4 ms·

And after that, I wonder how long it will take google to get around that.

freedomben 3y ago
This is going to lead us to a terrible place IMHO, where the ads are just encoded directly into the video stream so everything comes from the same origin making it very difficult for ad blockers by not giving them a different origin to block. Plus maybe rolling out widevine (DRM) for good measure. God I hate these races to the bottom.
- chaosbolt 3y ago
  Sponsorblock does this well for sponsored segments, it even works on yt-dlp and you can download a video without the sponsored parts.
  - freedomben 3y ago
    whoa amazing, thanks! It does make me mad that I pay for youtube premium and still have to see those sponsored segments.
    - MaxikCZ 3y ago
      Pirating was always a big part about convinience (and accesibility), not just money. Cracked games running without needing to scavenge for CD-rom etc. You know you fail when you gimp your free service and allow users to ungimp it for cash, while someone else ungimps it better for free. Big corps never understood this, with Valve being the only counterexample I can think of.
- gattilorenz 3y ago
  I already use sponsorblock, for the ads encoded in the video stream.
  - variadix 3y ago
    Yeah but presumably they won’t let you fast forward ads. AFAIK Twitch already does this, I’m surprised YouTube hasn’t.
    - HDThoreaun 3y ago
      Twitch has a timer in the corner for when the ads will be over. Seems like it’d be pretty easy to create an adblocker that looks for that and just blanks the screen out during ads.
      - recursive 3y ago
        Also seems like it would be pretty easy for twitch to remove the timer.
    - gattilorenz 3y ago
      Well, absence of a fastforward option should then be a pretty solid indication there’s an ad running, which means… mute the audio and blank the video for a few secs
- mattnewton 3y ago
  Honestly unsure what is taking them so long to try this; it’s difficult but totally possible technically, especially for YouTube. Is it because of something like the ad network can’t verify the creative separately from the hosting site?
- Euphorbium 3y ago
  Eventually this will require smarter and smarter neural networks to decide if something is an add or not. This technological warfare might lead to a simulation of the universe. Ar we an adblocker?
  - benoliver999 3y ago
    There was that web demo that auto detected ads on live radio using this. (It just switched to another station)
    - recursive 3y ago
      The same technology can be used to build undetectable ads.
- armchairhacker 3y ago
  Already exists: every content creator nowadays has a “sponsor” with sponsored segments (usually SquareSpace or NordVPN) Blocked by: SponsorBlock Next?: YouTube making it harder to skip around video Blocked by?: Zoomers just alternating between videos, cutting in and out while the ads “play” silently, because they can never get enough dopamine
  - anonymousab 3y ago
    The result will eventually be a mixture of trusted hardware and software, from server to client to GPU to display, that will not display the content if any of that locked down blobby chain is not perfectly as it should be. Even the concept of "changing the channel" is something to eventually lock down in this way; don't let the users change tabs or modify the window or display state at all until trusted ad content has verifiably finished. The saving grace is that you'll probably be able to just get up and walk away until it's done, at least for some time.
- RichardCA 3y ago
  > ... the ads are just encoded directly into the video stream There has to be a reason why they haven't done that already. Perhaps they haven't worked out a reliable way to track ad impressions in the continuous stream. Perhaps they got it working but it's too resource intensive at scale. Given the magnitude of revenue at stake, the other shoe should have dropped by now.

This is going to lead us to a terrible place IMHO, where the ads are just encoded directly into the video stream so everything comes from the same origin making it very difficult for ad blockers by not giving them a different origin to block. Plus maybe rolling out widevine (DRM) for good measure. God I hate these races to the bottom.

chaosbolt 3y ago
Sponsorblock does this well for sponsored segments, it even works on yt-dlp and you can download a video without the sponsored parts.
- freedomben 3y ago
  whoa amazing, thanks! It does make me mad that I pay for youtube premium and still have to see those sponsored segments.
  - MaxikCZ 3y ago
    Pirating was always a big part about convinience (and accesibility), not just money. Cracked games running without needing to scavenge for CD-rom etc. You know you fail when you gimp your free service and allow users to ungimp it for cash, while someone else ungimps it better for free. Big corps never understood this, with Valve being the only counterexample I can think of.
gattilorenz 3y ago
I already use sponsorblock, for the ads encoded in the video stream.
- variadix 3y ago
  Yeah but presumably they won’t let you fast forward ads. AFAIK Twitch already does this, I’m surprised YouTube hasn’t.
  - HDThoreaun 3y ago
    Twitch has a timer in the corner for when the ads will be over. Seems like it’d be pretty easy to create an adblocker that looks for that and just blanks the screen out during ads.
    - recursive 3y ago
      Also seems like it would be pretty easy for twitch to remove the timer.
  - gattilorenz 3y ago
    Well, absence of a fastforward option should then be a pretty solid indication there’s an ad running, which means… mute the audio and blank the video for a few secs
mattnewton 3y ago
Honestly unsure what is taking them so long to try this; it’s difficult but totally possible technically, especially for YouTube. Is it because of something like the ad network can’t verify the creative separately from the hosting site?
Euphorbium 3y ago
Eventually this will require smarter and smarter neural networks to decide if something is an add or not. This technological warfare might lead to a simulation of the universe. Ar we an adblocker?
- benoliver999 3y ago
  There was that web demo that auto detected ads on live radio using this. (It just switched to another station)
  - recursive 3y ago
    The same technology can be used to build undetectable ads.
armchairhacker 3y ago
Already exists: every content creator nowadays has a “sponsor” with sponsored segments (usually SquareSpace or NordVPN) Blocked by: SponsorBlock Next?: YouTube making it harder to skip around video Blocked by?: Zoomers just alternating between videos, cutting in and out while the ads “play” silently, because they can never get enough dopamine
- anonymousab 3y ago
  The result will eventually be a mixture of trusted hardware and software, from server to client to GPU to display, that will not display the content if any of that locked down blobby chain is not perfectly as it should be. Even the concept of "changing the channel" is something to eventually lock down in this way; don't let the users change tabs or modify the window or display state at all until trusted ad content has verifiably finished. The saving grace is that you'll probably be able to just get up and walk away until it's done, at least for some time.
RichardCA 3y ago
> ... the ads are just encoded directly into the video stream There has to be a reason why they haven't done that already. Perhaps they haven't worked out a reliable way to track ad impressions in the continuous stream. Perhaps they got it working but it's too resource intensive at scale. Given the magnitude of revenue at stake, the other shoe should have dropped by now.