Google is Killing uBlock Origin. No Chromium Browser is Safe.
www.quippd.com
We’ve been anticipating it for years,1 and it’s finally happening. Google is finally killing uBlock Origin – with a note on their web store stating that the extension will soon no longer be available because it “doesn’t follow the best practices for Chrome extensions”.2 Daly Barnett. “Chrome Users Beware: Manifest V3 is Deceitful and Threatening.” EFF, December 9, 2021. ↩ Lawrence Abrams. “Google warns uBlock Origin and other extensions may be disabled soon.” Bleeping Computer, October 13, 2024. ↩

Google is weakening ad blockers as part of their MV3 extension standard and this will trickle down into all Chromium browsers. Built in ad blockers lack features compared to uBlock Origin as well.

    • billbasher@lemmy.world
      23·
      2 months ago

      What makes you say this? Brave is my primary and doesn’t need uBlock to effectively block ads

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 months ago

        My comment is specifically around v2 Manifest support for addons. uBlock Origin requires v2 manifest. If you’re fine without it, you can’t ignore all of this discussion. However, uBlock Origin can block more than ads.

        • billbasher@lemmy.world
          1·
          2 months ago

          Yeah I will probably need to switch over to firefox if Brave is gonna break. Are the blockers in Brave V2 do you know?

          • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
            3·
            2 months ago

            I don’t know. I’m not a Brave user. I saw the v2 Manifest comments elsewhere when looking at Vivaldi info, and it was also mentioned Brave was following the same July 2025 as Vivaldi for v2 manifest (old school addon format) support.

    • warm@kbin.earth
      422·
      2 months ago

      Any chromium browser is with a flag enabled.

      Just switch to Firefox or a derivative already guys.

    • mm_maybe@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      2 months ago

      Honest question: why is it not safe after then? They developed their own adblocker if I’m not mistaken? What am I missing?

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 months ago

        I’m using the word “safe” here to mean “dependable”. As in, you can depend on Vivaldi to support v2 manifest addons (of which uBlock is one). If you use any addons you like that require v2 manifest in a Chromium based browser, you can Vivaldi (or Brave, I believe) to continue to support your desired addons until July 2025. After July 2025, the code in the browser that allows v2 manifest addons will be removed from all supported Chromium browsers (that I’m aware of).

        • mm_maybe@sh.itjust.works
          11·
          2 months ago

          Ok, thanks for clarifying. FWIW, I find the built-in adblocker in Vivaldi extremely dependable, without the performance cost of loading an add-on (especially on top of a base browser that is significantly slower to begin with).