#Ghostery chrome extension download#

Others building atop Chromium like Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi have indicated interest in continuing to support Mv2, though it's unclear whether that will be practical beyond June of next year. Makers of Chromium-based browsers inherit Mv3 and Microsoft has already endorsed the new spec. But it has been adopted, with some caveats, by other browser makers, including Apple and Mozilla. An ad company making security claims that, coincidentally, hinder user-deployed content and privacy defenses looks like self-interest.Īnd Mv3 remains the subject of ongoing debate as the extension platform capabilities and APIs continue to be hammered out. The company's extension platform renovation was necessary – because extension security problems were rampant – and immediately controversial. Google began work on Manifest v3, the successor to Mv2, in late 2018, ostensibly to make extensions more secure, performant, and private. When Google discontinued the Chrome Web Store payment API in September 2020, only about nine percent of the extensions were paid or implemented in-app purchasing.Īccording to Chrome Stats, the most popular Chrome extensions block ads on Google and YouTube, making them something of a revenue sinkhole. Google's disinterest in Chrome Web Store metrics may have something to do with it not being a profit center like Apple's App Store or Google Play – which both Apple and Google celebrate for their revenue generation. Comparing these numbers isn't straightforward – Google doesn't publish store data so third parties devise their own counting methods.Ībout two dozen Chrome extensions have over 10 million users, but most (about 87 per cent) had fewer than 1,000 installs in 2019, according to Extension Monitor, a now-defunct service. Today, that figure is said to be almost 114,000. The estimated number of browser extensions in the Chrome Web Store as of two years ago ranged between about 156,000 and 190,000. 'We've been very pleased with the close collaboration established between Google’s Chrome Extensions Team and our own engineering team to ensure that ad-blocking extensions will still be available after Manifest v3 takes effect.' A numbers game

Google points to past endorsements, such as remarks provided by Sofia Lindberg, tech lead of ad amelioration biz Eyeo, which makes Adblock Plus. The internet titan, which declined to comment on the record, maintains that Mv3 aims to improve privacy by limiting extensions' access to sensitive data and that it has been working with extension developers to balance their needs with those of users.

Google argues otherwise and maintains its platform renovation will meet developers' needs, including those making tools for content blocking and privacy. It's that Manifest v3 caps the certain capabilities of extensions and cuts off innovation potential.' 'If you asked me if we can have a Manifest v3 version of Privacy Badger, my answer is yes, we can and we will,' said Alexei Miagkov, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a phone interview with The Register. Manifest v3 caps the certain capabilities of extensions and cuts off innovation potential Earlier this year, the company bumped up YouTube Premium’s pricing by $2 to $14 a month.Browser extensions such as Ghostery Privacy Ad Blocker, uBlock Origin, and Privacy Badger, along with scripting extensions including TamperMonkey, which are each designed to block adverts and other content and/or protect one's privacy online, are expected to function less effectively, if they can even make the transition from Mv2 to the new approach: Manifest v3.

#Ghostery chrome extension download#

But the streaming platform is also trying to push more people to pay for YouTube Premium, which gets rid of ads, lets people download videos, stream videos in higher quality and access YouTube Music. The company sold more than $22 billion in ads on the platform from the beginning of this year through September. YouTube ads are increasingly contributing more to Google’s overall revenue. Ghostery told Wired that its installations of Microsoft’s Edge browser went up by 30 percent in October compared to September. Since YouTube’s crackdown only seems to affect people who access its website through Chrome on laptops and desktops, some users also tried to use other browsers as a workaround.

Notably, the company said that more than 90 percent of its users who completed a survey about why they uninstalled the product said they did so because the tool no longer worked with YouTube. Another ad blocking company, Ghostery, said that its usage was flat in October as it experienced three to five times the daily number of installs as well as uninstalls.