YouTube isn’t happy you’re using ad blockers — and it’s doing something about it::undefined
I keep seeing these headlines, but my ad blockers all still work just fine. So, good job Google and YouTube lol
It’s an arms race. They block adblockers, adblockers block the anti-adblocks. It breaks for maybe like a few hours before it’s circumvented.
This is a naive take TMHO.
Youtube has been rolling this out, phased, slowly, for the last few months. Judging peoples reactions and engagement levels.
They are only mildly foolish and know that ad block users are some of their most engaged and tech savvy. Just like ad block users generally know that youtube can’t exist without ad, and if everyone used them, we might all be worse off.
Roll it out quickly, and you create awareness and ignite the fuckery out of the arms race, do it slowly, watch the engagement, and try to find the best messaging to bring “us” “back on side”, and maybe they stand a chance to shift the needle.
(Firefox nightly + ublock origin for the record, had ad block messages on/off from Youtube for about a week)
Roll it out quickly, and you create awareness and ignite the fuckery out of the arms race, do it slowly, watch the engagement, and try to find the best messaging to bring “us” “back on side”, and maybe they stand a chance to shift the needle.
I think they are too naive then… I mean, how do they plan to win back people that use adblocker blocking the adblocker ? Forcing them to disable the adblockers ? It is clear that this action will start an armed race (not that it was never an armed race in this situation).
I feel like their A/B testing also takes into account an individual user’s propensity to leave their service permanently.
Add SponsorBlock and some extension that allows you to download videos and your gtg.
Again, im not naive enough to think that everyone can block all ads without consequence.
So I don’t use sponsorblock.
If I’m that offended by a sponsor spot, I can always skip it (an option usually unavailable with typical ads) or just close the video. If you’re pushing crytoscams, I’m pushing close.
I think that just means you weren’t part of the test group.
I was part of it. It’s not that ad blockers don’t work - they still work fine. YouTube just doesn’t load the content; it’s a full screen modal telling you to disable it.
When it happened to me, I was able to just open the link in a private window and it loaded fine - ive_never_seen_this_man_before_in_my_life.jpg - but that may have just been because it was a test; if they roll this out to everyone everywhere I’m guessing that wouldn’t work.
The other thing that worked was yt-dlp … Hopefully that won’t be impacted by the adblock prohibition… That also gets around workplace filters (at my work anyway).
