there are a couple of bumps in the road.

First, critics have charged that Manifest V3 is a way for Google to stifle ad blockers. This is because certain such extensions depend on remotely hosted code that wouldn't be supported in V3. uBlock Origin is one specific type of ad blocker that has been singled out on Google's new extensions platform. On uBlock Origin's GitHub page, the developer of the extension described the dilemma.

"Starting with Google Chrome 127, there will be a warning for uBlock Origin (uBO) in your Chrome extensions page," the message said. "This is the result of Manifest v2 support being deprecated in favor of Manifest v3. uBO is a Manifest v2 extension, hence the warning in your Google Chrome browser. There is no Manifest v3 version of uBO, hence the browser will suggest alternative extensions as a replacement for uBO."

For people who want to keep using uBlock Origin, the only future option supported in Chrome will be uBO Lite (uBOL), a pared-down version that's compliant with Manifest v3 but is missing any unsupported features found in the full program.

Second, Google has to somehow placate two audiences -- users and advertisers. As a browser maker, the company needs to ensure that its users can protect their privacy by hiding their activities from ad trackers and other intrusive tools. But as a company reliant on ads for revenue, Google also wants to make sure that its privacy tools don't completely stifle advertisers.

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Both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Mozilla have charged that Google's move to Manifest v3 helps advertisers more than users. Mozilla plans to continue to support Manifest V2 in Firefox as do other browser makers. Besides Google, Microsoft also supports Manifest v3 with Edge.

In the face of criticism, Google has insisted that it still supports ad blockers and other privacy-related extensions despite the changes in Manifest v3. But Chrome users who do run into obstacles running unsupported extensions will either have to find alternatives or turn to another browser.