3 ms·

IMO the only question is one of magnitude. Based on a cursory search it appears that adblock addons are used by anywhere between 20-45% of users across all brow

IMO the only question is one of magnitude. Based on a cursory search it appears that adblock addons are used by anywhere between 20-45% of users across all browsers. Based on this I wouldn't be wildly shocked if Chrome sheds anywhere between 5-10% of its userbase almost overnight. I would also expect this to cause a modest-to-significant backlash against Google as a whole. This is a change that will be widely noticed among regular internet users, and rolled out at a time when Google's bread and butter (search) is at its weakest point in decades. Moving into purely speculative territory here, but I also wonder what impact this might have on their business moving forward. Without having hard numbers to back this up, my anecdotally-backed hunch is that ad blocking is disproportionately popular among younger users. That's a risky demographic for any tech company to alienate in part or in whole.

ericpauley 3y ago
Doubt it. Ad blockers still work on MV3, just not as well. The vast majority of people won’t notice a difference and the ones that will are the same ones that probably switched already.
- doktrin 3y ago
  Unlike amorphous concerns like “privacy” that for better or worse only resonate with a niche audience, ads are by definition hard to ignore. Once users are forced to both potentially replace their adblocker entirely and begin mucking around with config settings and filter lists it seems inevitable that many simply jump ship. Doubly so if the advice gets amplified across social media / streaming platforms et al. The crowd you’re referring to - i.e who follow tech news and the manifest rollout - are a tiny minority many of whom probably never used Chrome to begin with. That’s not who I have in mind here.
- postalrat 3y ago
  It won't take long for ads to start appearing that can't be blocked by a mv3 extension. I'm sure they have already been developed and are waiting for the switch.

ericpauley 3y ago

Doubt it. Ad blockers still work on MV3, just not as well. The vast majority of people won’t notice a difference and the ones that will are the same ones that probably switched already.

doktrin 3y ago
Unlike amorphous concerns like “privacy” that for better or worse only resonate with a niche audience, ads are by definition hard to ignore. Once users are forced to both potentially replace their adblocker entirely and begin mucking around with config settings and filter lists it seems inevitable that many simply jump ship. Doubly so if the advice gets amplified across social media / streaming platforms et al. The crowd you’re referring to - i.e who follow tech news and the manifest rollout - are a tiny minority many of whom probably never used Chrome to begin with. That’s not who I have in mind here.
postalrat 3y ago
It won't take long for ads to start appearing that can't be blocked by a mv3 extension. I'm sure they have already been developed and are waiting for the switch.