Google stopped hearing and is on its way to deprecate WebRequest API and working on new API that makes ad blocking extensions less effective. The changes are not yet landed in Chrome version and all developers and users are optimistic that Google may change its mind and the decision is not final, users now thinking about other browsers such as Firefox and Chromium-based Vivaldi, Opera, Brave and Edge to make the switch.
It’s still not clear what Brave, Opera Software and Microsoft do when Chrome implements Manifest v3 for Extensions, Vivaldi now opens out and says they respect user choice and will allow users to surf the web in their browser without ads. The company in a blog post titled “ad blockers or not – your choice matters” says they have these following options from now on:
Since the new version of Chromium code comes every six weeks and they integrate it into their Vivaldi code when Google makes changes to Chromium which we’re discussing that might make ad blockers not powerful like before.
1. Vivaldi may restore WebRequest API if possible
2. The company goes onto say, if the API is removed, they’ll create a limited extensions store on their own and make it available to users.
Vivaldi hopes this may not happen and believes “Alternative API will eventually cover the use cases of WebRequest API”. Vivaldi confirms they’ll remove any restrictions (in the case of ad blockers) that Google adds to Chromium code.
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