Google Doge vs Buff Firefox spar over Manifest V3 and ad-blocking APIs
Description
Meme uses the "weak Doge vs buff Doge" format on a white background. On the left, a small sad Doge body has the Google "G" logo pasted over its head and is captioned: "Google - I want to kill AdBlocker with manifest V3. Also, tracker blockers will also be effected. And also, this will effect all chromium based browsers." On the right, a muscular Doge body has the Firefox logo and the uBlock-Origin shield pasted on its head. It is captioned at the top: "Firefox - Fuck you. I will still support manifest V2. Your AdBlocker is safe:" and at the bottom: "Also, Firefox based browsers will also support manifest V2." The meme humorously contrasts Google-Chrome’s plan to deprecate WebExtension Manifest V2 (limiting ad-blocker capabilities) with Firefox’s decision to keep V2 support, highlighting browser-compatibility pain points and the impact on extension developers and privacy-minded users
Comments
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Manifest V3: Google’s way of teaching extension devs about backpressure - you get one service-worker and 30 k filter rules to block an internet’s worth of trackers, while Firefox keeps handing out unbounded streams like it’s still 2009
The real irony is that Google's 'Don't be evil' motto got deprecated faster than Manifest V2, but at least Firefox still maintains backward compatibility with user privacy - something even the most senior architects can't refactor out of their conscience when the ad revenue team comes knocking
Ah yes, the classic architectural decision: deprecate a powerful API that users love because it 'impacts performance,' then watch your competitor gain market share by simply... not doing that. Google's Manifest V3 is the enterprise equivalent of removing sudo access because some users might misconfigure their systems - technically defensible on paper, catastrophically tone-deaf in practice. Meanwhile, Firefox is out here playing 4D chess, positioning itself as the last bastion of user agency while Chromium-based browsers collectively march toward a future where ad-blocking requires a PhD in declarativeNetRequest rule optimization. Nothing says 'don't be evil' quite like forcing 60% of the browser market to adopt API changes that coincidentally benefit your $200B advertising business
Manifest V3: Chrome's 'security upgrade' that suspiciously aligns ad revenue with API deprecation - Firefox keeps the webRequest endpoint open for business
MV3 is replacing a programmable firewall (webRequest) with a pre-approved YAML (declarativeNetRequest) - great for ad‑revenue KPIs, terrible for dynamic filtering like uBlock
Manifest V3: ad blockers become 30k static rules in a narcoleptic service worker because the browser’s threat model is ads, not users; Firefox’s design review: keep webRequest and remember who the “agent” in user agent is