Clearly, Google is serious about trying to oust ad blockers from its browser, or at least those extensions with fuller (V2) levels of functionality. One of the crucial twists with V3 is that it prevents the use of remotely hosted code – as a security measure – but this also means ad blockers can’t update their filter lists without going through Google’s review process. What does that mean? Way slower updates for said filters, which hampers the ability of the ad-blocking extension to keep up with the necessary changes to stay effective.

(This isn’t just about browsers, either, as the war on advert dodgers extends to YouTube, too, as we’ve seen in recent months).

At any rate, Google is playing with fire here somewhat – or Firefox, perhaps we should say – as this may be the shove some folks need to get them considering another of the best web browsers out there aside from Chrome. Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, has vowed to maintain support for V2 extensions, while introducing support for V3 alongside to give folks a choice (now there’s a radical idea).

  • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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    2 months ago

    For those who may not want to click the link, this appears to show a workaround that enterprises might use to bypass the change.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      No, enterprises would use the Google admin console as described here.

      The above is for a single machine, applied locally.

      • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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        2 months ago

        It looks like it’s the same flag to me. I mean, it’s entirely possible that administration could use a different path to applying the setting, but it has the same name.

        • Nougat@fedia.io
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          2 months ago

          Sure, it’s the same flag, but using the admin console would apply it to a group of computers. The methods in the github link are to apply it to a single computer.