4 ad blockers that still work with Chrome

Google is changing how Chrome extensions work on the desktop and Chromebooks. While the Manifest V3 changes are billed as ways to improve safety and efficiency, the way they also limit how adblocking extensions like uBlock Origin currently work has drawn a lot of criticism. 

I’m sure the fact that Google is the world’s biggest advertising company has nothing to do with it. 

Personally I’d recommend changing browsers. Chrome has been getting under my skin lately, so that’s exactly what I did, and there are plenty of alternatives that will remain compatible with current Chromium extensions for longer than Chrome itself.

But if you want to stick with Chrome (or you’re using a Chromebook and you don’t really have a choice), here are four alternatives that have already been upgraded to the new standard. They’re losing some capabilities due to Google’s more restrictive implementation, but they should still block the majority of advertising on the web.   

AdBlock Plus

AdBlock Plus

AdBlock Plus

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    </div></figure><p class="imageCredit">AdBlock Plus</p></div>

AdBlock Plus is probably the most popular ad-blocking extension for Chrome, if only because it’s the first one that pops up when you search for blockers on the Chrome Web Store extension repository. It’s been going for over 20 years, and has one of the best setups for comprehensively blocking advertising across the web. 

The extension has all the basics covered, including an allowlist that lets certain websites display ads by default, the ability to subscribe to public lists of blocked domains, and blocking advertising cookies and other background trackers. AdBlock Plus has already been updated to be compliant with Manifest V3, so it’s good to go. 

AdGuard 

AdGuard

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    </div></figure><p class="imageCredit">AdGuard</p></div>

AdGuard is the blocker I use in my browser, because it’s easy to set up a “reverse allowlist.” This lets me toggle ad blocking on only for websites that are particularly sketchy (or annoying). It’s particularly effective on YouTube, as I’ve explained before. 

AdGuard will flat-out refuse to connect to websites known to be malicious for phishing attacks or spreading malware, and it’s good at collapsing the elements of the page that normally display ads, making formatting much less cluttered. AdGuard’s Manifest V3 version is currently in beta testing, and should be transitioning into the primary extension long before the time it becomes mandatory. 

Ghostery 

Ghostery

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    </div></figure><p class="imageCredit">Ghostery</p></div>

Ghostery is a blocker and service that’s all about blocking tracking and providing privacy. Unfortunately, the developers say that Manifest V3 will make that a lot harder, as it seems designed to benefit Google as an advertiser far more than Chrome users. 

All that being said, Ghostery version 10 is compliant with V3. But the company maintains that Firefox, the only major independent browser not based on Chromium, is a better alternative if you want to make maximum use of its privacy-preserving features.

uBlock Origin Lite