[kevindqc]

From what I understand, there are currently events which gave you the ability to inspect, and also cancel a request if you want. This allows you to do things like cancel a request if it's trying to download a big video file.

But Google wants to remove the ability to cancel a request through the events, and they want to replace that with declarativeNetRequest[1]. If you look at the link, in the Rules section, it seems to be simple, kinda hardcoded (but configurable) filters.

You can also see there's a limit of only 30,000 rules[2], which is not enough for EasyList[3] (example used in the tracker), which seems to have ~74,000 rules.

This is not targeted to ad blockers specifically. It's a change that makes blocking requests less flexible. For example, uBlock and uMatrix rules can be overridden by more specific rules, something that declarativeNetRequest can't do.

1. https://developers.chrome.com/extensions/declarativeNetReque...

2. https://developers.chrome.com/extensions/declarativeNetReque...

3. https://easylist.to/

[wongarsu]

>This is not targeted to ad blockers specifically.

At superficial inspection it's not obviously targeted at ad blockers. It might still be. Most of google's revenue comes from advertising, fighting against ad blockers wouldn't be unexpected for them.

[tyingq]

The fact that they are leaving in the functionality to view/record/forward anything you visit makes it clear to me that the target is adblockers. Removing solely the ability to cancel a preflight request is, er, pretty specific.

[IdiocyInAction]

Given Google's core business, I don't think it's irrational to assume that this might target ad blockers.