De-Googling: Manifest V3 and Google's Enshittification

EDIT: 06/19/24. I made the mistake of not being specific enough here. All browsers will be supporting Manifest V3, it's just that Google's implementation is going to remove support for Manifest V2 entirely. Google's version of Manifest V3 will be in the latest versions of Chromium, thus any browser that is a fork of Chromium will likely end up with Google's implementation eventually. The point still stands!

Google’s recent announcement to continue with Manifest V3 reminded me of Cory Doctorow’s term enshittification. It’s an apt way to describe the current trends we’ve been seeing in big tech over the past few years, but especially in 2023, when the term was coined. Here’s the quick definition:

“Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two-sided market", where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.”

The short version of Manifest V3 is that in the name of “security” they’re restricting the abilities of web extensions, with the implied goal of removing the ability of ad blockers to function. Chromium powers the most popular browsers in the world. Chrome still doesn’t let you use extensions on their mobile app. It’s clear that they believe the internet should be covered in ads.

But why now? Well, we go back to enshittification. Having built up a good user base and set up a large amount of business customers with their Google Ads program, they can now claw all the value back for themselves while ruining how people use the internet. Google Ads is allegedly its primary revenue driver, thus they have a lot to gain by making those ads more rampant and effective. 

I switched to Firefox a year ago when I first heard about this plan, and it’s been great. Firefox is just as fast in my opinion, and I haven’t missed anything about Chrome. On mobile, Firefox has access to extensions (only on Android) and that’s made browsing a much more enjoyable experience over the years. 

I’m not sure if boycotting is effective, but I do think that switching a browser is much easier than switching social medias. What makes social media useful is the user base, whereas a browser is just the tool to interact with the internet. Does it matter if it’s Firefox or Chrome or Edge? Well, now it does: Chromium-based browsers such as Edge will now also be supporting Manifest V3.

I’ve been de-Googling in other small ways as of late, such as switching my main search engine to DuckDuckGo. I made the move because of Google’s AI Overview feature, which spreads misinformation such as adding glue to sauces to prevent pizza from sliding, which, hilariously, says a lot about the ways in which Google is destroying their search engine. Then on top of that, Google changed its search algorithm again (after changing it in 2023) to favor sites like Reddit. I mean, guilty as charged, I tend to Google things with Reddit at the end if I’m looking for a take. (Like when I recently googled “Baldur’s Gate 3 Review Reddit,” since I’d rather read small reviews than review by outlets.) It’s the equivalent of seeing if a product has a bad review, 1 star or something. But this works fine on platforms like DuckDuckGo. One thing I’ve noticed is that it’s been much harder to find a Wikipedia page. I did a little experiment by searching “Fire Emblem”. Why did I pick Fire Emblem? Because I assume google probably doesn’t care enough about the series to make sure the page is good, and it’s a product, which I’ve heard that the search will take you to product pages more easily now.

If you’re searching “Fire Emblem,” what would you want? I personally would want the wiki, to answer the question: what is fire emblem? That or the official website.

Here’s the browser result with DuckDuckGo:

It shows the Fire Emblem Wiki to start, followed by the Wikipedia page. To the right it has a useful info block that also links to the Wiki and the official website. Underneath are some images of Fire Emblem characters in standard resolution.

Here’s the browser Google Result:

I found that Google starts with a weird widget block, which is a weird mix of low resolution covers for the games, a recent Screen Rant piece, and a YouTube video of the Fire Emblem Engage Launch Trailer. Below that, it has a useful about widget to the right which links to the Wikipedia page. To the left, it directs you to the Nintendo eShop first for Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It’s not the latest game, but it’s the most popular and highest selling game. The second result was the Wikipedia page, which is what I wanted. So overall, it worked, but I think the results get more interesting if you scroll down a little.

It’s then filled up with the “People Also ask” block, which has common questions people ask about Fire Emblem. These results pull from the site, so you don’t even need to go to the website to get answers to these questions. DuckDuckGo has a common search block which is kinda like the questions block, but is more practical.

Here is an example of 2 questions expanded:

Next, let’s switch to mobile. Here’s the mobile search with DuckDuckGo:

Again, very straightforward, just the wikis.

Here’s Google’s:

Here’s when you scroll further:

And More:

And finally:

When you search via the mobile site, this where things get bad for Google in my opinion. You need to scroll through a misc assortment of game covers, the truncated wiki block, the Screen Rant article and the trailer video, all the questions, and the widgets before you get to the wiki. Yes, you can click the link in the small info block, but it’s so small compared to everything else. With DuckDuckGo, it’s right there. But hey, at least you know the price of the game!

Switching has decluttered my search and made the experience better for me. It’s hard not to feel like Google Search isn’t worth the effort, and it has me worried about the future of Google as a company, considering how invested I am in it. I use Android, Google Docs, Drive, etc. If I start to de-Google more in the future, I’ll let you all know and put it in my next blog post.

I wrote a bit about my worries for Google’s AI strategy and its product line-up here. This is partially what has been inspiring this switch. But it’s hard when your digital notes are all owned by the company that’s making weird AI decisions and potentially deciding to flip to a subscription model. My weird shower thought that I can't get out of my head is how marvelous and magical paper is. Think about it: it uses no power to have a notebook open. Or if you have a book sitting in your room, it doesn’t slowly drain the battery. I was rushing out of my apartment recently and grabbed my kindle to have a book to read on the train ride, and it was at 20% battery left. I sighed and grabbed a paper book. If you buy paper notebooks, you don’t need to worry about the notebook company upping their subscription price. I remember Evernote was my go-to for years, and they completely ruined it by paywalling features that used to be free. Perhaps we’ll start to see people removing tech from certain parts of their lives, starting with simple things like switching search engines. Who knows? But I’m optimistic.