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Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did

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Re: Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case your assumption here is that TFA is about Edge disabling adblockers: it's not. It's just removing ManifestV2 support. ManifestV3 is still supported. Despite what one might assume, MV3 does not seem to measurably diminish the effectiveness of adblockers; if anything, it improves it. (Source: https://petsymposium.org/popets/2026/popets-2026-0027.php )

The only reason anyone knows about the switch between manifest 2 and 3 is that the only meaningful difference is the crippled ad blocking ability. Nobody knows any other difference unless they are an extension developers or worked on making the Internet a worse place.

I mean you’re right about the awareness of it due to ad blocking but

> Nobody knows any other difference unless they are an extension developers or worked on making the Internet a worse place.

MV3 comes with a ton of security improvements over MV2, a side effect is the perceived weakening of ad blocking extensions but the benefits outweigh the cons.

MV2 effectively allowed a permanently open RCE pathway.

The browser itself should ideally be handling ad blocking as it’s more effective and efficient at it (Brave, Vanadium, Trivalent).

Safari has already been on an MV3-like extension system for years yet only Chromium draws ire. I mean they got flack at first but it died off and now there’s no real difference.

Re: Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some ads (e.g. I know YT ads used to be this way, haven't looked recently) can't be blocked at the network level because they are served from the same domain/servers as the content.

Sure, but have YT Premium for the family. Don't know how anyone can use YT without it. And it blocks 90% of ads, the rest are tolerable / go mostly unnoticed.

I use a browser with a built-in blocker (Brave Origin) and I don't see ads in YouTube.

Re: Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did

#73
post #31

Welp, the biggest reason that I use Edge just got thrown out, time to switch to Firefox.

The telemetry and ads (on start page) didn't bother you? I'm surprised there's seemingly a contingent of people who are too lazy to install any other chrome fork (eg. Brave), but are motivated enough to up sticks and switch to firefox the moment ublock is removed.

At least that's something I can just rant about a couple of times a year, and enjoy tracker blocking the rest of the time.

Re: Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did

#74
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube premium is one of the best subs you can buy if you watch a lot of YouTube. Plus you get Music.

YT Music would be be better if I did not have to double check every of its suggestion for AI generation. Some accounts to make their AI use public which is nice but there's no way to see their channel info in YT Music to look for that.

You can actually tap on the channel name and scroll down to see the About section (at least on iOS).

I never had genAI tracks being suggested on YouTube Music. Though it might be a factor that my account predates genAI music.

Re: Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some ads (e.g. I know YT ads used to be this way, haven't looked recently) can't be blocked at the network level because they are served from the same domain/servers as the content.

Sure, but have YT Premium for the family. Don't know how anyone can use YT without it. And it blocks 90% of ads, the rest are tolerable / go mostly unnoticed.

>Don't know how anyone can use YT without it.

With an adblocker..

Why would you need yt premium with an adblocker?

Re: Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did

#77
post #56

I use MV3 AdGuard and it blocks ads for me. I don't get the fuss about MV2 deprecation.. sure, MV3 is limited compared to firefox, but it's not like MV2 was that much better, no version ever supported rewriting request response. MV3 DNR redirect is notably lame though, instead of replacing the response it generates a real redirect which breaks for example replacing the service worker response. But could MV2 webReques…

Rules are limited (in syntax and number) and you can only ship updated rules with updated extensions (at least you can skip the queue if you only update rulesets but it's VERY annoying to do). It's also missing a bunch of features: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home/wiki/Frequently-as... (I see here that replacing response body is possible with Firefox only, is that your use-case?). MV2 was miles better.

Besides AdGuard I also have my own extension that loads userscripts from my own server (that uses the new userScripts API), so I think I only see my own point of view and the things that would potentially limit my solutions.

So far I'm able to block everything I want, but I mentioned replacing the response body because this is the only way I could modify or even inspect the service worker.. I think this vector could help circumventing ad blockers, but again - it would only matter if there were ads I'd not be able to block.

When it comes to distribution, firefox sucks because I can't even run my own extensions there, my distro doesn't package firefox developer edition so signatures are required. In contrast, Chrome let's me load unpacked extensions without any problems.

Re: Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube is tolerable with ads. If I found it intolerable, I would pay. Or not visit.

Humans are just so damn different in their tolerance to wasting time. I can't take feeling like I wasted 10 seconds of my time on an ad even when watching an video for recreation.

If modern ads weren't built to be intentionally manipulative to the nth degree, whilst also extracting a huge amount of private data of the viewer, I might be more tolerant of them.

Re: Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans are just so damn different in their tolerance to wasting time. I can't take feeling like I wasted 10 seconds of my time on an ad even when watching an video for recreation.

If an ad isn't blocked, I fast forward through it. If I can't fast forward, I mute it. If I can't mute it, I'll mute my computer and change tabs for the duration. If it's a page in a magazine, I flip it quickly. If it's a billboard I'll avert my gaze. If it's in an airplane I take out my headphones and cover the screen. I find being advertised to so annoying there's no way in hell I will spend my limited time on this…

Or you could not consume the content.

Re: Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did

#80
post #59
post #30

Advertising companies shouldn’t be in the browser business. It’s a really bad conflict of interest. Chromium is a mistake. Firefox is pretty great. But IMO they have some poor ux defaults that make it unappealing to random people who simply want a browser.

There is no “browser business,” because people are - with rare exceptions - unwilling to pay for a web browser. Even Firefox is ad-supported indirectly via its default search contract with google.

There is a browser business when the browser company is also in the ad business.
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