Thought Leadership
After Microsoft phases out Manifest V2 in Edge, Firefox remains the only major browser with full uBlock Origin support.
Manifest fundamentally defines which permissions browser extensions receive. While Version 2 granted extensions like uBlock Origin extensive capabilities to inspect and block web requests, Version 3 significantly restricts these very capabilities. Google had already initiated the transition to Manifest V3 in 2020 and started the actual phase-out of Manifest V2 in 2024, whereupon other Chromium-based browsers such as Edge, Opera, Brave, and Vivaldi followed suit. Since Chromium represents the largest share of the global browser market, users who rely on the full functionality of uBlock Origin are increasingly left with few alternatives.
Mozilla explicitly confirmed via the Bluesky platform that it is sticking to its own support for uBlock Origin. Apple’s Safari also does not support the full version of the ad blocker, as the browser features its own extension system into which uBlock Origin in its classic desktop form cannot be integrated. DuckDuckGo’s browser is in a similar situation: although it comes with its own integrated privacy and ad-blocking features, this does not correspond to using the full uBlock Origin extension. The Lite version of uBlock Origin, specifically developed for Manifest V3, is also significantly more restricted and waives part of the original’s advanced filter features.
Firefox uBlock Origin support: Protection against more than banners
The debate is about more than just ad banners: powerful content blockers can also prevent tracking technologies as well as potentially harmful or intrusive scripts from loading before they are even executed. Google’s architectural decisions regarding Chromium thus have an impact far beyond its own Chrome browser due to the project’s market dominance, while Firefox’s continued support for uBlock Origin offers users an alternative outside the Chromium ecosystem. Even if Firefox’s own user share has declined slightly in recent years, observers believe that the continued full support of uBlock Origin could become a compelling reason for some users to switch browsers.
(Editorial Team)
