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> That ad data needs to come from an ad server It might, but it doesn't have to be served from a different website. YouTube content is indistinguishable from a
by nonbirithm 5y ago
> That ad data needs to come from an ad server
It might, but it doesn't have to be served from a different website. YouTube content is indistinguishable from ads since Google serves them both from the same domain. pi-hole does not work with YouTube ads, and it hasn't for years.
Needing to reverse engineer and recompile the YouTube app is the only way to block YouTube ads with the mobile client. It's the same situation with everything being a JavaScript canvas with custom rendering. The bar for preventing ad-infested content from being shown becomes much higher than simply removing an HTML element when everything is byte-compiled.
I feel like this is not talked about enough, because the implications are heartbreaking. This will be the end game for web ads: WASM + single canvas for ads and content + companies with the infrastructure to host ads on the same domain as the content. There will be no longer be a single content blocker that will be automatically compatible with a large ratio of web content if such a combination of tech becomes widely adopted. YouTube Vanced is essentially one of those specialized content blockers, where YouTube is a service lucrative enough to wall off with its own specialized ads implementation.
As mentioned earlier in this thread, I would guess that the only reason the ad agencies haven't won out and pushed WASM/canvas rendering everywhere is because of the necessity of screen readers.