The controversy of Chrome on Adblocker: Google increases the maximum limit

You've probably read a lot about the upcoming Manifest V3 extensions for Google Chrome and the controversy surrounding changes to ad blockers and other extensions of the platform.

A first draft of Manifest V3 extensions for Chrome was released by the public in January 2019. Critics have burst, as one of the changes would cripple Chrome's blocking feature extensions.

Without going into too much detail: Content blockers on Chrome use an API called WebRequest API to block certain elements of the Web pages viewed. At the time, Google's plan was to make the API read-only and move the blocking feature to a new API called the declarativeNetRequest API.

One of the main problems with this API was that it had a limit of 30,000 rules; Traditional filter lists that block ads, like EasyList, already have more than double the rules, so it would become impossible to load all the filters if the new Manifest file was launched by Google. One of Google's claims that extensions using the old API had a negative impact on performance was refuted.

Raymond Hill, the creator of uBlock Origin and uMatrix, said the change would end his extensions for Google Chrome, and similar comments were made by other developers.

Google attempted to resolve the issues in May by making slight changes to the API. The company added the option of using 5000 dynamic rules, but the general consensus was that the limitations remained limited.

Companies that use Chromium as the basis for their browsers, such as Brave or Vivaldi, quickly noticed that they would find a way around the limit.

Google has announced changes it plans to make to the Declarative Net Request API and that would bring the API limit to 150,000. Google has also made known that it is actively considering including Other methods that can help developers of extensions to better exploit the API.

We are actively exploring other ways to expand this API, including adding methods to get feedback on the corresponding rules and supporting richer redirects by exploiting URL manipulation and URLs. regular expressions. In addition, we are currently planning to change the rule limit from a maximum of 30 rules per extension to an overall maximum of 150 rules.

Google notes that the proposed changes were never designed to "prevent or weaken" advertising blockers on the Chrome platform and that its primary motivation was to "give developers a way to create more advertising blockers." safe and more efficient ".

Another argument advanced by Google to validate the API change is that malicious developers have abused the API in the past to access "credentials, accounts or personal information".

The argument is amazing considering the fact that Google has previously announced that it would only remove the blocking part of the webRequest API when launching Manifest V3. It seems that malicious plugin developers can still use it to access user data by monitoring requests.

Developers have expressed other concerns as Google focuses solely on a rules-based approach. Any feature that is not rule-based may not be supported by Chrome extensions if the changes are initiated in the current form.

Now, it's your turn: What is your opinion on the Google ad?

Publicity