Ad blocker uBlock Origin “will no longer be able to exist” if a proposed change to Chrome goes ahead, Raymond Hill, a developer of uBlock Origin and uMatrix, said in a comment on the Chromium bug tracker.
Google developers are proposing this change in the bug tracker for the Chromium browser. Chromium is the open-source browser that forms the basis of Google Chrome, Opera, and soon Microsoft Edge.
But don't worry: The upcoming changes won't affect all ad blockers. Google engineers are reportedly working on cutting out some browser extensions. Right now, ad blockers use the "webRequest" API to detect what's happening when web pages load and block advertising scripts.
If the proposed change is implemented, extensions will not be able to block ads with this API. Extensions will only be able to detect ads without blocking them, which will speed up page load times as Chrome will not have to wait for an extension to block them.
Ad blockers will have to use the “declarativeNetRequest” API to tell Chrome that they want to block something. Chrome, on the other hand, will block ads without waiting for the “webRequest” API to respond, and this will make Google’s browser significantly faster.
Raymond Hill said that, if the change is made, ad blocking with uBlock Origin and uMatrix will not be able to offer anything special:
If the declarativeNetRequest API ends up being the only way they can use it, it means that two ad blockers we've been developing for years, uBlock Origin and uMatrix, can no longer exist.
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