It seems Google is currently waging a two-front war. First up, it is trying to kill off ad blockers and content blockers in the YouTube space, with reports suggesting that the company is working to inject server-side ads into videos to make it highly difficult, if not impossible, to block them using traditional content blockers.
Secondly, the company is also trying to end the usage of Manifest V2 (MV2) extensions as they are no longer supported by its browser. uBlock Origin happens to be one such extension that is highly popular among users due to how efficiently it manages to block annoying advertisements on various websites including YouTube.
For those unfamiliar, the Manifest API essentially deals with how extensions and add-ons work on browsers, and Manifest V3 aims to improve the privacy, security and performance of such extensions.
When you look up uBlock Origin on the Chrome Web Store search bar, it no longer shows up as a suggested add-on. If you proceed regardless and land on the uBlock Origin's page, a highlighted message (warning) that says, "This extension may soon no longer be supported because it doesn't follow best practices for Chrome extensions," is displayed.
Currently, if the extension is in your Chrome browser, the browser extension manager flags it, saying, "This extension may soon no longer be supported. Remove or replace it with similar extensions from the Chrome Web Store."
The uBlock Origin developer has already recommended switching to uBlock Origin Lite, which is based on MV3 and thus officially supported. Nonetheless, some users may want to continue using some of their favorite add-ons, like uBlock Origin and other unsupported MV2 extensions.
In the latest Canary channel build, it looks like Google is planning to disable the option to use such add-ons. The change was spotted by X user and browser enthusiast Leopeva64 who noticed that the toggle to use disabled MV2 extensions is now greyed out completely and it no longer works.
The extension manager now provides the option to either remove them or find alternative add-ons. Keep in mind, though, that this is still in testing and may not end up in the final Stable version. However, Google's intentions seem clear.
As mentioned above, the recommended browser add-on for Chrome is uBlock Origin Lite from the same dev. However, if you want to keep using the original Origin, you can try this official Windows Registry hack, which allows the extension of the MV2 extensions till June 2025.
Another option for users is to switch to Firefox which has stated that it will continue supporting such MV2 extensions. However, things are not perfect there either with Mozilla coming under fire twice recently first for PPA default-tracking its users and second for being seemingly unfair to uBlock Origin Lite.
Source: Leopeva64 (X)
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