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I've always found it curious that this sort of tech is called "blocking", as if the browser has to proactively prevent websites from reaching into your computer

I've always found it curious that this sort of tech is called "blocking", as if the browser has to proactively prevent websites from reaching into your computer and playing a video or displaying an ad or popping up a window.

21 8y ago
Yeah, I probably visit YouTube to read the comments. And Giphy.com to admire their logo.
- mattnewton 8y ago
  I used to go to CNN to read the news before they started autoplaying video with ads on the top third of my screen.
- efreak 8y ago
  I visit YouTube on rare occasions because I can't find anything else telling me how to do something. The first thing I do is to read the video description and comments looking for a summary, and not actually watch the video. I detest having to watch long video how-tos, as, among other things, it prevents simple side-by-side comparisons and looking at multiple steps simultaneously. Take the work you put into making a good video and use it to make an actual diagram for your diy instructions instead.
- gumby 8y ago
  I do in fact use YouTube that way: read the notes (or ideally transcript!), sometimes the comments to see if video is worth watching. There are of course cases where video can be useful (showing how to access some part of some device, perhaps) but for me mostly it's too low a ratio of info/unit time. I do understand that not everybody feels this way.
roca 8y ago
Each of those cases is far more difficult than you imply, because the browser has to try to distinguish legitimate usage of APIs from the usage you want to block. For example there is no "display an ad" DOM API or HTML element. There are simply APIs that put text and images on the page, and you're asking the browser to figure out which are ads and block them. There is a window.open API that can open a new window, and it has legitimate uses that you don't want to block (e.g. pop out Gmail reply to its own window). Even "playing a video" is tricky because Web pages can play video without using the <video> element, e.g. just flipping through a list of static images, which is not blockable in practice. So in practice the browser does have to do a lot of work to filter out unwanted behaviors.

21 8y ago

Yeah, I probably visit YouTube to read the comments. And Giphy.com to admire their logo.

mattnewton 8y ago
I used to go to CNN to read the news before they started autoplaying video with ads on the top third of my screen.
efreak 8y ago
I visit YouTube on rare occasions because I can't find anything else telling me how to do something. The first thing I do is to read the video description and comments looking for a summary, and not actually watch the video. I detest having to watch long video how-tos, as, among other things, it prevents simple side-by-side comparisons and looking at multiple steps simultaneously. Take the work you put into making a good video and use it to make an actual diagram for your diy instructions instead.
gumby 8y ago
I do in fact use YouTube that way: read the notes (or ideally transcript!), sometimes the comments to see if video is worth watching. There are of course cases where video can be useful (showing how to access some part of some device, perhaps) but for me mostly it's too low a ratio of info/unit time. I do understand that not everybody feels this way.

roca 8y ago

Each of those cases is far more difficult than you imply, because the browser has to try to distinguish legitimate usage of APIs from the usage you want to block. For example there is no "display an ad" DOM API or HTML element. There are simply APIs that put text and images on the page, and you're asking the browser to figure out which are ads and block them. There is a window.open API that can open a new window, and it has legitimate uses that you don't want to block (e.g. pop out Gmail reply to its own window). Even "playing a video" is tricky because Web pages can play video without using the <video> element, e.g. just flipping through a list of static images, which is not blockable in practice. So in practice the browser does have to do a lot of work to filter out unwanted behaviors.