I wouldn't be surprised if this is related to ChatGPT or LLM. Google is aware of the impact LLMs are having and that Manifest V3 is facing widespread disapproval. Previously, Google's strategy was "take it or leave it", so their decision to reconsider could indicate apprehension about the potential acceleration of the ad-based search business's decline.
Pausing Manifest V2 phase-out changes
21–30 of 170 posts
Re: Pausing Manifest V2 phase-out changes
#22So the phase-out won't begin until 2024 at the earliest? Did I read that right? What was it previously, June 2023? > We will provide sufficient migration time for developers - at least 6 months of heads-up - before beginning any experiments to turn off MV2 in the browser next year So "next year" is 2023 or 2024?
Or will be when they think they can get away with it.
Every time they try the backlash is weaker and weaker because people get tired, or have other things to worry about.
Re: Pausing Manifest V2 phase-out changes
#23Manifest V3 is a perfect example of "great idea but terrible execution". The ability to have extension pages be suspended when not in use is great. Improving (and having finer grained) permissions is great. It should have stopped there: introduce a new "persistent" permission that extensions can request to stay around permanently, and when not requested, introduce lifecycle events so extensions can properly handle suspension/resumption. Make some tweaks to how permissions as a whole are handled.
Instead we have this abomination which is worse for everyone involved. It doesn't improve performance because it forces extension authors to hack around the broken API, and in doing so waste CPU and memory.
Firefox FTW
Re: Pausing Manifest V2 phase-out changes
#24So the phase-out won't begin until 2024 at the earliest? Did I read that right? What was it previously, June 2023? > We will provide sufficient migration time for developers - at least 6 months of heads-up - before beginning any experiments to turn off MV2 in the browser next year So "next year" is 2023 or 2024?
Or will be when they think they can get away with it. Every time they try the backlash is weaker and weaker because people get tired, or have other things to worry about.
or they install higher-order ad-blockers, like pihole / diversion
Re: Pausing Manifest V2 phase-out changes
#25Just fine tuning how slowly to boil the frogs. At some point, they will pull the trigger. My hypothesis is that the various entities that want to work around ad-blockers hold back for now, because they don't want to push people from the more basic blockers to the more advanced ones. Once this is in place, pretty much all adblockers of note are dns based, or semi-static list based...."basic". I wonder if there's a ren…
Their goal is probably to slowly ween a tiny group of power users onto other browsers that allow ad blocking while acclimating everyone else to the full ad experience.
Re: Pausing Manifest V2 phase-out changes
#26So the phase-out won't begin until 2024 at the earliest? Did I read that right? What was it previously, June 2023? > We will provide sufficient migration time for developers - at least 6 months of heads-up - before beginning any experiments to turn off MV2 in the browser next year So "next year" is 2023 or 2024?
Given this was posted 3 days ago, I'd say 2024 :)
Yeah, "in the next year" vs "over the next year". English has many nuances.
Re: Pausing Manifest V2 phase-out changes
#27Anything that breaks uBlock Origin is a deal breaker. With the chrome team making so many alterations to their plans, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Why wait? Move to Firefox now.
Re: Pausing Manifest V2 phase-out changes
#28Doesn't appear to open up MV2 for new extensions, so if your favorite extension gets sold / goes rogue then alternatives may be crippled by MV3 as it exists today.
Re: Pausing Manifest V2 phase-out changes
#29Anything that breaks uBlock Origin is a deal breaker. With the chrome team making so many alterations to their plans, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Why wait? Move to Firefox now.
Feels slow in old computers with 4GB and Chrome has a better built-in for freeing up memory from inactive tabs.
Re: Pausing Manifest V2 phase-out changes
#30Great news. One thing that I'm sure about V3 is that it isn't well thought-out at all. For example, imagine your extension has to cache data for a browser session (across tabs but with a single cache), it's impossible as of now. The only workaround to do that has a 1MB storage limit, essentially forcing you to have a server-side cache mechanism (redis or whatever) for this trivial use-case. And worse, Google develope…
It is hubris. Google thinks it can get away with anything, since they're the market leader. The reality is that a certain number of people will migrate to Firefox over AdBlockers not working well anymore, and will give FF a second life. And those are the people who helped get Chrome off the ground by installing on the computers of relatives and recommending to friends.
This, 1000 times. There is only one thing a monopoly holder is afraid of - losing the monopoly.