Ad blockers are still alive and well, even after Google’s attempt to make it harder for them with its latest browser extension architecture revision, Manifest v3 (MV3). Researchers found that the performance of MV3 is more or less on par with its predecessor, Manifest v2 (MV2), when it comes to ad blocking and anti-tracking extensions. In fact, MV3 even shows slight improvements in blocking trackers.
The study, titled “Privacy vs. Profit: The Impact of Google’s Manifest Version 3 (MV3) Update on Ad Blocker Effectiveness,” compared the old and new tools and found that there is no statistically significant reduction in ad-blocking or anti-tracking effectiveness for MV3 ad blockers compared to their MV2 counterparts.
Google introduced MV3 back in 2019 with a revised set of APIs aimed at improving performance, security, and privacy. The most notable changes were the blocking (synchronous) version of chrome.webRequest being replaced with an asynchronous API, chrome.declarativeNetRequest. This change has had minimal impact on ad blockers.
The researchers suggest that users no longer need to choose a browser based on its availability to run legacy MV2 extensions, as both MV3 and MV2 are equally effective in terms of privacy. However, the study notes that future changes to MV3 might have an impact on ad blocker effectiveness.
Source: https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/06/chrome_mv3_no_harm_ad_blocking