Google says do not want to stop blocking ads on Chrome

Google has been increasingly criticized for some of the changes proposed by Chrome that, according to developers, could prevent the blocking of popular ads blockers. Nicknamed Manifest 3, the changes imply paralyzing WebRequest APIs that developers are currently using to block content in favor of a new, more limited declarativeNetRequest API. Google revealed that performance and privacy changes have been made, but Ghostery's developers have also shown that the performance of the most popular ad blockers is simply not a problem in Chrome.

Google is now backing on some of its changes due to a brutal reaction from developers of extensions blocking ads. "Our goal is not and has never been our goal to prevent or remove content blocking," says Chrome engineer Devlin Cronin in a Google Groups post. "We are committed to preserving this ecosystem and ensuring that users can continue to customize the Chrome browser to meet their needs. This includes continuing support for extensions, including content blockers, development tools, accessibility features, and more.

Although developers must always switch from using the webRequest API to declarativeNetRequest, Google will increase the global blocking list from a limit of 30,000 and allow developers to use dynamic blocking lists. This will solve some of the criticism of the changes, but it is still a work in progress that could still evolve. "These changes are part of the design process," says a spokesman for Google in a statement to CNET. "We want to make sure that all basic use cases, including content blockers, are still possible with these changes and we work with extension developers to ensure that their extensions continue." to operate while optimizing the platform of extensions and protecting our users better. "

Chrome is the world's most popular browser, with over one billion users on Android and on desktop operating systems. Google added its own ad block to Chrome last year, but it's only designed to attack ads that do not meet Google's best-seller standards.