Google is one of the biggest companies in the world at the moment. However, it is also believed to be one of the best companies when it comes to user-facing decisions. It is often noted that Google takes decisions based on people’s feedback. We see that each new version of Android comes with features that are requested by Android users. However, not everything goes to plan at Google as well. We often find out some of the decisions from Google that we don’t like.
As you might be aware already, Google runs the Chrome browser which is the world’s top browser at the moment. Billions of people use Google Chrome on their laptops and PCs every day. So it is understood that Google’s decision for Chrome affects a majority of users. Google had earlier announced that it will introduce ad blocking features to Chrome. This left its users excited because they would not have to use third-party ad blockers anymore.
However, Google has now retracted from its original announcement. Google recently announced some changes to Manifest v3 which is a Chrome’s extensions system. As a part of this, Google says that Chrome’s ad blocking features will not be available to normal users. But they will be available to enterprise users who pay Google to use Chrome browser. From a business point of view, we do understand Google’s decision to do this. However, it leaves us absolutely disappointed as loyal users of Google’s Chrome browser.
Not only that but with these changes to Manifest v3, we will also have less effective ad blocking in Chrome. Because Manifest v3 will change how ads are blocked in Chrome by third-party extensions. And it is believed that extensions will have to switch to a less effective rules-based system called “declarativeNetRequest.” Developers of the ad blocking extensions say that Google’s business model is against content blocking. Therefore, this decision from Google was expected for a long time.