20 ms·

Does uBlock Origin bypass the latest YouTube anti-adblock script?

290 points by colinprince 3y ago

strathmeyer 3y ago
I uBlocked the original adblock-detection popup and haven't looked back since.
cynicalsecurity 3y ago
I wouldn't mind paying Google, but there is one thing Google does that really infuriates me: they want both my personal data and my money. This is absolute flagrant greediness that I won't tolerate. Either stop collecting my personal data completely OR take my money. You can't have both. I'm sorry, but I don't believe in the slightest they don't collect my personal data when I'm paying them. I find it difficult to trust any of their promises due to their poor reputation.
Teachez 3y ago
The change has been I just dl stuff - less stuff. I don't browse, don't comment, don't vote. Don't share casually. YT and other corporates cutting their nose off to spite their face? If the wind changes on some ideological, political, social points - Youtube can become about as popular and relevant as vinyl records, CD's. And they won't notice it, until long after the process is irreversible.
okasaki 3y ago
I got the anti adblock youtube message a month ago, but since then ublock has been working 100% of the time.
kjkjadksj 3y ago
I still get black screen and the skip ad button. Sometimes a flash of the ad before the black screen.
llamaInSouth 3y ago
Youtube should just include the ads directly in the video file but thats probably too expensive?
- xaitv 3y ago
  Makes it much harder to target ads(unless you generate separate video files for every separate audience).
jacooper 3y ago
Can confirm, brave blocks it too.
submeta 3y ago
Wow that’s a lot of work to avoid paying 10is dollars a month? I use ad blockers everywhere, but for me it’s „set it and forget it“. I don’t have time and energy to adjust that regularly.
- notpushkin 3y ago
  YouTube is an incredibly valuable product. It's hard to believe that it's possible for a platform like this to exist at all, even more be sustainable with ads only (maybe it isn't though). I'd gladly pay $20/mo for that – to anybody other than Google. I do understand that with Premium they actually have an incentive to pivot from their current surveillance tech niche to a more decent model, but uhhhh. That's Google we're talking about. It's just not happening.
jeisc 3y ago
who is still using you tube?
- timbit42 3y ago
  Hundreds of millions of people.
everdrive 3y ago
Possibly unrelated, but youtube videos stopped playing on Safari on my iPhone yesterday. Previously, Youtube would play via Safari, and the ads wouldn't. This was apparently a bug / unimplemented feature. I do have AdGuard (non-premium) on my phone as well as overly-aggressive lists on my Pihole, so it's possible there's something new going on there. It looks like free Youtube may be coming to an end.
- sigmoid10 3y ago
  I have the same setup (sans the Pihole since i have decent 5G but shitty wifi where I' sitting) and it still works. You might have to refresh the video page sometimes though before it plays.
  - everdrive 3y ago
    No dice here, however I have not tried to troubleshoot my setup. I also know Youtube is A/B testing, so we might not be operating under the same conditions from the Youtube side.
saltserv 3y ago
[dead]
jacquesm 3y ago
What is most interesting about this whole adblocking war: we're winning. If we weren't youtube/Google wouldn't be making such a fuss. So keep it up. I can also heartily recommend the 'unhook' browser extension, it takes care of all of those upsells and feeds.
- Timshel 3y ago
  Not sure that's the case, recent discussion on Firefox was not inspiring: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38531104 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38531104. Maybe they are making such a fuss because it works and people end up switching to chrome / removing ad block :(. Would be nice to see recent download graph of firefox or ublock origin so see if there is any impact.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    For me the opposite: chrome was making an entrance on account of supporting WebMIDI and I gave them the benefit of the doubt for a bit but this is the bit that did it for me and besides some compatibility testing FF all the way for me. Google is already receiving plenty of money, if they promoted youtube as a commons they should maintain it as a commons. This bait-and-switch crap has gone more than far enough. Remember, not all that long ago their mantra was 'we don't care about ad blockers because it is only such a small percentage'. Look now.
    - Timshel 3y ago
      I hope so :). I just see it, in the current context of layoff, as them wanting/needing more money and hoping blocker either leave (and stop costing them bandwidth) or switch to YT Premium. I do believe that the worsening experience on YT could be a win by making platform I want to support such as nebula more attractive. Or that it could backfire with a global adblock adoption making the current ad economy less viable. I'm just unsure if chrome/YT is not already too entrenched and that people won't use ad blocker or switch.
      - 3y ago
DeathArrow 3y ago
I use uBlock Origin on PC and MS Edge on mobile for blocking ads. Both work great for blocking YouTube ads.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago
  I think I saw the ominous message from Google once prior to origin updating their stuff and me clearing cookies afterwards. FF on desktop. Also no issues on Brave.
pimpampum 3y ago
Works for me.
dncornholio 3y ago
This Youtube debacle has definitely been the last bullit, HN is officialy dead to me now. I used to come here to read different opinions and voices of reason. I'm not here to read only complain after complain after complain without offering alternatives. Where did the hacker mentality go?
nixass 3y ago
Does anyone know if ESR versions are treated differently? I am using ESR on work laptop and uBlock Origin cannot penetrate anti-adblock banner. Waterfox is the same, in order to get through it I must open a tab in private mode
countWSS 3y ago
I just stopped using Youtube since the first time they tried anti-adblock and now only watch linked videos if at all. I don't trust a platform that threatens its users. And of course, all those extensions/scripts to make Youtube usable are now disabled, to show how it really looks to discourage its use.
shortsunblack 3y ago
Very likely probing user client state to detect ad-blockers without consent is illegal in EU law. Directive 2002/58/EC legal text: 3. Member States shall ensure that the use of electronic communications networks to store information or to gain access to information stored in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user is only allowed on condition that the subscriber or user concerned is provided with clear and comprehensive information in accordance with Directive 95/46/EC, inter alia about the purposes of the processing, and is offered the right to refuse such processing by the data controller. This shall not prevent any technical storage or access for the sole purpose of carrying out or facilitating the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network, or as strictly necessary in order to provide an information society service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user. Alexander Hanff has been fighting the fight to make this a reality and recognized by courts. Mainstream media coverage of the story: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/7/23950513/youtube-ad-blocker-crackdown-privacy-advocates-eu https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/7/23950513/youtube-ad-block... Not only it is illegal, it's also not at all how HTTP was designed to work. If a business use case makes it so that the system doesn't want to serve a request, the server can (and should) return one of 4xx error messages. Returning with OK and then doing invasive malware-esque data mining is not A-OK.
HankB99 3y ago
Right now (2023-12-07 evening) I get a popup that advises me that ad blockers are not allowed. In the upper right corner there is a timer that turns to a check mark so I can dismiss the popup and watch my video. Thing is, I've watched YT on my phone and it seems like the ads take a lot longer to stream than the time before I can dismiss the popup. The popup is a minor annoyance but better than a couple ads.
undersuit 3y ago
I broke my phone's bootloader over the weekend and I'm quite happy that I've fixed it without watching a single Youtube video... because they were all blocked from playing and I know why I installed the uBlock in the first place.
Log_out_ 3y ago
Pissing of the developer community has to be the equivalent of suicide by cop in the world of software. Who sits in a meeting and pushes this? "We could up our viewership by starting a war with a niche browser primarily used by open source hackers.." Does that sound foolish only in my head?
- pipe01 3y ago
  We probably make up less than 0.1% of users, so yeah it doesn't matter
mtmail 3y ago
My current work-around is https://deturl.com/ https://deturl.com/ and then click 'clean viewer'. Changing a video URL from www.youtube.com to www.pwnyoutube.com redirects there. Example https://www.pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ https://www.pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
- bluescrn 3y ago
  Simply staying logged out of YouTube is still working for me (with Firefox and uBlock Origin)
- chatmasta 3y ago
  Does YouTube show ads in the embedded player? Wouldn't it be easy to make an extension where you can click a button in YouTube when an ad pops up, and it moves the video into an embedded player on a localhost domain? (Or even the extension's local chrome-extension:// domain) I guess YouTube could always block that domain from embedding videos, but if the extension allowed the user to set a custom domain from /etc/hosts, I'm not sure Google could stop it unless they forbid embedding on hosts that resolve to loopback address.
  - duskwuff 3y ago
    A lot of videos on Youtube aren't embeddable.
- vldo 3y ago
  or just create a new bookmark with: javascript:void(location.href='https://deturl.com/play.php?v='+location.href.split('=')[1] https://deturl.com/play.php?v='+location.href.split('=')[1]) when you're on a yt video click it and it will redirect using the id
- __jonas 3y ago
  I use an extension to redirect youtube URLs to an invidious instance (https://yewtu.be/ https://yewtu.be/), it works okay. I'm using this one: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirector/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirector/ I've set it up to only redirect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\* so I can still use the regular YouTube UI for browsing videos. This invidious instance feels surprisingly snappy, perhaps even faster than the 'native' YouTube player.
dvngnt_ 3y ago
I've never had an issue with Firefox
- xaitv 3y ago
  Same, and I watch a lot of Youtube. I've never even seen the warning yet. My theory so far is that it's because I'm on Linux and they're guessing Linux-users tend to do whatever they can to avoid watching ads anyway so we're not included in their testing (yet). That being said I do get quite some ads on Twitch(and I know there's solutions to this, but they're separate from uBlock origin and I have to keep updating them cause they keep breaking so I stop caring sometimes). The way I solve it there is to just have 2 different streams open in 2 different tabs, one of them muted, as soon as ads start I switch to the different stream.
- wldcordeiro 3y ago
  Firefox has a better extension API and uBlock Origin is able to do more to block ads than it can on Chrome.
  - errantmind 3y ago
    I've never gotten ads on Youtube with Firefox nor my Chromium-based browser. Maybe they didn't roll the adblocker-blocker out to everyone.
    - dcdc123 3y ago
      The changes to Chrome do not happen until this summer. Until then uBlock Origin is effectively equal on both browsers.
- abetancort 3y ago
  Me too, no problem with Firefox.
- chatmasta 3y ago
  Firefox doesn't give me issues while logged out. But I've been blocked whilst logged in. Usually a uBlock update is available or I clear my caches and that fixes it. I like being logged in because I like to track what I've watched. So it's annoying to lose that when logging out. It'd be nice to have an extension that provides watch history independently of YouTube, so that I don't need to login.
Hello71 3y ago
at time of writing, this says NO, but according to the text, "uBlock Origin could still work on YouTube. Not all YT updates are targeted against uBO's solutions." so shouldn't it say MAYBE?
- jdiff 3y ago
  Just under that it says > A different ID doesn't always mean the detection will occur. So that definitely seems to be the case according to everything except the "NO"
kazinator 3y ago
Forget browsers; I could use an ad-free Youtube app for Android TV that has voice search.
- adahn 3y ago
  SmartTube is good for this. It needs to be installed by the APK and updated manually but that’s the only friction I’ve encountered. Been using for around a year I’d say. It even has SponsorBlock built in, so it can be configured to skip things like intros, recaps, or sponsor segments.
- SushiHippie 3y ago
  https://smarttubenext.com/ https://smarttubenext.com/
  - kazinator 3y ago
    I looked at that before. It doesn't have voice search out of the box. You have to uninstall Youtube, root the device and fiddle with adb, to install some bridge application or something. It could be a good reason to switch to Google's Android box device (Chromecast with Google TV) where this is supposedly simpler.
autocorr 3y ago
Newpipe also works great on Android! Haven't seen an ad since I installed it, and you can also download videos and play while minimized.
- CapstanRoller 3y ago
  Won't using such third-party clients cause your account to get flagged?
  - noman-land 3y ago
    You'd be a fool to log in.
  - sureglymop 3y ago
    It does not have a login functionality. It let's you subscribe to channels without an account.
    - chupapimunyenyo 3y ago
      Lets* https://youryoure.com/?apostrophe https://youryoure.com/?apostrophe
- bambax 3y ago
  Newpipe doesn't work well in my experience, and crashes often. Firefox Mobile + uBlock O is better.
- DeathArrow 3y ago
  On Android I watch YouTube in MS Edge and enable the builtin adblocker. Works like a charm!
quyleanh 3y ago
Is there any way to manually check and update custom filter? In the waiting time, for example.
ranting-moth 3y ago
Yes, but YT seems to be doing a lot of A/B testing so what works for others doesn't mean it works for you. If I see an ad I just close YT for the rest of the day.
- spaceguillotine 3y ago
  private browsing w/ ad block seems to be working, its only when logged in do i get a warning
  - lepus 3y ago
    They're expanding the testing -- I recently got a warning when in private browsing and not logged in, but I haven't had an ad or warning when logged in (yet).
- BuyMyBitcoins 3y ago
  I should generate some incompressible 4K 60 FPS videos that consist of three hours of randomly generated static and upload them out of spite.
  - autoexec 3y ago
    I doubt it'd do anything to harm Google. Storage is dirt cheap and Google effectively has endless amounts of money and resources.
  - CapstanRoller 3y ago
    Someone already beat you to it https://hackaday.com/2023/02/21/youtube-as-infinite-file-storage/ https://hackaday.com/2023/02/21/youtube-as-infinite-file-sto...
  - argsnd 3y ago
    I'm not sure if "incompressible" is possible, at least in a way that Google would still consider an annoyance.
    - 3y ago
stephc_int13 3y ago
Google is having a tantrum about ads blocker. They should know better.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  I don't really see how a business blocking ad blockers is having a tantrum. That makes about as much sense as saying a store hiring a security guard to reduce theft is having a tantrum.
  - voidnap 3y ago
    > not looking at ads is theft never gets old
  - ttyyzz 3y ago
    The only thing I steal when I use an ad blocker is my lifetime back
    - kmlx 3y ago
      [flagged]
  - ehaliewicz2 3y ago
    There is no theft when I use youtube because I was never going to click on ads in the first place. The value of me watching ads is absolutely zero. (From my point of view in fact, it's negative).
    - throw0101b 3y ago
      > There is no theft when I use youtube because I was never going to click on ads in the first place. Advertising works on multiple levels, with direct sales not necessarily being the only acceptable result: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchase_funnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchase_funnel
      - 3y ago
zlg_codes 3y ago
People will leave Youtube once enough bullshit piles on. There is a point. The question is, will Google push it and trigger an exodus? I'm not sitting through ads to watch stuff. I'd rather not watch things at all than watch ads. Peer to peer networks are still around. Vimeo still exists. Pretty sure DailyMotion and friends also still exist. PeerTube and other stuff are making it easier for video communities to support themselves. Eventually the only thing Youtube will be good for is supporting influencers and whatever mainstream media BS is going on.
- thanhhaimai 3y ago
  I don't understand this viewpoint. There are plenty of us who find YouTube useful and willing to pay for the service. I'm not as sure as you are that an exodus will happen.
  - zlg_codes 3y ago
    So why are you fine with what they do?
  - erinnh 3y ago
    I’d also be willing to pay for YouTube, if it ever splits from Google. Definitely not giving Google any money.
  - tibbydudeza 3y ago
    The same kind of folks who refused to accept the reality of MP3 and punted Ogg Vorbis. Is it really worth $13.99 to die on - nope it is not.
    - zlg_codes 3y ago
      That's $13.99/mo, so it's $168/yr or so. I don't even spend that much on games every year. Youtube is stupid if they think I'll pay $14/mo for access to anything.
      - 3y ago
macinjosh 3y ago
channel RSS + huginn + ytdl + jellyfin = your own private video feed an added benefit is there are no recommendations so you can't get sucked in to the algo, nor tracked by it if you come across a random video you want to watch you can have a bookmarklet to ytdl it to jellyfin
- RichEO 3y ago
  I’ve been thinking of setting up something like this for my kids. I don’t want them on YouTube, but there’s some content they might enjoy. Is there documentation somewhere on how to do it well?
kmlx 3y ago
what i’m reading from these comments: we will do anything, including leaving youtube, but for sure we will not be either watching ads or paying for content.
- Barrin92 3y ago
  in due time you'll be paying both for content and watch ads, as is the norm now on more and more platforms. It's an absolute category error to think you can haggle with for profit corporations worth trillions about when they've extracted enough value from you. You ever hear the one about the missionary who tried to negotiate with the tiger? He told the tiger he could eat most of him, but he had to stop when he got to his head
- 000ooo000 3y ago
  I'm kind of torn. On one hand, I agree that if you use a service, paying for it so it can continue to be enjoyed by all makes sense. On the other, I'm not sure there's a tech company fighting against my interests as a regular person harder than Google is, and I don't really want to give them money out of principle. Maybe there's some hyperbole in that last sentence but hopefully my point is made at least.
  - autoexec 3y ago
    Depending on your age you've either been paying for the service that is youtube with your data and content for your entire life or for at least as long as Youtube has existed. Please don't waste any time feeling bad about Google not getting what they're owed. Trust me, at this point they owe you. The story is a bit different when it comes to the creators themselves who would get money from those ads. They offer their videos for free, and you have no obligation to support them monetarily, but if there is a youtuber whose content you really want to support there is probably some means already to pay them directly without giving anything to Google.
- rpgwaiter 3y ago
  They came first for the non-paid viewers, and I didn't speak up because I pay for Premium... (Point being people paying for premium are also mad at these tactics)
very_good_man 3y ago
Thanks for posting - Google needs to face serious competition and market penalties for the recent anti-user behavior. I feel that the products that matter at Google are controlled by an extremely distasteful group of people. Looting the users amassed years ago by real innovator engineers. For example, the real implied free storage in GMail has implicitly been reduced by 80%. Their failure to reduce prices and in fact their price INCREASES are just pure greed on display.
- tehwebguy 3y ago
  OK but now isn't the ask for a competitor who is okay with having like no ad revenue?
  - jonathankoren 3y ago
    This is really a lazy take, but I’ll engage. There’s a huge difference between no ads, and unskipable ads shat out every seven minutes, with another two at the start of every video. Television isn’t even this bad.
    - Turneyboy 3y ago
      Television typically runs ~7 minutes of unskippable ads for 23 minutes of content.
- Gigachad 3y ago
  How would competition even work? How could any company succeed proving a product to a user base that doesn’t watch ads and doesn’t pay for the service? Would be like proving an alternative to cater to shoplifters.
  - ath3nd 3y ago
    What you wrote is like: "Hey fellow hackers. I am a hacker myself and I totally don't work for Google. Ads are good, mkay?" Bruh, dunno what planet you live on and how brainwashed you have to be to think blocking ads is theft. It's like getting a fine when there are ads on the radio and you change the station, or ads on the TV and you changing the channel. It's your device, it's the creator's content, and Youtube facilitates you seeing that content. In return, they can (and very much do) monetize your usage data, your interests, etc, and give some of that value to the creator. That should have been the relationship between creator, service and consumer. However, monetizing the trove of data they have on you is not enough for them. What they are doing now is motivated by pure corporate greed and desire to squeeze every possible cent out of their dominant position. They can and don't care about your experience, knowing that there is hardly an alternative for you, and that, my friend, is called a monopoly. And wherever there are monopolies, users suffer. So don't sell me the idea that poor poor Google can't make ends meet and need to force feed me 100 ads during one video so they can survive. This is a monopoly saying a big "fuck you" to their users and trying to scalp them by enshittifying their service and forcing you to pay for the "premium". Forcing you to watch content that you didn't want to and pausing the ad counter while you have clicked away is the TV equivalent of the ADs following you on every channel and not relenting until you have watched them. They have no excuse
lstodd 3y ago
I haven't seen an ad on Youtube for as long as adblock/ublock existed. Nothing has changed yet. Firefox/ubuntu and firefox/android. Logged in or logged off - no difference.
Ayesh 3y ago
Very misleading. It downloads a text file maintained by someone at a repository that lists all uBO YouTube Fixes, and compare it to the latest YouTube JS files. Not all JS updates contain anti-adblock codes, so what this website shows is pretty misleading.
- hunter2_ 3y ago
  Yes, but I assume people would typically get to this website via the megathread [0] which says the same as you: > If it's red, it means we're either still working on a fix or the latest script didn't defeat our current filters. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/184fivk/youtube_antiadblock_and_ads_november_26_2023_mega/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/184fivk/youtu...
gorhill 3y ago
A reliable way I found to confirm whether there is new anti-content blocker code released by Youtube is to visit uBlockOrigin's reddit sub[1]: If there are well over 1,000 "here now" (near top right), this confirms the anti-content blocker code has been updated. If well below 1,000 "here now", all is fine. At time of writing, it's fine. * * * [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/
- colpabar 3y ago
  This is clever and I'm definitely using it. Website idea: a downdetector-like site that uses reddit's "here now" numbers to give insight into whether something is going on with a certain thing. edit: Has anyone else not really been affected by the new youtube adblock policy at all? I think I have seen the warning a single time, and I use youtube all the time. I only use ublock origin and privacy badger... on chrome. Maybe that's it.
  - hunter2_ 3y ago
    I bet it's been used for stock/crypto trading for years already.
  - hunter2_ 3y ago
    > Has anyone else not really been affected by the new youtube adblock policy at all? The megathread addresses this: > I've never seen this message. Is this because of my browser being X or Y? No, YouTube didn't roll this out to everybody yet. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/184fivk/youtube_antiadblock_and_ads_november_26_2023_mega/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/184fivk/youtu...
    - thaumasiotes 3y ago
      It was rolled out to me. I saw several warnings that my ad blocker wasn't allowed, and on one day they blocked me from watching videos, except that they didn't block me from watching videos in Incognito Mode. On all other days, I was free to watch whatever I wanted while logged in. They might complain at me about ad blocking, or not. On all days, youtube-dl worked fine. (This matters because, contemporaneously with the anti-ad-blocking campaign, YouTube started sometimes reducing my video frame rate to 0 fps. Audio never suffered at all.) It's not a strict regime.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
tibbydudeza 3y ago
The endless arms race. Reminds me of the time I experimented with running Synology OS on a PC or pirated music - it became such a hassle waiting for new patches or fixing my MP3 collection that it was just easier to pay for a license to UnRaid and Spotify move on with my life. The value my family gets out Youtube > Netflix atm so I have no qualms about paying.
CrzyLngPwd 3y ago
Youtube seems to me to be a bullshit test platform. They will work around ad blockers and continue to pile on repetitive and banal adverts that have nothing to do with the user until they reach breaking point (where people flee and seek alternatives), and then they will relax their system to show marginally less bullshit. The confusing part of this battle is the app users, who do not agree with the avalanche of adverts, don't want to pay to scroll shorts until their brains leak from their ears, and cannot kick the awful habit.
- cm2187 3y ago
  I don’t know. When youtube bypassed adblockers on iOS, I found it quite natural to break that habit and stop using youtube. I stopped watching TV 20 years ago, I have been using ad blockers as soon as they were introduced. The habit of not having to sit and watch some commercials is the most entrenched one in me. Hard to reverse a 20y habit.
- msp26 3y ago
  I still can't believe there wasn't greater pushback to the removal of visible dislikes. They were incredibly useful as a quick indicator to see if something might be wrong with a video.
- rtsil 3y ago
  This could be simply a coincidence, but it's possible they already relax their system based on user behavior. I used to watch YT through the TV app until the ads became insanely outrageous (six unskippable ads for a 10 min video, including two ads one minute after the video has started). Then I just bought a mini pc and plugged it in the TV and everything was fine (except for HDR that for some reason doesn't work) and without ads. Then a couple of weeks ago I opened the YT app on TV and it was actually a much better experience than before: skippable ads, no ads on some videos. As if they're trying to lure me to use it again.
  - wimp 3y ago
    They are definitely A/B testing ad tolerance. I reset the TV app whenever the ads become unreasonable, and every time I do that, the skip ads button reverts back to the original style (skip all ads after 5 seconds). But if I login to an account, or use an anonymous session for long enough, the skip ads button will switch to the progress ring style, with 60+ seconds of unskippable ads. When that happens, I reset the app again.
its_ethan 3y ago
I feel like no one is really saying it in this discussion, but paying the $9 a month or whatever for YouTube Premium makes this whole thing a non-issue, and comes with perks like being able to download videos to your device (great for flying) and to play things in the background.
- angoragoats 3y ago
  It’s funny that you mention “play[ing] things in the background” as a perk, because for me, artificially paywalling a feature on mobile devices that you get for free on every computer is a great way to get me not to pay for your service.
- lhamil64 3y ago
  They are unfortunately raising it to $14/mo. But I'll keep paying because I can't stand the YouTube ads, and it comes with YouTube Music so I don't need to pay for Spotify or some other music service.
- whalesalad 3y ago
  This and spotify are the two monthly expenses I cannot live without. YT Premium is soooo worth it. And yes, I realize I can play music via the same subscription but I have been using Spotify since before it existed outside Sweden and really enjoy it. I will not be leaving any time soon.
- kyruzic 3y ago
  No one is saying this because people who intentionally use ublock are doing it to not support youtube.
- sdrinf 3y ago
  Logging in means random videos I check from various corners of the internet starts shaping the recommendation algo. Many of these are extremely deep and vicious traps (eg my most recent one was misery porn). Youtube premium does not works for incognito mode. This requires careful, and manual curation of my "history" page. No thank you.
amanzi 3y ago
Or you could just pay for YouTube Premium and never see another ad again. As a bonus, you get YouTube Music thrown in for free.
- aio2 3y ago
  Not free if you pay for it. Not the point, but I felt like I had to mention it.
- mardifoufs 3y ago
  Since when does YouTube premium remove sponsored segments? Theres no price you can pay to remove all YouTube ads.
- Karupan 3y ago
  Sure, if they stop ad tracking premium user I’d gladly pay for it.
endisneigh 3y ago
Imagine valuing your time so little you waste it trying to block instead of just abstaining or using premium. When Facebook started being user hostile I stopped using it wholesale. Anti Google YouTube folks haven’t gotten the message yet. If you make 25 an hour - the bottom decile wage for software engineering - and waste more than half an hour on this a month, idk what to say. That’s a minute a day. Chop chop. By the way if you consider YouTube premium for family or friend group of 5 you’re paying 5 bucks a month. That means you have 12 minutes a month to waste, or about 24 seconds a day. If you’re at a typical FANG company making entry salary you have about 5 seconds a day to waste. Time is precious. Stop wasting it trying to fight ads when you’re capable of paying to get rid of them.
- autoexec 3y ago
  Imagine valuing yourself and your money so little that you'd pay a company who is actively harassing you with unwanted attempts at manipulation to pretty please leave you alone and let you see the free content you want without interruption.
  - endisneigh 3y ago
    100% agree. Those people who care about that shouldn’t use YouTube or any Google services at all. It’s easy to degoogle. Kagi search is a good start.
    - autoexec 3y ago
      > Those people who care about that shouldn’t use YouTube or any Google services at all. While it'd be wise to avoid Google for privacy reasons, I see no problem with people making a choice to use YouTube if they want to. People can decide for themselves how much risk they're willing to take for the content hosted there. I totally respect people's choice to avoid Google to whatever limited extent that is possible, but I also respect people's choice to engage with Google on their own terms. I'd just hope that that choice is a well informed one. For me personally that means my use of youtube involves never logging into youtube, not using youtube to view the content hosted there (I either use NewPipe or yt-dlp to download videos and then use VLC to view them), avoiding searching for content I wouldn't want forever associated with my identity, blocking ads, blocking suggested videos, blocking comments, etc. it works pretty well for me.

290 points by colinprince 3y ago

I uBlocked the original adblock-detection popup and haven't looked back since.

I wouldn't mind paying Google, but there is one thing Google does that really infuriates me: they want both my personal data and my money. This is absolute flagrant greediness that I won't tolerate. Either stop collecting my personal data completely OR take my money. You can't have both. I'm sorry, but I don't believe in the slightest they don't collect my personal data when I'm paying them. I find it difficult to trust any of their promises due to their poor reputation.

Teachez 3y ago

The change has been I just dl stuff - less stuff. I don't browse, don't comment, don't vote. Don't share casually. YT and other corporates cutting their nose off to spite their face? If the wind changes on some ideological, political, social points - Youtube can become about as popular and relevant as vinyl records, CD's. And they won't notice it, until long after the process is irreversible.

okasaki 3y ago

I got the anti adblock youtube message a month ago, but since then ublock has been working 100% of the time.

kjkjadksj 3y ago

I still get black screen and the skip ad button. Sometimes a flash of the ad before the black screen.

llamaInSouth 3y ago

Youtube should just include the ads directly in the video file but thats probably too expensive?

xaitv 3y ago
Makes it much harder to target ads(unless you generate separate video files for every separate audience).

jacooper 3y ago

Can confirm, brave blocks it too.

submeta 3y ago

Wow that’s a lot of work to avoid paying 10is dollars a month? I use ad blockers everywhere, but for me it’s „set it and forget it“. I don’t have time and energy to adjust that regularly.

notpushkin 3y ago
YouTube is an incredibly valuable product. It's hard to believe that it's possible for a platform like this to exist at all, even more be sustainable with ads only (maybe it isn't though). I'd gladly pay $20/mo for that – to anybody other than Google. I do understand that with Premium they actually have an incentive to pivot from their current surveillance tech niche to a more decent model, but uhhhh. That's Google we're talking about. It's just not happening.

jeisc 3y ago

who is still using you tube?

timbit42 3y ago
Hundreds of millions of people.

everdrive 3y ago

Possibly unrelated, but youtube videos stopped playing on Safari on my iPhone yesterday. Previously, Youtube would play via Safari, and the ads wouldn't. This was apparently a bug / unimplemented feature. I do have AdGuard (non-premium) on my phone as well as overly-aggressive lists on my Pihole, so it's possible there's something new going on there. It looks like free Youtube may be coming to an end.

sigmoid10 3y ago
I have the same setup (sans the Pihole since i have decent 5G but shitty wifi where I' sitting) and it still works. You might have to refresh the video page sometimes though before it plays.
- everdrive 3y ago
  No dice here, however I have not tried to troubleshoot my setup. I also know Youtube is A/B testing, so we might not be operating under the same conditions from the Youtube side.

saltserv 3y ago

[dead]

jacquesm 3y ago

What is most interesting about this whole adblocking war: we're winning. If we weren't youtube/Google wouldn't be making such a fuss. So keep it up. I can also heartily recommend the 'unhook' browser extension, it takes care of all of those upsells and feeds.

Timshel 3y ago
Not sure that's the case, recent discussion on Firefox was not inspiring: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38531104 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38531104. Maybe they are making such a fuss because it works and people end up switching to chrome / removing ad block :(. Would be nice to see recent download graph of firefox or ublock origin so see if there is any impact.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  For me the opposite: chrome was making an entrance on account of supporting WebMIDI and I gave them the benefit of the doubt for a bit but this is the bit that did it for me and besides some compatibility testing FF all the way for me. Google is already receiving plenty of money, if they promoted youtube as a commons they should maintain it as a commons. This bait-and-switch crap has gone more than far enough. Remember, not all that long ago their mantra was 'we don't care about ad blockers because it is only such a small percentage'. Look now.
  - Timshel 3y ago
    I hope so :). I just see it, in the current context of layoff, as them wanting/needing more money and hoping blocker either leave (and stop costing them bandwidth) or switch to YT Premium. I do believe that the worsening experience on YT could be a win by making platform I want to support such as nebula more attractive. Or that it could backfire with a global adblock adoption making the current ad economy less viable. I'm just unsure if chrome/YT is not already too entrenched and that people won't use ad blocker or switch.
    - 3y ago

DeathArrow 3y ago

I use uBlock Origin on PC and MS Edge on mobile for blocking ads. Both work great for blocking YouTube ads.

A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago
I think I saw the ominous message from Google once prior to origin updating their stuff and me clearing cookies afterwards. FF on desktop. Also no issues on Brave.

pimpampum 3y ago

Works for me.

dncornholio 3y ago

This Youtube debacle has definitely been the last bullit, HN is officialy dead to me now. I used to come here to read different opinions and voices of reason. I'm not here to read only complain after complain after complain without offering alternatives. Where did the hacker mentality go?

nixass 3y ago

Does anyone know if ESR versions are treated differently? I am using ESR on work laptop and uBlock Origin cannot penetrate anti-adblock banner. Waterfox is the same, in order to get through it I must open a tab in private mode

countWSS 3y ago

I just stopped using Youtube since the first time they tried anti-adblock and now only watch linked videos if at all. I don't trust a platform that threatens its users. And of course, all those extensions/scripts to make Youtube usable are now disabled, to show how it really looks to discourage its use.

shortsunblack 3y ago

Very likely probing user client state to detect ad-blockers without consent is illegal in EU law. Directive 2002/58/EC legal text: 3. Member States shall ensure that the use of electronic communications networks to store information or to gain access to information stored in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user is only allowed on condition that the subscriber or user concerned is provided with clear and comprehensive information in accordance with Directive 95/46/EC, inter alia about the purposes of the processing, and is offered the right to refuse such processing by the data controller. This shall not prevent any technical storage or access for the sole purpose of carrying out or facilitating the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network, or as strictly necessary in order to provide an information society service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user. Alexander Hanff has been fighting the fight to make this a reality and recognized by courts. Mainstream media coverage of the story: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/7/23950513/youtube-ad-blocker-crackdown-privacy-advocates-eu https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/7/23950513/youtube-ad-block... Not only it is illegal, it's also not at all how HTTP was designed to work. If a business use case makes it so that the system doesn't want to serve a request, the server can (and should) return one of 4xx error messages. Returning with OK and then doing invasive malware-esque data mining is not A-OK.

HankB99 3y ago

Right now (2023-12-07 evening) I get a popup that advises me that ad blockers are not allowed. In the upper right corner there is a timer that turns to a check mark so I can dismiss the popup and watch my video. Thing is, I've watched YT on my phone and it seems like the ads take a lot longer to stream than the time before I can dismiss the popup. The popup is a minor annoyance but better than a couple ads.

undersuit 3y ago

I broke my phone's bootloader over the weekend and I'm quite happy that I've fixed it without watching a single Youtube video... because they were all blocked from playing and I know why I installed the uBlock in the first place.

Log_out_ 3y ago

Pissing of the developer community has to be the equivalent of suicide by cop in the world of software. Who sits in a meeting and pushes this? "We could up our viewership by starting a war with a niche browser primarily used by open source hackers.." Does that sound foolish only in my head?

pipe01 3y ago
We probably make up less than 0.1% of users, so yeah it doesn't matter

mtmail 3y ago

My current work-around is https://deturl.com/ https://deturl.com/ and then click 'clean viewer'. Changing a video URL from www.youtube.com to www.pwnyoutube.com redirects there. Example https://www.pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ https://www.pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

bluescrn 3y ago
Simply staying logged out of YouTube is still working for me (with Firefox and uBlock Origin)
chatmasta 3y ago
Does YouTube show ads in the embedded player? Wouldn't it be easy to make an extension where you can click a button in YouTube when an ad pops up, and it moves the video into an embedded player on a localhost domain? (Or even the extension's local chrome-extension:// domain) I guess YouTube could always block that domain from embedding videos, but if the extension allowed the user to set a custom domain from /etc/hosts, I'm not sure Google could stop it unless they forbid embedding on hosts that resolve to loopback address.
- duskwuff 3y ago
  A lot of videos on Youtube aren't embeddable.
vldo 3y ago
or just create a new bookmark with: javascript:void(location.href='https://deturl.com/play.php?v='+location.href.split('=')[1] https://deturl.com/play.php?v='+location.href.split('=')[1]) when you're on a yt video click it and it will redirect using the id
__jonas 3y ago
I use an extension to redirect youtube URLs to an invidious instance (https://yewtu.be/ https://yewtu.be/), it works okay. I'm using this one: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirector/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirector/ I've set it up to only redirect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\* so I can still use the regular YouTube UI for browsing videos. This invidious instance feels surprisingly snappy, perhaps even faster than the 'native' YouTube player.

dvngnt_ 3y ago

I've never had an issue with Firefox

xaitv 3y ago
Same, and I watch a lot of Youtube. I've never even seen the warning yet. My theory so far is that it's because I'm on Linux and they're guessing Linux-users tend to do whatever they can to avoid watching ads anyway so we're not included in their testing (yet). That being said I do get quite some ads on Twitch(and I know there's solutions to this, but they're separate from uBlock origin and I have to keep updating them cause they keep breaking so I stop caring sometimes). The way I solve it there is to just have 2 different streams open in 2 different tabs, one of them muted, as soon as ads start I switch to the different stream.
wldcordeiro 3y ago
Firefox has a better extension API and uBlock Origin is able to do more to block ads than it can on Chrome.
- errantmind 3y ago
  I've never gotten ads on Youtube with Firefox nor my Chromium-based browser. Maybe they didn't roll the adblocker-blocker out to everyone.
  - dcdc123 3y ago
    The changes to Chrome do not happen until this summer. Until then uBlock Origin is effectively equal on both browsers.
abetancort 3y ago
Me too, no problem with Firefox.
chatmasta 3y ago
Firefox doesn't give me issues while logged out. But I've been blocked whilst logged in. Usually a uBlock update is available or I clear my caches and that fixes it. I like being logged in because I like to track what I've watched. So it's annoying to lose that when logging out. It'd be nice to have an extension that provides watch history independently of YouTube, so that I don't need to login.

Hello71 3y ago

at time of writing, this says NO, but according to the text, "uBlock Origin could still work on YouTube. Not all YT updates are targeted against uBO's solutions." so shouldn't it say MAYBE?

jdiff 3y ago
Just under that it says > A different ID doesn't always mean the detection will occur. So that definitely seems to be the case according to everything except the "NO"

kazinator 3y ago

Forget browsers; I could use an ad-free Youtube app for Android TV that has voice search.

adahn 3y ago
SmartTube is good for this. It needs to be installed by the APK and updated manually but that’s the only friction I’ve encountered. Been using for around a year I’d say. It even has SponsorBlock built in, so it can be configured to skip things like intros, recaps, or sponsor segments.
SushiHippie 3y ago
https://smarttubenext.com/ https://smarttubenext.com/
- kazinator 3y ago
  I looked at that before. It doesn't have voice search out of the box. You have to uninstall Youtube, root the device and fiddle with adb, to install some bridge application or something. It could be a good reason to switch to Google's Android box device (Chromecast with Google TV) where this is supposedly simpler.

autocorr 3y ago

Newpipe also works great on Android! Haven't seen an ad since I installed it, and you can also download videos and play while minimized.

CapstanRoller 3y ago
Won't using such third-party clients cause your account to get flagged?
- noman-land 3y ago
  You'd be a fool to log in.
- sureglymop 3y ago
  It does not have a login functionality. It let's you subscribe to channels without an account.
  - chupapimunyenyo 3y ago
    Lets* https://youryoure.com/?apostrophe https://youryoure.com/?apostrophe
bambax 3y ago
Newpipe doesn't work well in my experience, and crashes often. Firefox Mobile + uBlock O is better.
DeathArrow 3y ago
On Android I watch YouTube in MS Edge and enable the builtin adblocker. Works like a charm!

quyleanh 3y ago

Is there any way to manually check and update custom filter? In the waiting time, for example.

ranting-moth 3y ago

Yes, but YT seems to be doing a lot of A/B testing so what works for others doesn't mean it works for you. If I see an ad I just close YT for the rest of the day.

spaceguillotine 3y ago
private browsing w/ ad block seems to be working, its only when logged in do i get a warning
- lepus 3y ago
  They're expanding the testing -- I recently got a warning when in private browsing and not logged in, but I haven't had an ad or warning when logged in (yet).
BuyMyBitcoins 3y ago
I should generate some incompressible 4K 60 FPS videos that consist of three hours of randomly generated static and upload them out of spite.
- autoexec 3y ago
  I doubt it'd do anything to harm Google. Storage is dirt cheap and Google effectively has endless amounts of money and resources.
- CapstanRoller 3y ago
  Someone already beat you to it https://hackaday.com/2023/02/21/youtube-as-infinite-file-storage/ https://hackaday.com/2023/02/21/youtube-as-infinite-file-sto...
- argsnd 3y ago
  I'm not sure if "incompressible" is possible, at least in a way that Google would still consider an annoyance.
  - 3y ago

stephc_int13 3y ago

Google is having a tantrum about ads blocker. They should know better.

crazygringo 3y ago
I don't really see how a business blocking ad blockers is having a tantrum. That makes about as much sense as saying a store hiring a security guard to reduce theft is having a tantrum.
- voidnap 3y ago
  > not looking at ads is theft never gets old
- ttyyzz 3y ago
  The only thing I steal when I use an ad blocker is my lifetime back
  - kmlx 3y ago
    [flagged]
- ehaliewicz2 3y ago
  There is no theft when I use youtube because I was never going to click on ads in the first place. The value of me watching ads is absolutely zero. (From my point of view in fact, it's negative).
  - throw0101b 3y ago
    > There is no theft when I use youtube because I was never going to click on ads in the first place. Advertising works on multiple levels, with direct sales not necessarily being the only acceptable result: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchase_funnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchase_funnel
    - 3y ago

zlg_codes 3y ago

People will leave Youtube once enough bullshit piles on. There is a point. The question is, will Google push it and trigger an exodus? I'm not sitting through ads to watch stuff. I'd rather not watch things at all than watch ads. Peer to peer networks are still around. Vimeo still exists. Pretty sure DailyMotion and friends also still exist. PeerTube and other stuff are making it easier for video communities to support themselves. Eventually the only thing Youtube will be good for is supporting influencers and whatever mainstream media BS is going on.

thanhhaimai 3y ago
I don't understand this viewpoint. There are plenty of us who find YouTube useful and willing to pay for the service. I'm not as sure as you are that an exodus will happen.
- zlg_codes 3y ago
  So why are you fine with what they do?
- erinnh 3y ago
  I’d also be willing to pay for YouTube, if it ever splits from Google. Definitely not giving Google any money.
- tibbydudeza 3y ago
  The same kind of folks who refused to accept the reality of MP3 and punted Ogg Vorbis. Is it really worth $13.99 to die on - nope it is not.
  - zlg_codes 3y ago
    That's $13.99/mo, so it's $168/yr or so. I don't even spend that much on games every year. Youtube is stupid if they think I'll pay $14/mo for access to anything.
    - 3y ago

macinjosh 3y ago

channel RSS + huginn + ytdl + jellyfin = your own private video feed an added benefit is there are no recommendations so you can't get sucked in to the algo, nor tracked by it if you come across a random video you want to watch you can have a bookmarklet to ytdl it to jellyfin

RichEO 3y ago
I’ve been thinking of setting up something like this for my kids. I don’t want them on YouTube, but there’s some content they might enjoy. Is there documentation somewhere on how to do it well?

kmlx 3y ago

what i’m reading from these comments: we will do anything, including leaving youtube, but for sure we will not be either watching ads or paying for content.

Barrin92 3y ago
in due time you'll be paying both for content and watch ads, as is the norm now on more and more platforms. It's an absolute category error to think you can haggle with for profit corporations worth trillions about when they've extracted enough value from you. You ever hear the one about the missionary who tried to negotiate with the tiger? He told the tiger he could eat most of him, but he had to stop when he got to his head
000ooo000 3y ago
I'm kind of torn. On one hand, I agree that if you use a service, paying for it so it can continue to be enjoyed by all makes sense. On the other, I'm not sure there's a tech company fighting against my interests as a regular person harder than Google is, and I don't really want to give them money out of principle. Maybe there's some hyperbole in that last sentence but hopefully my point is made at least.
- autoexec 3y ago
  Depending on your age you've either been paying for the service that is youtube with your data and content for your entire life or for at least as long as Youtube has existed. Please don't waste any time feeling bad about Google not getting what they're owed. Trust me, at this point they owe you. The story is a bit different when it comes to the creators themselves who would get money from those ads. They offer their videos for free, and you have no obligation to support them monetarily, but if there is a youtuber whose content you really want to support there is probably some means already to pay them directly without giving anything to Google.
rpgwaiter 3y ago
They came first for the non-paid viewers, and I didn't speak up because I pay for Premium... (Point being people paying for premium are also mad at these tactics)

very_good_man 3y ago

Thanks for posting - Google needs to face serious competition and market penalties for the recent anti-user behavior. I feel that the products that matter at Google are controlled by an extremely distasteful group of people. Looting the users amassed years ago by real innovator engineers. For example, the real implied free storage in GMail has implicitly been reduced by 80%. Their failure to reduce prices and in fact their price INCREASES are just pure greed on display.

tehwebguy 3y ago
OK but now isn't the ask for a competitor who is okay with having like no ad revenue?
- jonathankoren 3y ago
  This is really a lazy take, but I’ll engage. There’s a huge difference between no ads, and unskipable ads shat out every seven minutes, with another two at the start of every video. Television isn’t even this bad.
  - Turneyboy 3y ago
    Television typically runs ~7 minutes of unskippable ads for 23 minutes of content.
Gigachad 3y ago
How would competition even work? How could any company succeed proving a product to a user base that doesn’t watch ads and doesn’t pay for the service? Would be like proving an alternative to cater to shoplifters.
- ath3nd 3y ago
  What you wrote is like: "Hey fellow hackers. I am a hacker myself and I totally don't work for Google. Ads are good, mkay?" Bruh, dunno what planet you live on and how brainwashed you have to be to think blocking ads is theft. It's like getting a fine when there are ads on the radio and you change the station, or ads on the TV and you changing the channel. It's your device, it's the creator's content, and Youtube facilitates you seeing that content. In return, they can (and very much do) monetize your usage data, your interests, etc, and give some of that value to the creator. That should have been the relationship between creator, service and consumer. However, monetizing the trove of data they have on you is not enough for them. What they are doing now is motivated by pure corporate greed and desire to squeeze every possible cent out of their dominant position. They can and don't care about your experience, knowing that there is hardly an alternative for you, and that, my friend, is called a monopoly. And wherever there are monopolies, users suffer. So don't sell me the idea that poor poor Google can't make ends meet and need to force feed me 100 ads during one video so they can survive. This is a monopoly saying a big "fuck you" to their users and trying to scalp them by enshittifying their service and forcing you to pay for the "premium". Forcing you to watch content that you didn't want to and pausing the ad counter while you have clicked away is the TV equivalent of the ADs following you on every channel and not relenting until you have watched them. They have no excuse

lstodd 3y ago

I haven't seen an ad on Youtube for as long as adblock/ublock existed. Nothing has changed yet. Firefox/ubuntu and firefox/android. Logged in or logged off - no difference.

Ayesh 3y ago

Very misleading. It downloads a text file maintained by someone at a repository that lists all uBO YouTube Fixes, and compare it to the latest YouTube JS files. Not all JS updates contain anti-adblock codes, so what this website shows is pretty misleading.

hunter2_ 3y ago
Yes, but I assume people would typically get to this website via the megathread [0] which says the same as you: > If it's red, it means we're either still working on a fix or the latest script didn't defeat our current filters. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/184fivk/youtube_antiadblock_and_ads_november_26_2023_mega/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/184fivk/youtu...

gorhill 3y ago

A reliable way I found to confirm whether there is new anti-content blocker code released by Youtube is to visit uBlockOrigin's reddit sub[1]: If there are well over 1,000 "here now" (near top right), this confirms the anti-content blocker code has been updated. If well below 1,000 "here now", all is fine. At time of writing, it's fine. * * * [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/

colpabar 3y ago
This is clever and I'm definitely using it. Website idea: a downdetector-like site that uses reddit's "here now" numbers to give insight into whether something is going on with a certain thing. edit: Has anyone else not really been affected by the new youtube adblock policy at all? I think I have seen the warning a single time, and I use youtube all the time. I only use ublock origin and privacy badger... on chrome. Maybe that's it.
- hunter2_ 3y ago
  I bet it's been used for stock/crypto trading for years already.
- hunter2_ 3y ago
  > Has anyone else not really been affected by the new youtube adblock policy at all? The megathread addresses this: > I've never seen this message. Is this because of my browser being X or Y? No, YouTube didn't roll this out to everybody yet. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/184fivk/youtube_antiadblock_and_ads_november_26_2023_mega/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/184fivk/youtu...
  - thaumasiotes 3y ago
    It was rolled out to me. I saw several warnings that my ad blocker wasn't allowed, and on one day they blocked me from watching videos, except that they didn't block me from watching videos in Incognito Mode. On all other days, I was free to watch whatever I wanted while logged in. They might complain at me about ad blocking, or not. On all days, youtube-dl worked fine. (This matters because, contemporaneously with the anti-ad-blocking campaign, YouTube started sometimes reducing my video frame rate to 0 fps. Audio never suffered at all.) It's not a strict regime.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

tibbydudeza 3y ago

The endless arms race. Reminds me of the time I experimented with running Synology OS on a PC or pirated music - it became such a hassle waiting for new patches or fixing my MP3 collection that it was just easier to pay for a license to UnRaid and Spotify move on with my life. The value my family gets out Youtube > Netflix atm so I have no qualms about paying.

CrzyLngPwd 3y ago

Youtube seems to me to be a bullshit test platform. They will work around ad blockers and continue to pile on repetitive and banal adverts that have nothing to do with the user until they reach breaking point (where people flee and seek alternatives), and then they will relax their system to show marginally less bullshit. The confusing part of this battle is the app users, who do not agree with the avalanche of adverts, don't want to pay to scroll shorts until their brains leak from their ears, and cannot kick the awful habit.

cm2187 3y ago
I don’t know. When youtube bypassed adblockers on iOS, I found it quite natural to break that habit and stop using youtube. I stopped watching TV 20 years ago, I have been using ad blockers as soon as they were introduced. The habit of not having to sit and watch some commercials is the most entrenched one in me. Hard to reverse a 20y habit.
msp26 3y ago
I still can't believe there wasn't greater pushback to the removal of visible dislikes. They were incredibly useful as a quick indicator to see if something might be wrong with a video.
rtsil 3y ago
This could be simply a coincidence, but it's possible they already relax their system based on user behavior. I used to watch YT through the TV app until the ads became insanely outrageous (six unskippable ads for a 10 min video, including two ads one minute after the video has started). Then I just bought a mini pc and plugged it in the TV and everything was fine (except for HDR that for some reason doesn't work) and without ads. Then a couple of weeks ago I opened the YT app on TV and it was actually a much better experience than before: skippable ads, no ads on some videos. As if they're trying to lure me to use it again.
- wimp 3y ago
  They are definitely A/B testing ad tolerance. I reset the TV app whenever the ads become unreasonable, and every time I do that, the skip ads button reverts back to the original style (skip all ads after 5 seconds). But if I login to an account, or use an anonymous session for long enough, the skip ads button will switch to the progress ring style, with 60+ seconds of unskippable ads. When that happens, I reset the app again.

its_ethan 3y ago

I feel like no one is really saying it in this discussion, but paying the $9 a month or whatever for YouTube Premium makes this whole thing a non-issue, and comes with perks like being able to download videos to your device (great for flying) and to play things in the background.

angoragoats 3y ago
It’s funny that you mention “play[ing] things in the background” as a perk, because for me, artificially paywalling a feature on mobile devices that you get for free on every computer is a great way to get me not to pay for your service.
lhamil64 3y ago
They are unfortunately raising it to $14/mo. But I'll keep paying because I can't stand the YouTube ads, and it comes with YouTube Music so I don't need to pay for Spotify or some other music service.
whalesalad 3y ago
This and spotify are the two monthly expenses I cannot live without. YT Premium is soooo worth it. And yes, I realize I can play music via the same subscription but I have been using Spotify since before it existed outside Sweden and really enjoy it. I will not be leaving any time soon.
kyruzic 3y ago
No one is saying this because people who intentionally use ublock are doing it to not support youtube.
sdrinf 3y ago
Logging in means random videos I check from various corners of the internet starts shaping the recommendation algo. Many of these are extremely deep and vicious traps (eg my most recent one was misery porn). Youtube premium does not works for incognito mode. This requires careful, and manual curation of my "history" page. No thank you.

amanzi 3y ago

Or you could just pay for YouTube Premium and never see another ad again. As a bonus, you get YouTube Music thrown in for free.

aio2 3y ago
Not free if you pay for it. Not the point, but I felt like I had to mention it.
mardifoufs 3y ago
Since when does YouTube premium remove sponsored segments? Theres no price you can pay to remove all YouTube ads.
Karupan 3y ago
Sure, if they stop ad tracking premium user I’d gladly pay for it.

endisneigh 3y ago

Imagine valuing your time so little you waste it trying to block instead of just abstaining or using premium. When Facebook started being user hostile I stopped using it wholesale. Anti Google YouTube folks haven’t gotten the message yet. If you make 25 an hour - the bottom decile wage for software engineering - and waste more than half an hour on this a month, idk what to say. That’s a minute a day. Chop chop. By the way if you consider YouTube premium for family or friend group of 5 you’re paying 5 bucks a month. That means you have 12 minutes a month to waste, or about 24 seconds a day. If you’re at a typical FANG company making entry salary you have about 5 seconds a day to waste. Time is precious. Stop wasting it trying to fight ads when you’re capable of paying to get rid of them.

autoexec 3y ago
Imagine valuing yourself and your money so little that you'd pay a company who is actively harassing you with unwanted attempts at manipulation to pretty please leave you alone and let you see the free content you want without interruption.
- endisneigh 3y ago
  100% agree. Those people who care about that shouldn’t use YouTube or any Google services at all. It’s easy to degoogle. Kagi search is a good start.
  - autoexec 3y ago
    > Those people who care about that shouldn’t use YouTube or any Google services at all. While it'd be wise to avoid Google for privacy reasons, I see no problem with people making a choice to use YouTube if they want to. People can decide for themselves how much risk they're willing to take for the content hosted there. I totally respect people's choice to avoid Google to whatever limited extent that is possible, but I also respect people's choice to engage with Google on their own terms. I'd just hope that that choice is a well informed one. For me personally that means my use of youtube involves never logging into youtube, not using youtube to view the content hosted there (I either use NewPipe or yt-dlp to download videos and then use VLC to view them), avoiding searching for content I wouldn't want forever associated with my identity, blocking ads, blocking suggested videos, blocking comments, etc. it works pretty well for me.