Google has a long way to go when it comes to fighting ad blockers. Browser extensions that let you visit websites without ads have been under fire for some time. That’s no surprise: Google’s revenue depends on them. Think of ads on YouTube or other websites where Google ads appear.

While ad blocking developers have always been one step ahead of Google, it now appears that the American tech giant has deployed its secret weapon. So it seems that if you as a software company can’t win the game in your own arena, you just have to build a new one.

What’s the problem?

While the name “Manifest v3” probably doesn’t mean anything to you, it’s now “Voldemort” in the lives of ad blocker developers. Since Google is changing the distribution platform for its Chrome web browser, old extensions will no longer work because they “don’t meet Google’s privacy and security requirements.”

As a user, there’s not much you can do other than update your browser, after which uBlock Origin ad blocker will automatically stop working. But that doesn’t mean you have to get completely desperate, because there are other options.

This is the quick fix.

uBlock Origin developer Raymond Hill has quickly released an alternative app called uBlock Original LiteThis extension meets the new requirements of Google Chrome or Manifest v3. The only difference is that this new extension It doesn’t work the same way. As before.

Don’t worry, it still blocks some ads, but it asks for your permission to do so on every website. This means that you’ll soon have two tasks on every website: click on cookie popups and turn on the ad blocker. According to the creator, the new extension is “not a direct replacement for uBlock Origin” and admits that its tool may not meet everyone’s expectations.

Want to try a different browser?

Although Google Chrome is still the Preferred browser That doesn’t mean there aren’t good alternatives. For example, the author of this article has been using Firefox for years and really loves it. Firefox has also been available as a browser on your smartphone for years. What’s more, it’s not affected by changes in the path of companies like Google, and perhaps more importantly, by changes to its extension platform. This means that add-ons like uBlock Origin will continue to work there. The same goes for Microsoft Edge, for example.

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