Proposing a certain category of bialgebroid maps we show that the balanced depth 2 extensions appear as they were the finitary Galois extensions in the context of quantum groupoid actions, i.e., actions by finite bialgebroids, weak bialgebras or weak Hopf algebras. We comment on deformation of weak bialgebras, on half grouplike elements, on uniqueness of weak Hopf algebra reconstructions and discuss the example of separable field extensions.For extensions of rings, algebras or C * -algebras the notion of depth 2, introduced originally for von Neumann factors by A. Ocneanu, has many features that makes it the analogue of Galois extension of fields. The extension N ⊂ M of k-algebras is called of depth 2 if the canonical N -M bimodule X = N M M and M -N bimoduleX = M M N satisfy: X ⊗X ⊗ X is a direct summand in a finite direct sum of copies of X andX ⊗ X ⊗X is a direct summand in a finite direct sum ofX's. The right module M N is called balanced if End E M ∼ = N where E = End M N . For any balanced depth 2 extension the endomorphism ring A = End N M N carries a bialgebroid structure which is finite projective over the centralizer, or relative commutant, R = C M (N ) both as a left and as a right module. Moreover the canonical 0