23 ms·

You can bypass YouTube ads by adding a dot after the domain

821 points by ashitlerferad 6y ago

smaili 6y ago
For those wondering why: It's a commonly forgotten edge case, websites forget to normalize the hostname, the content is still served, but there's no hostname match on the browser so no cookies and broken CORS - and lots of bigger sites use a different domain to serve ads/media with a whitelist that doesn't contain the extra dot
- gorkish 6y ago
  I would disagree that this is an "edge case;" it's a rather fundamental feature of DNS that is relied on every time a record from one domain references a record in another domain. The dot at the end fully qualifies the name and makes it unambiguous. Without the dot, unqulified DNS names are treated as members of their parent SOA. This is why when creating CNAME or NS or MX records that reference a foreign domain, you have to specify a dot at the end, and when you don't they dont resolve as expected. So a machine with a search domain of 'foo.com' looking up 'www.google.com' should ideally seek the record for 'www.google.com.foo.com' first. Conversely, looking up 'www.google.com.' is more specific and returns google's ip even if 'www.google.com.foo.com' were to exist. The reason it's not common is because all DNS client behaviors have been modified for convenience to avoid this; in basically every resolver any query containing at least one dot is automatically treated as if it were a fully qualified name. So behind the scenes, the DNS resolver is caring very much about the trailing dot and adding it to nearly every query; it's just typically hidden from users.
  - robbrown451 6y ago
    It's an edge case from the point of view of the people who develop the ad serving software. If 99.9 percent of urls don't have that dot at the end, then it's an edge case.
- inetknght 6y ago
  It's not only a commonly forgotten case (I disagree about it being an edge case), but the Anaconda installer used by Fedora removed the ability to enter a FQDN for the hostname during system setup. [0] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1648107 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1648107
- tyrust 6y ago
  Or they could read the OP from which you copied.
MintelIE 6y ago
This is great, everybody hates Youtube's ads. They are incredibly loud and annoying.
- ianlevesque 6y ago
  They are. But they offer an alternative https://www.youtube.com/premium https://www.youtube.com/premium - what more do you want?
  - imglorp 6y ago
    uBlock origin takes care of ads. Oh and avoid Chrome.
  - emsy 6y ago
    This, but without being tracked.
    - aeternum 6y ago
      An example of a use-case that cryptocurrencies could actually solve (anonymous micro-payments) yet none do.
      - Enginerrrd 6y ago
        I know! I'd love this system so much, but because of all the players involved, I think it'd be nearly impossible unless it were orchestrated by the government by creating a mandatory pay-to-play, ad-free, tracking-free, web option at the protocol level. ...which they'll never do.
        warkdarrior 6y ago
        The problem is that even after being paid, the content producers and distributors have an incentive to "double dip" by adding tracking, inline/embedded ads, sponsored content placement, etc.
      - 6y ago
Zealotux 6y ago
It'll probably be "solved" by the end of the week now.
- hckr_news 6y ago
  Whom does this fall under? SRE?
  - hidiegomariani 6y ago
    Probably SDE. It must be a CORS config somewhere in the code/config
    - lrem 6y ago
      Having been an SRE in Google for 6 years now... I don't actually know what does SDE stand for :D
      - shric 6y ago
        It stands for Software Development Engineer, but Google use SWE instead, as though "software" is two words.
      - hidiegomariani 6y ago
        whatever yeah, software developer..
- umvi 6y ago
  Hopefully the googlers here in this thread reading this message will fix it for the masses but still put a shiboleet workaround in there that hackers can still use
joering2 6y ago
Its even better than that - once you enter any "extra dot" youtube link, all other youtube links on that page will have dot as well :)
- whymauri 6y ago
  It also works on several pay-walled sites.
- nawgszy 6y ago
  Makes sense that they'd use relative to / urls, no? Otherwise how could you handle youtu.be versus youtube.com versus...
meroes 6y ago
YouTube Vanced for Android removes all in-video ads in case anyone doesn't know.
- grawprog 6y ago
  And newpipe lets you download videos, stream and play them using an external audio or video player, has a built in background and popup player, lacks ads and is open source.
  - oehtXRwMkIs 6y ago
    And is on F-Droid. Also supports other services including PeerTube. I probably forgot other useful features. Always irks me a little when people recommend Vanced.
    - moneywoes 6y ago
      What's so good about PeerTube? Never heard of it
    - livre 6y ago
      > And is on F-Droid I use F-Droid whenever I can but only for NewPipe I started to actively avoid it. YouTube occasionally changes it's HTML and breaks NewPipe, the app starts crashing and while it usually gets fixed quickly and the apk gets uploaded to GitHub, F-Droid still takes weeks to update it. Last update was about 2 weeks late, that's when I uninstalled the F-Droid version and started installing it directly from the GitHub releases page. Unfortunately for time critical bug fixes F-Droid still has a lot to improve. A useful feature you forgot is the AMOLED theme. Also subscribing to channels without having to use a YouTube account.
      - sickmate 6y ago
        You could add this repository to get the latest github releases: https://archive.newpipe.net/fdroid/repo/ https://archive.newpipe.net/fdroid/repo/ Some ongoing discussion on this issue thread here. https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/1981 https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/1981
hackcasual 6y ago
Also used this trick to get around my high school's internet filter.
- JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago
  I have seen filtering of only http, but not https. https://facebook.com https://facebook.com was accessible, for example. But that was back when https wasn't omnipresent, either.
  - neilparikh 6y ago
    Yes, that was the case at my school as well when https wasn't prominent (~2010). I doubt filters still allow https through, now that most sites implement it by default.
  - kn0where 6y ago
    Back in the day, my high school used OpenDNS to block all kinds of sites. Of course, setting 8.8.8.8 on your laptop got around that trivially. They also had separate WiFi networks for teachers and students, and because they didn’t pay for a fast enough connection, the student WiFi was always unusably slow whereas the teacher WiFi was less used and quite fast. They also didn’t use Radius or anything, just WPA personal, so the teachers all shared the same WiFi password. Since the student WiFi was unusable and the seniors needed to be able to work on their college applications, they were given the teacher WiFi password, and then they would share it with some of us in the lower grades and it would spread from there until the admin changed the password again. There were also Ethernet jacks in the walls of each classroom by the teacher’s desk. I had a free period in a classroom where the teacher didn’t use the Ethernet, so I would plug in my laptop and torrent at high speed. High school sucked, but moments like that were satisfying.
    - hadrien01 6y ago
      In my school, printers had reserved IPs that didn't need to go through the proxy. And because they were more reserved IPs than printers, we simply put a router with one of those IPs and had access to all of the Internet at greater speeds.
signaru 6y ago
Perhaps Youtube shows differently where I am, or perhaps the ad block extension I have installed is helping. But I also just noticed that Youtube is now occasionally showing skippable ads before starting the video. I actually find the workaround quite interesting. But for me, for now, it is just simpler click skip than to type a dot on the URL.
- sbarre 6y ago
  Yeah skippable ads is a reasonable compromise in my mind.. Show me an ad, but if I'm not interested, let me skip it after 4-5 seconds.. I can live with that in exchange for otherwise free content.
  - rixed 6y ago
    Actually, with adds you are not paying the content but its hosting and quick delivery.
  - signaru 6y ago
    It's different for me. The youtube page just starts with a whitened stationary placeholder where the video should play. It has a "skip" button and I don't have to wait 4-5 seconds (watching an ad video). This is probably Youtube simultaneously testing different stuff to different people. The version I am seeing is not as bad. Previous ads where I have to wait 4-5 seconds are already dealt with by my installed ad blocker.
chadlavi 6y ago
Very neat but now I'm sure they'll fix it and close the loophole
- gruez 6y ago
  or you know... install ublock origin edit: add "origin" qualifier
  - Avicebron 6y ago
    The amount of people I know who don't use adblocker/ublock etc is ridiculous. Many are non-technical, but it's not any more difficult than installing an app on your phone. Does anyone know if there is some philosophy to this I don't understand?
    - scottmcf 6y ago
      I've had arguments with friends on the topic who see this as stealing content without paying for it.
      - munk-a 6y ago
        Oh those poor people who feel bound to supporting the abuse of advertisers - I don't know when that particular motive emerged in users but I agree that I've seen it around quite a bit.
      - Avicebron 6y ago
        I've heard this argument as well especially with regards to youtube content creators. On the one hand I find ads to be so negatively affecting my experience I won't watch content with them. However I still hope the people who make content are rewarded for continuing to do so. It's tricky. I think sponsorship is at least a step in the right direction. EDIT: interesting thought experiment. Adblock is so universally adopted through aggressive marketing that ad supported internet as we know it is forced to adapt...where does it go?
oh_sigh 6y ago
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986 > The rightmost domain label of a fully qualified domain name in DNS may be followed by a single "." and should be if it is necessary to distinguish between the complete domain name and some local domain.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
sbmthakur 6y ago
I am being redirected to youtube.com when I try this in a Firefox window where I am logged in with my Google account. It worked as explained when I tried it in a private window.
darth_avocado 6y ago
Goddamnit, why'd you have to out the secret? Now everyone's going to plug it. T_T
- umvi 6y ago
  Yeah, never put something like this in a LPT unless you want it immediately fixed. Like most nice things, it gets ruined once everybody starts using it.
  - not2b 6y ago
    Looks like the NY Times already fixed it.
- paulpauper 6y ago
  ITT "You could bypass YouTube ads by adding a dot after the domain "
gruez 6y ago
Tangential rant: I hate it when sites ask for your domain name (eg. for setting up hosting) and say that they want the "fully qualified domain name", but they don't actually accept the FQDN. eg. they reject "www.example.com.", but accept "www.example.com" (without the trailing dot). But the FQDN by definition includes the trailing dot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_qualified_domain_name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_qualified_domain_name
- code4tee 6y ago
  Yes, it’s silly. See it all the time. Insist on FQDN and then aparently don’t understand what a FQDN actually is.
  - oneplane 6y ago
    It gets worse. Some think the FQDN is the domain zone. Some think it's with elements you find in an URL like the protocol or a part of a path. Humans. Ugh.
  - dylan604 6y ago
    But the accepted answer on SO that I copied the code that I have no idea what it does should work, right? There's no bogus accepted answers. The community would have fixed that, so it's trust worthy for me to use as is.
- vinnymac 6y ago
  I never knew this bothered other folks as well. There are dozens of us!
  - riedel 6y ago
    Yes!! For 19 yrs in this case: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=134402 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=134402
    - labster 6y ago
laszlokorte 6y ago
Seems to fixed already. If I include the trailing dot I get redirected to the youtube homepage.
- sbmthakur 6y ago
  Can you try it in a private window?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ghostbrainalpha 6y ago
  Still working for me here.
fwip 6y ago
This also works to bypass the NYT paywall.
- MayeulC 6y ago
  IIRC, blacklisting the <something>-graphql subdomain is enough to evade private window detection. Can be done easily with uMatrix, a DNS or a hosts file.
unnouinceput 6y ago
Ads? On desktop? not in a million years with uBlock Origins. I forget how shitty internet is actually since several years now. Occasionally a new client doesn't have and I'm reminded of it, but it takes all of those 30 seconds to install it and no ads baby.
- tomp 6y ago
  Actually I just started getting ads again, with uBlock Origin, both in YouTube and in newly-redesigned Facebook. I wrote a simple script that removes FB ads, but I need to "productivize" it and make sure it auto-loads...
  - JaRail 6y ago
    When that happens, I usually just do a manual update on my filters. More often than not, someone has already updated it.
  - petargyurov 6y ago
    Facebook's "sponsored" content is a disgusting mess of <span> elements with autogenerated IDs in order to bypass ad-blockers. How did you get around it?
    - username90 6y ago
      Can't you just remove all posts that aren't from people in your friend list?
      - gnicholas 6y ago
        This would also remove posts by FOF who tag your friends (e.g., your friend is tagged in a post by his wife, whom you're not friends with).
    - lazycouchpotato 6y ago
      https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-tracking-removal/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-trac... and https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-cont... are essential add-ons to be able to tolerate browsing Facebook on a PC.
seddin 6y ago
Now we need a trick for the mobile app too
- ship_it 6y ago
  Is's called Vanced.
the_arun 6y ago
I use Brave browser to get rid of ads from most of the sites including youtube.
- bobsoap 6y ago
  ...and you get Brave's MITM attacks in return, like URL hijacking for their affiliate links and more fun stuff.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
DarmokJalad1701 6y ago
Same trick can be used to bypass paywall on nytimes.
gguevaraa 6y ago
Layluh [0] removes ads on videos, along with literally everything else so all you're left with is an iframe (shameless plug). Use it like outline.com, so just put layluh.com in front of any YouTube video (layluh.com/URL) [0]: https://www.layluh.com/watch?v=izxXGuVL21o https://www.layluh.com/watch?v=izxXGuVL21o
easterncalculus 6y ago
In a similar tangent, if you want to bypass age checks without logging in, you can use the embed link for a video. For a link like this (this one is not actually age restricted or NSFW): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScVi_L817ec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScVi_L817ec Just visit this instead: https://www.youtube.com/embed/ScVi_L817ec https://www.youtube.com/embed/ScVi_L817ec This one is a lot more interesting, though. I guess I assumed that sites wouldn't even respect the FQDN like that, but it's definitely interesting to see a changed site returned instead.
- userbinator 6y ago
  Unless the uploader has also disabled embedding, in which case there is a way which I forget at the moment since I usually don't watch YouTube videos on their site.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
buzzert 6y ago
Gotta throw this out there; if you hate ads but actually like YouTube and want to support YouTube creators, I’d highly recommend YouTube Red. Totally worth it IMO.
- DanTheManPR 6y ago
  FYI, it has been called YouTube Premium since 2018. I pay for it, as I can't stand advertisements. For the amount of Youtube content I watch, it's one of the more cost effective services I pay for.
  - Someone1234 6y ago
    Which was a positive name change. "YouTube Red" sounded like some adult service. Whereas YouTube Premium leaves most people knowing what it is before you tell them.
    - bonoboTP 6y ago
      Yeah it was way too similar to RedTube, a porn site.
    - dannyw 6y ago
      I can just imagine the meetings where everyone but the Product Marketing Managers knew why "YouTube Red" is a bad name, but didn't want to speak up.
- monadic2 6y ago
  Youtube Premium is quite expensive for paying to remove ads and to download videos on mobile unless you’re also willing to use Youtube Music as your dedicated streaming service (and last I checked on the desktop there wasn’t even a way to disable the video part, which is an absolutely colossal waste of bandwidth).
  - covercash 6y ago
    It’s insane to me that they don’t include Premium with a YouTube TV subscription. I’d immediately switch from AT&T Now (formerly Directv Now) if they included Premium, even as a discounted add on.
benmmurphy 6y ago
I'm surprised adding the '.' after a website works as well as it does. I would have expected lots of broken vhost configurations because the browser sends the '.' at the end and I would have expected TLS errors from some clients. For example if you use erlang you will get a TLS error like: 'TLS client: In state certify at ssl_handshake.erl:1774 generated CLIENT ALERT: Fatal - Handshake Failure\n {bad_cert,hostname_check_failed}' I don't think it is clear from the rfc6125 what TLS clients should be doing. However, if foo.com. resolves the same as foo.com then it makes sense that a certificate for foo.com can be used for foo.com. and vice versa.
borismus 6y ago
Not for long
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
nmstoker 6y ago
On mobile you can post a YouTube video in WhatsApp and it won't show you ads when you view it
Karuma 6y ago
Using Firefox on Windows, doing this this will create a folder in "%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[yourname]\storage\default\https+++www.youtube.com." which can't be deleted at all without some kind of hack.
- rmellow 6y ago
  I would really appreciate an explanation for this: (1) why does this get created (2) why it's not deleteable.
StavrosK 6y ago
This is great! Now let's just hope nobody who works on YouTube reads HN.
wnevets 6y ago
I'm sure google will fix it now
subsubzero 6y ago
Also fun fact, get around bloomberg's paywall on their news site by using this trailing dot trick: Free of paywall: https://www.bloomberg.com./news/articles/2020-06-10/second-u-s-virus-wave-emerges-after-state-reopenings?srnd=premium https://www.bloomberg.com./news/articles/2020-06-10/second-u... paywall: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-10/second-u-s-virus-wave-emerges-after-state-reopenings?srnd=premium https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-10/second-u-...
- peterburkimsher 6y ago
  Thanks for the info! Sorry to say it didn't work on CouchSurfing.
oriettaxx 6y ago
Great! and you can redirect automatically by using a redirect browser extension/plugin :) I just set it up with my favourite: https://einaregilsson.com/redirector/ https://einaregilsson.com/redirector/ * Include pattern: ^https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v= https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v=(.) Redirect to: https://www.youtube.com./watch?v=$1 https://www.youtube.com./watch?v=$1 * (check "regular expression) you can check it's working by adding, e.g. * Example URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfdsfasd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfdsfasd (I see the code is not rendered well here, see https://pastebin.com/LVqWMgAM https://pastebin.com/LVqWMgAM )
- oriettaxx 6y ago
  (you can also select all checks in the advanced option)
ezoe 6y ago
So, adding a dot after the domain FQDN and identical but it cause the cookie mismatch and CORS. If we have a browser extension that force CORS for any domain including the identical one, does it work as a powerful adblock?
SubiculumCode 6y ago
How come HN doesn't think I am logged in when I go to ' 'https://news.ycombinator.com.' https://news.ycombinator.com.' ?
jdright 6y ago
This remembers me a bug I came across while developing a game for an <old game console here>. Implementing a network feature, I had to poke a service server. But the OS DNS resolver returned broken results and sometimes hanged or crashed the system. After a lot of head scratching and exchanges with the first party support, we found the issue to be a misread of the cache line of the CPU, delivering broken data to the OS and causing havok. The problem was that as the cache line was 32 bytes, if the url being resolved was exactly 32 bytes long, it would trigger this edge case (probably the OS missing the ending null character). The first party support said there was nothing they would do to solve this and suggested creating an DNS alias, but the domain was a third party address specific per project which in our case with our project codename was 32 bytes, they also were unwilling to modify or create aliases. My solution was to add a dot in the address and this fixed it, as now the address was 33 bytes and the CPU fetched two cache lines. The first party technical support was surprised by the fix and called it "sneaky ;)" Fun times.
userbinator 6y ago
You can also bypass YouTube ads by watching the videos using a different player, like VLC. (I find it ironic that their "polymer" redesigned site is also ridiculously slow and bloated, yet my computer, which is many years old now, has zero problems playing the videos themselves; somehow it takes more resources to render a UI --- which I could probably make easily in static HTML --- than to play an HD video...?)
- xwowsersx 6y ago
  You could easily make YouTube with static html? For each of these as they currently exist, how would you implement them in static html: comments, liking, subscribing, video annotations, livestream chat, etc?
  - firethief 6y ago
    Does anyone actually want that stuff?
    - philistine 6y ago
      I would guess a surprisingly small subset of the users, and a surprisingly large subset of the Youtube developers.
  - userbinator 6y ago
    comments Comments are essentially a tiny subset of the features of an Internet forum, which is definitely possible with static HTML. (Some things come naturally with that too, such as pagination so you can continue reading from exactly where you left off without the cursed O(n^2) of "infinite" scrolling.) liking, subscribing HTML forms. video annotations I thought annotations disappeared long ago? livestream chat That's one which could do with some AJAX, but... http://blog.johnkrauss.com/html-only-live-chat-No-JS/ http://blog.johnkrauss.com/html-only-live-chat-No-JS/ I remember using a few in the early 2000s which didn't require JS either, and probably worked on a similar principle.
    - 6y ago
smashah 6y ago
Get YouTube premium. You won't regret it. The added benefit of listening to audiobooks on YouTube while doing other things on your phone make it worth it. YouTube premium = no ads, Spotify + audible + supporting creators + more productivity on mobile (pip mode). Also you can download videos for a flight/later.
- ben-schaaf 6y ago
  Google doesn't get to dictate what/how their webpage works. Firefox on Android can run extensions like "Video Background Play Fix" to let videos play in the background. Youtube-dl is a great way to download videos for watching later. I prefer supporting creator directly.
  - smashah 6y ago
    Ok
  - the_pwner224 6y ago
    If you're on Android, NewPipe is a lot better than hacking extensions into your browser. Plus FF will add a convenient button in the address bar to open a youtube page in NewPipe.
- chc 6y ago
  Eh, I don't think there's much of a selection of legal audiobooks on YouTube other than public domain stuff, so it's not a great substitute for Audible.
  - smashah 6y ago
    Fair enough, however for someone with audible, it may be a easy first step to get a lot of audiobooks and listen easily which was my main point.
- TheKarateKid 6y ago
  Agreed, but you'd be surprised how many people will blow $10-15 on one drink but balk at the idea of paying for something they use for hours every month.
mandeepj 6y ago
It did not work on this - https://www.wsj.com./articles/zuckerberg-lieutenant-returns-to-facebook-a-year-after-departure-11591899761 https://www.wsj.com./articles/zuckerberg-lieutenant-returns-...
s_gourichon 6y ago
Reminds me of a solvent metaphor for adblockers. Ads on web pages are like stains on a surface. Browsing with ublock origin is like cleaning a surface with alcohol-based product. It worked for a while. Cat-and-mouse game tends to yield ads that bypass these. Like sticky dirt that won't go away with alcohol. Enters uMatrix. Browsing with uMatrix is like cleaning the surface with a mix of stronger solvents, like acetone. It's much more effective, but it will more or less ruin the surface/web page in many cases. Tuning uMatrix allows to find a mix that works. For geeks that are okay with contributing, or just clicking on colored cells in a grid, uMatrix is best. Like wolves, ads bite the laziest part of the flock, leaving the strongest clear.

821 points by ashitlerferad 6y ago

For those wondering why: It's a commonly forgotten edge case, websites forget to normalize the hostname, the content is still served, but there's no hostname match on the browser so no cookies and broken CORS - and lots of bigger sites use a different domain to serve ads/media with a whitelist that doesn't contain the extra dot

gorkish 6y ago
I would disagree that this is an "edge case;" it's a rather fundamental feature of DNS that is relied on every time a record from one domain references a record in another domain. The dot at the end fully qualifies the name and makes it unambiguous. Without the dot, unqulified DNS names are treated as members of their parent SOA. This is why when creating CNAME or NS or MX records that reference a foreign domain, you have to specify a dot at the end, and when you don't they dont resolve as expected. So a machine with a search domain of 'foo.com' looking up 'www.google.com' should ideally seek the record for 'www.google.com.foo.com' first. Conversely, looking up 'www.google.com.' is more specific and returns google's ip even if 'www.google.com.foo.com' were to exist. The reason it's not common is because all DNS client behaviors have been modified for convenience to avoid this; in basically every resolver any query containing at least one dot is automatically treated as if it were a fully qualified name. So behind the scenes, the DNS resolver is caring very much about the trailing dot and adding it to nearly every query; it's just typically hidden from users.
- robbrown451 6y ago
  It's an edge case from the point of view of the people who develop the ad serving software. If 99.9 percent of urls don't have that dot at the end, then it's an edge case.
inetknght 6y ago
It's not only a commonly forgotten case (I disagree about it being an edge case), but the Anaconda installer used by Fedora removed the ability to enter a FQDN for the hostname during system setup. [0] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1648107 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1648107
tyrust 6y ago
Or they could read the OP from which you copied.

MintelIE 6y ago

This is great, everybody hates Youtube's ads. They are incredibly loud and annoying.

ianlevesque 6y ago
They are. But they offer an alternative https://www.youtube.com/premium https://www.youtube.com/premium - what more do you want?
- imglorp 6y ago
  uBlock origin takes care of ads. Oh and avoid Chrome.
- emsy 6y ago
  This, but without being tracked.
  - aeternum 6y ago
    An example of a use-case that cryptocurrencies could actually solve (anonymous micro-payments) yet none do.
    - Enginerrrd 6y ago
      I know! I'd love this system so much, but because of all the players involved, I think it'd be nearly impossible unless it were orchestrated by the government by creating a mandatory pay-to-play, ad-free, tracking-free, web option at the protocol level. ...which they'll never do.
      - warkdarrior 6y ago
        The problem is that even after being paid, the content producers and distributors have an incentive to "double dip" by adding tracking, inline/embedded ads, sponsored content placement, etc.
    - 6y ago

Zealotux 6y ago

It'll probably be "solved" by the end of the week now.

hckr_news 6y ago
Whom does this fall under? SRE?
- hidiegomariani 6y ago
  Probably SDE. It must be a CORS config somewhere in the code/config
  - lrem 6y ago
    Having been an SRE in Google for 6 years now... I don't actually know what does SDE stand for :D
    - shric 6y ago
      It stands for Software Development Engineer, but Google use SWE instead, as though "software" is two words.
    - hidiegomariani 6y ago
      whatever yeah, software developer..
umvi 6y ago
Hopefully the googlers here in this thread reading this message will fix it for the masses but still put a shiboleet workaround in there that hackers can still use

joering2 6y ago

Its even better than that - once you enter any "extra dot" youtube link, all other youtube links on that page will have dot as well :)

whymauri 6y ago
It also works on several pay-walled sites.
nawgszy 6y ago
Makes sense that they'd use relative to / urls, no? Otherwise how could you handle youtu.be versus youtube.com versus...

meroes 6y ago

YouTube Vanced for Android removes all in-video ads in case anyone doesn't know.

grawprog 6y ago
And newpipe lets you download videos, stream and play them using an external audio or video player, has a built in background and popup player, lacks ads and is open source.
- oehtXRwMkIs 6y ago
  And is on F-Droid. Also supports other services including PeerTube. I probably forgot other useful features. Always irks me a little when people recommend Vanced.
  - moneywoes 6y ago
    What's so good about PeerTube? Never heard of it
  - livre 6y ago
    > And is on F-Droid I use F-Droid whenever I can but only for NewPipe I started to actively avoid it. YouTube occasionally changes it's HTML and breaks NewPipe, the app starts crashing and while it usually gets fixed quickly and the apk gets uploaded to GitHub, F-Droid still takes weeks to update it. Last update was about 2 weeks late, that's when I uninstalled the F-Droid version and started installing it directly from the GitHub releases page. Unfortunately for time critical bug fixes F-Droid still has a lot to improve. A useful feature you forgot is the AMOLED theme. Also subscribing to channels without having to use a YouTube account.
    - sickmate 6y ago
      You could add this repository to get the latest github releases: https://archive.newpipe.net/fdroid/repo/ https://archive.newpipe.net/fdroid/repo/ Some ongoing discussion on this issue thread here. https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/1981 https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/1981

hackcasual 6y ago

Also used this trick to get around my high school's internet filter.

JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago
I have seen filtering of only http, but not https. https://facebook.com https://facebook.com was accessible, for example. But that was back when https wasn't omnipresent, either.
- neilparikh 6y ago
  Yes, that was the case at my school as well when https wasn't prominent (~2010). I doubt filters still allow https through, now that most sites implement it by default.
- kn0where 6y ago
  Back in the day, my high school used OpenDNS to block all kinds of sites. Of course, setting 8.8.8.8 on your laptop got around that trivially. They also had separate WiFi networks for teachers and students, and because they didn’t pay for a fast enough connection, the student WiFi was always unusably slow whereas the teacher WiFi was less used and quite fast. They also didn’t use Radius or anything, just WPA personal, so the teachers all shared the same WiFi password. Since the student WiFi was unusable and the seniors needed to be able to work on their college applications, they were given the teacher WiFi password, and then they would share it with some of us in the lower grades and it would spread from there until the admin changed the password again. There were also Ethernet jacks in the walls of each classroom by the teacher’s desk. I had a free period in a classroom where the teacher didn’t use the Ethernet, so I would plug in my laptop and torrent at high speed. High school sucked, but moments like that were satisfying.
  - hadrien01 6y ago
    In my school, printers had reserved IPs that didn't need to go through the proxy. And because they were more reserved IPs than printers, we simply put a router with one of those IPs and had access to all of the Internet at greater speeds.

signaru 6y ago

Perhaps Youtube shows differently where I am, or perhaps the ad block extension I have installed is helping. But I also just noticed that Youtube is now occasionally showing skippable ads before starting the video. I actually find the workaround quite interesting. But for me, for now, it is just simpler click skip than to type a dot on the URL.

sbarre 6y ago
Yeah skippable ads is a reasonable compromise in my mind.. Show me an ad, but if I'm not interested, let me skip it after 4-5 seconds.. I can live with that in exchange for otherwise free content.
- rixed 6y ago
  Actually, with adds you are not paying the content but its hosting and quick delivery.
- signaru 6y ago
  It's different for me. The youtube page just starts with a whitened stationary placeholder where the video should play. It has a "skip" button and I don't have to wait 4-5 seconds (watching an ad video). This is probably Youtube simultaneously testing different stuff to different people. The version I am seeing is not as bad. Previous ads where I have to wait 4-5 seconds are already dealt with by my installed ad blocker.

chadlavi 6y ago

Very neat but now I'm sure they'll fix it and close the loophole

gruez 6y ago
or you know... install ublock origin edit: add "origin" qualifier
- Avicebron 6y ago
  The amount of people I know who don't use adblocker/ublock etc is ridiculous. Many are non-technical, but it's not any more difficult than installing an app on your phone. Does anyone know if there is some philosophy to this I don't understand?
  - scottmcf 6y ago
    I've had arguments with friends on the topic who see this as stealing content without paying for it.
    - munk-a 6y ago
      Oh those poor people who feel bound to supporting the abuse of advertisers - I don't know when that particular motive emerged in users but I agree that I've seen it around quite a bit.
    - Avicebron 6y ago
      I've heard this argument as well especially with regards to youtube content creators. On the one hand I find ads to be so negatively affecting my experience I won't watch content with them. However I still hope the people who make content are rewarded for continuing to do so. It's tricky. I think sponsorship is at least a step in the right direction. EDIT: interesting thought experiment. Adblock is so universally adopted through aggressive marketing that ad supported internet as we know it is forced to adapt...where does it go?

oh_sigh 6y ago

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986 > The rightmost domain label of a fully qualified domain name in DNS may be followed by a single "." and should be if it is necessary to distinguish between the complete domain name and some local domain.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

sbmthakur 6y ago

I am being redirected to youtube.com when I try this in a Firefox window where I am logged in with my Google account. It worked as explained when I tried it in a private window.

darth_avocado 6y ago

Goddamnit, why'd you have to out the secret? Now everyone's going to plug it. T_T

umvi 6y ago
Yeah, never put something like this in a LPT unless you want it immediately fixed. Like most nice things, it gets ruined once everybody starts using it.
- not2b 6y ago
  Looks like the NY Times already fixed it.
paulpauper 6y ago
ITT "You could bypass YouTube ads by adding a dot after the domain "

gruez 6y ago

Tangential rant: I hate it when sites ask for your domain name (eg. for setting up hosting) and say that they want the "fully qualified domain name", but they don't actually accept the FQDN. eg. they reject "www.example.com.", but accept "www.example.com" (without the trailing dot). But the FQDN by definition includes the trailing dot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_qualified_domain_name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_qualified_domain_name

code4tee 6y ago
Yes, it’s silly. See it all the time. Insist on FQDN and then aparently don’t understand what a FQDN actually is.
- oneplane 6y ago
  It gets worse. Some think the FQDN is the domain zone. Some think it's with elements you find in an URL like the protocol or a part of a path. Humans. Ugh.
- dylan604 6y ago
  But the accepted answer on SO that I copied the code that I have no idea what it does should work, right? There's no bogus accepted answers. The community would have fixed that, so it's trust worthy for me to use as is.
vinnymac 6y ago
I never knew this bothered other folks as well. There are dozens of us!
- riedel 6y ago
  Yes!! For 19 yrs in this case: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=134402 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=134402
  - labster 6y ago

laszlokorte 6y ago

Seems to fixed already. If I include the trailing dot I get redirected to the youtube homepage.

sbmthakur 6y ago
Can you try it in a private window?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ghostbrainalpha 6y ago
Still working for me here.

fwip 6y ago

This also works to bypass the NYT paywall.

MayeulC 6y ago
IIRC, blacklisting the <something>-graphql subdomain is enough to evade private window detection. Can be done easily with uMatrix, a DNS or a hosts file.

unnouinceput 6y ago

Ads? On desktop? not in a million years with uBlock Origins. I forget how shitty internet is actually since several years now. Occasionally a new client doesn't have and I'm reminded of it, but it takes all of those 30 seconds to install it and no ads baby.

tomp 6y ago
Actually I just started getting ads again, with uBlock Origin, both in YouTube and in newly-redesigned Facebook. I wrote a simple script that removes FB ads, but I need to "productivize" it and make sure it auto-loads...
- JaRail 6y ago
  When that happens, I usually just do a manual update on my filters. More often than not, someone has already updated it.
- petargyurov 6y ago
  Facebook's "sponsored" content is a disgusting mess of <span> elements with autogenerated IDs in order to bypass ad-blockers. How did you get around it?
  - username90 6y ago
    Can't you just remove all posts that aren't from people in your friend list?
    - gnicholas 6y ago
      This would also remove posts by FOF who tag your friends (e.g., your friend is tagged in a post by his wife, whom you're not friends with).
  - lazycouchpotato 6y ago
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-tracking-removal/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-trac... and https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-cont... are essential add-ons to be able to tolerate browsing Facebook on a PC.

seddin 6y ago

Now we need a trick for the mobile app too

ship_it 6y ago
Is's called Vanced.

the_arun 6y ago

I use Brave browser to get rid of ads from most of the sites including youtube.

bobsoap 6y ago
...and you get Brave's MITM attacks in return, like URL hijacking for their affiliate links and more fun stuff.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

DarmokJalad1701 6y ago

Same trick can be used to bypass paywall on nytimes.

gguevaraa 6y ago

Layluh [0] removes ads on videos, along with literally everything else so all you're left with is an iframe (shameless plug). Use it like outline.com, so just put layluh.com in front of any YouTube video (layluh.com/URL) [0]: https://www.layluh.com/watch?v=izxXGuVL21o https://www.layluh.com/watch?v=izxXGuVL21o

easterncalculus 6y ago

In a similar tangent, if you want to bypass age checks without logging in, you can use the embed link for a video. For a link like this (this one is not actually age restricted or NSFW): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScVi_L817ec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScVi_L817ec Just visit this instead: https://www.youtube.com/embed/ScVi_L817ec https://www.youtube.com/embed/ScVi_L817ec This one is a lot more interesting, though. I guess I assumed that sites wouldn't even respect the FQDN like that, but it's definitely interesting to see a changed site returned instead.

userbinator 6y ago
Unless the uploader has also disabled embedding, in which case there is a way which I forget at the moment since I usually don't watch YouTube videos on their site.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

buzzert 6y ago

Gotta throw this out there; if you hate ads but actually like YouTube and want to support YouTube creators, I’d highly recommend YouTube Red. Totally worth it IMO.

DanTheManPR 6y ago
FYI, it has been called YouTube Premium since 2018. I pay for it, as I can't stand advertisements. For the amount of Youtube content I watch, it's one of the more cost effective services I pay for.
- Someone1234 6y ago
  Which was a positive name change. "YouTube Red" sounded like some adult service. Whereas YouTube Premium leaves most people knowing what it is before you tell them.
  - bonoboTP 6y ago
    Yeah it was way too similar to RedTube, a porn site.
  - dannyw 6y ago
    I can just imagine the meetings where everyone but the Product Marketing Managers knew why "YouTube Red" is a bad name, but didn't want to speak up.
monadic2 6y ago
Youtube Premium is quite expensive for paying to remove ads and to download videos on mobile unless you’re also willing to use Youtube Music as your dedicated streaming service (and last I checked on the desktop there wasn’t even a way to disable the video part, which is an absolutely colossal waste of bandwidth).
- covercash 6y ago
  It’s insane to me that they don’t include Premium with a YouTube TV subscription. I’d immediately switch from AT&T Now (formerly Directv Now) if they included Premium, even as a discounted add on.

benmmurphy 6y ago

I'm surprised adding the '.' after a website works as well as it does. I would have expected lots of broken vhost configurations because the browser sends the '.' at the end and I would have expected TLS errors from some clients. For example if you use erlang you will get a TLS error like: 'TLS client: In state certify at ssl_handshake.erl:1774 generated CLIENT ALERT: Fatal - Handshake Failure\n {bad_cert,hostname_check_failed}' I don't think it is clear from the rfc6125 what TLS clients should be doing. However, if foo.com. resolves the same as foo.com then it makes sense that a certificate for foo.com can be used for foo.com. and vice versa.

borismus 6y ago

Not for long

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

nmstoker 6y ago

On mobile you can post a YouTube video in WhatsApp and it won't show you ads when you view it

Karuma 6y ago

Using Firefox on Windows, doing this this will create a folder in "%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[yourname]\storage\default\https+++www.youtube.com." which can't be deleted at all without some kind of hack.

rmellow 6y ago
I would really appreciate an explanation for this: (1) why does this get created (2) why it's not deleteable.

StavrosK 6y ago

This is great! Now let's just hope nobody who works on YouTube reads HN.

wnevets 6y ago

I'm sure google will fix it now

subsubzero 6y ago

Also fun fact, get around bloomberg's paywall on their news site by using this trailing dot trick: Free of paywall: https://www.bloomberg.com./news/articles/2020-06-10/second-u-s-virus-wave-emerges-after-state-reopenings?srnd=premium https://www.bloomberg.com./news/articles/2020-06-10/second-u... paywall: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-10/second-u-s-virus-wave-emerges-after-state-reopenings?srnd=premium https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-10/second-u-...

peterburkimsher 6y ago
Thanks for the info! Sorry to say it didn't work on CouchSurfing.

oriettaxx 6y ago

Great! and you can redirect automatically by using a redirect browser extension/plugin :) I just set it up with my favourite: https://einaregilsson.com/redirector/ https://einaregilsson.com/redirector/ * Include pattern: ^https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v= https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v=(.) Redirect to: https://www.youtube.com./watch?v=$1 https://www.youtube.com./watch?v=$1 * (check "regular expression) you can check it's working by adding, e.g. * Example URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfdsfasd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfdsfasd (I see the code is not rendered well here, see https://pastebin.com/LVqWMgAM https://pastebin.com/LVqWMgAM )

oriettaxx 6y ago
(you can also select all checks in the advanced option)

ezoe 6y ago

So, adding a dot after the domain FQDN and identical but it cause the cookie mismatch and CORS. If we have a browser extension that force CORS for any domain including the identical one, does it work as a powerful adblock?

SubiculumCode 6y ago

How come HN doesn't think I am logged in when I go to ' 'https://news.ycombinator.com.' https://news.ycombinator.com.' ?

jdright 6y ago

This remembers me a bug I came across while developing a game for an <old game console here>. Implementing a network feature, I had to poke a service server. But the OS DNS resolver returned broken results and sometimes hanged or crashed the system. After a lot of head scratching and exchanges with the first party support, we found the issue to be a misread of the cache line of the CPU, delivering broken data to the OS and causing havok. The problem was that as the cache line was 32 bytes, if the url being resolved was exactly 32 bytes long, it would trigger this edge case (probably the OS missing the ending null character). The first party support said there was nothing they would do to solve this and suggested creating an DNS alias, but the domain was a third party address specific per project which in our case with our project codename was 32 bytes, they also were unwilling to modify or create aliases. My solution was to add a dot in the address and this fixed it, as now the address was 33 bytes and the CPU fetched two cache lines. The first party technical support was surprised by the fix and called it "sneaky ;)" Fun times.

userbinator 6y ago

You can also bypass YouTube ads by watching the videos using a different player, like VLC. (I find it ironic that their "polymer" redesigned site is also ridiculously slow and bloated, yet my computer, which is many years old now, has zero problems playing the videos themselves; somehow it takes more resources to render a UI --- which I could probably make easily in static HTML --- than to play an HD video...?)

xwowsersx 6y ago
You could easily make YouTube with static html? For each of these as they currently exist, how would you implement them in static html: comments, liking, subscribing, video annotations, livestream chat, etc?
- firethief 6y ago
  Does anyone actually want that stuff?
  - philistine 6y ago
    I would guess a surprisingly small subset of the users, and a surprisingly large subset of the Youtube developers.
- userbinator 6y ago
  comments Comments are essentially a tiny subset of the features of an Internet forum, which is definitely possible with static HTML. (Some things come naturally with that too, such as pagination so you can continue reading from exactly where you left off without the cursed O(n^2) of "infinite" scrolling.) liking, subscribing HTML forms. video annotations I thought annotations disappeared long ago? livestream chat That's one which could do with some AJAX, but... http://blog.johnkrauss.com/html-only-live-chat-No-JS/ http://blog.johnkrauss.com/html-only-live-chat-No-JS/ I remember using a few in the early 2000s which didn't require JS either, and probably worked on a similar principle.
  - 6y ago

smashah 6y ago

Get YouTube premium. You won't regret it. The added benefit of listening to audiobooks on YouTube while doing other things on your phone make it worth it. YouTube premium = no ads, Spotify + audible + supporting creators + more productivity on mobile (pip mode). Also you can download videos for a flight/later.

ben-schaaf 6y ago
Google doesn't get to dictate what/how their webpage works. Firefox on Android can run extensions like "Video Background Play Fix" to let videos play in the background. Youtube-dl is a great way to download videos for watching later. I prefer supporting creator directly.
- smashah 6y ago
  Ok
- the_pwner224 6y ago
  If you're on Android, NewPipe is a lot better than hacking extensions into your browser. Plus FF will add a convenient button in the address bar to open a youtube page in NewPipe.
chc 6y ago
Eh, I don't think there's much of a selection of legal audiobooks on YouTube other than public domain stuff, so it's not a great substitute for Audible.
- smashah 6y ago
  Fair enough, however for someone with audible, it may be a easy first step to get a lot of audiobooks and listen easily which was my main point.
TheKarateKid 6y ago
Agreed, but you'd be surprised how many people will blow $10-15 on one drink but balk at the idea of paying for something they use for hours every month.

mandeepj 6y ago

It did not work on this - https://www.wsj.com./articles/zuckerberg-lieutenant-returns-to-facebook-a-year-after-departure-11591899761 https://www.wsj.com./articles/zuckerberg-lieutenant-returns-...

s_gourichon 6y ago

Reminds me of a solvent metaphor for adblockers. Ads on web pages are like stains on a surface. Browsing with ublock origin is like cleaning a surface with alcohol-based product. It worked for a while. Cat-and-mouse game tends to yield ads that bypass these. Like sticky dirt that won't go away with alcohol. Enters uMatrix. Browsing with uMatrix is like cleaning the surface with a mix of stronger solvents, like acetone. It's much more effective, but it will more or less ruin the surface/web page in many cases. Tuning uMatrix allows to find a mix that works. For geeks that are okay with contributing, or just clicking on colored cells in a grid, uMatrix is best. Like wolves, ads bite the laziest part of the flock, leaving the strongest clear.