Users of uBlock Origin have started receiving notifications about its impending “retirement” from the Google Chrome extension store. The developers explained why this “hostility“ of the company to the ad blocker, which is well known in the Internet circles.
On the extension's page, some Chrome users are already seeing a warning that it will soon end support. According to one of the creators of uBlock Origin, this is due to the fact that the blocker is built on the basis of the Manifest V2 specification, which Google is trying to abandon in favor of the newer V3. Therefore, after June 2025, all V2-based extensions will no longer work.
Such a transition will not be without pitfalls: the new specification limits the functions of extensions. For example, it has already forced the developers of the original blocker to release uBlock Origin Lite - this blocker meets the requirements of Manifest V3, but with significantly reduced functionality compared to the original version.
Previously, Google built a message into its browser about the benefits of online advertising, added persistent banners to the YouTube app for smart TVs and made the skip video ad button almost invisible to users.