Bickham is skeptical of Google's motivations for making the changes, but says the improved security could benefit users. Some concerns over the proposal might be overstated, says Matthew Bickham, maker of an ad blocker called Magic Lasso for Apple's Safari browser. The changes would also 'make it impossible to come up with new and novel filtering engine designs,' Hill wrote. Raymond Hill, the developer of the popular ad-blocking extension uBlock Origin, wrote on Chromium’s bug-tracking site that the changes would break his extension, and also prevent developers from creating extensions that do things like prevent a page from loading images larger than a certain size. Many developers are protesting the proposal, arguing that the changes would harm users.ĭevelopers argue that the limit of 30,000 rules is too low, and the new interface is too limited. It will still be possible to block ads if the proposed changes are incorporated into Chrome, but developers would need to rewrite their Chrome extensions.

These extensions put the web browsing experience in the reader's hands, as opposed to the publisher's.īut proposed changes to Google’s open source browser Chromium, on which Chrome is based, would break many existing ad blockers and other tools for blocking or changing online content. Other extensions modify content on behalf of users, sometimes as a joke, other times to make pages more legible or to add extra features. Google, which makes the bulk of its money from advertising, has even gone so far as to block ads on its Chrome browser on a small number of sites with particularly aggressive ads.Īd blockers are typically pieces of third-party software that can be installed as add-ons or “extensions” to your web browser. According to a survey by identity management company Janrain, 71 percent of respondents use ad blockers or some other tool to control their online experience. That’s led many people to install ad blockers or other tools to inhibit websites from tracking them. Big animated ads try to distract you from what you’re reading, while ads for products you’ve already bought stalk you.

The web can be an annoying and creepy place.

New google chrome ad blocker