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Youtube

YouTube Begins Skipping Videos for Ad-Blocker Users (androidpolice.com) 193

Posted by msmash from the escalating-matters dept.
YouTube's latest move against ad blockers involves skipping videos straight to the end or muting audio for users with ad blockers enabled, according to user reports. This follows previous tests by the Google-owned platform, including blocking playback after three videos and slowing down load times for ad-blocker users.
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YouTube Begins Skipping Videos for Ad-Blocker Users More

YouTube Begins Skipping Videos for Ad-Blocker Users

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  • FreeTube (Score:5, Informative)

    by RegistrationIsDumb83 ( 6517138 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @04:39AM (#64504499)
    The FreeTube alternate client still works great, and even lets you manage subscriptions locally without an account. Has built in sponsor block, too!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jonwil ( 467024 )

      Until YouTube sends them a takedown notice or hits them with a lawsuit...

      • Re: FreeTube (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Cward ( 10374574 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @05:32AM (#64504553)
        They need a name and address for a lawsuit so no dice. It uses a Protonmail account and I suspect the developer has not been using a real identity as it is not required for GitHub. That means while a takedown could be possible, the developer could just voluntarily take their code down, recommending a new project in its place which just so happens to be similar, because it is actually the same developer under a new identity.

        More realistically: Since it is just an Electron app which makes use of other FOSS projects in a convenient way, GitHub would likely help fight the claims the same way they did for youtube-dl and yt-dlp, and Google knows that.
    • And Newpipe on andriod

    • Unfortunately, those alternatives do not work over a Chromecast device or a Chromecast compatible TV (and the TV doesn't allow for installing arbitrary apps, unfortunately, either)...

  • yt-dlp (Score:4, Interesting)

    by AncalagonTotof ( 1025748 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @04:59AM (#64504525)
    Last solution may be, but efficient one : yt-dlp [github.com]

  • YouTube without blockers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @05:09AM (#64504533)

    I tried using YouTube without a blocker for a bit a while ago when my blocker was temporarily not working due to one of their crack downs. It was a terrible experience and if they ever figured out a way to keep all blockers off their site I just wouldnt use YouTube due to this. The worst for me is the skippable after a few seconds ads as they mean I have to constantly interact with the video and cant just let it run or I'm stuck watching 5 minute+ worth of commercial.

    I know companies need to make money and if the service is free then yeah, there's got to be ads so I dont begrudge them for that. What they've done with their ads has so degraded their service it's not even worth using without a blocker though.

    • The way they mess with content and the already worsening website is why I stopped watching anything on YouTube years ago. Free use does not mean accepting it in any form.

      Frankly, I don't miss anything. If other websites offer what information I look for only through video links to YouTube, I never use them again.

      It also feels kind of cheap and lazy when commercial sites don't bother hosting supposedly important video content themselves.
      Understandable, but cheap.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by N1AK ( 864906 )
      If you're using an ad-blocker and have been using it long enough that how much worse the experience is without ad-block then you've been a net cost to YouTube for a considerable period; as ad-blocking has become more widespread websites have been increasing the density of adverts to try and extract more revenue from the decreasing proportion of users who accept it.

      I'm with you in feeling like the YouTube experience has gotten much worse, especially without ad-blocking, but I haven't seen a particularly c

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by skam240 ( 789197 )

        If you're using an ad-blocker and have been using it long enough that how much worse the experience is without ad-block then you've been a net cost to YouTube for a considerable period; as ad-blocking has become more widespread websites have been increasing the density of adverts to try and extract more revenue from the decreasing proportion of users who accept it.

        At the time I had actually thought I did not use any ad blocking on Youtube and was surprised that I was. I'm pretty sure I had installed Ublock Origin a few years prior for some other purpose and had just been ignorantly enjoying its benefits on Youtube since.

      • Net cost (Score:5, Insightful)

        by BankRobberMBA ( 4918083 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @06:47AM (#64504621)

        I'm not sure that's correct. Even if you don't watch ads as video interruptions Google is mining your viewing habits and aggregating that to your 'consumer profile.' The ads you see on all of the Google owned websites and services are partially driven by this.

        I would be more forgiving of this if they had not first deliberately driven all competition from the market to become a monopoly. As it is, F YouTube.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Zumbs ( 1241138 )

        I haven't seen a particularly compelling argument for what they should be doing instead that doesn't effectively ignore the idea that they want to make money.

        I think YouTube Premium lets you pay some money to avoid ads. That is certainly an alternative, and I am considering it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by flink ( 18449 )

        My former ad blocker didn't work on YT. When it was just a 15-second ad at the beginning or end with maybe a midroll if it was a long video, I didn't mind. Then they cranked up the ads so much that I sought out one that could block YT. I'd be interested to see how that squeezing of tolerant / ignorant users is working out in terms of forcing people to ad block vs getting more revenue out of the remaining users.

    • Have AdBlockers gone to silently accepting the ads?

      I use Premium and only listen to something not downloaded like 5% of the time, and on 1.5x, so I don't know much about AdBlockers but with variable playback speeds and buffering, the arms race is tricky to escalate to timing calculations.

      I guess if you get a Google Watch they could make sure you're not off taking a piss while the ad plays too.

      How far they wanna push this?

      "I'm sorry, Dave - playback cannot continue until you put your watch back on."

      Just go f

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )

        Have AdBlockers gone to silently accepting the ads?

        AdBlock has an option to "Allow some non-intrusive advertising" and "Allow ads on specific YouTube channels". No clue when those options showed up, or how they actually work. I've left them enabled, fwiw, and my browsing experience has been tolerable, particularly on YT. I haven't been harassed on there about having an adblock for a while. The usual "we've detected an adblocker, please disable it to continue" shit still pops up elsewhere.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      You post is basically I understand they have to have adds but darn it, its for the normies to have to watch'em not me.

      The reality is at least at the macro level, the more people that watch youtube with an ad blocker the less revenue it generates while the costs either remain flat or go up because people burn bandwidth watching who otherwise would not bother - give or take whatever valuation you want to place on whatever metrics Google is still able to gather.

      Less revenue means less to share with the monetiz

  • I don't get why they didn't just insert the ads into the video stream directly on the server side. That would make them harder to skip. it would suck for viewers, but would achieve their goals of annoying people into paying their subscription fee...

    • Re:why do adblockers even work for YT? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dargaud ( 518470 ) <slashdot2@@@gdargaud...net> on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @06:01AM (#64504579) Homepage
      Then they would be even easier to skip: just jump to the right time. A blocker with a database of the right time to jump for each video would be constructed by the 1st watchers of each video.

      • These ad videos don't remain static or attached to the content you are trying to watch. Every time you watch a single video, the ad before it (and the length of that ad) could change.

        • A database of ads could store a hash of a few frames to quickly determine which ad then reply back with ad length and skip forward.

          At worst you'd see a quick blip of the ad before it skipped as that process happened in the background.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tomz16 ( 992375 )

          These ad videos don't remain static or attached to the content you are trying to watch. Every time you watch a single video, the ad before it (and the length of that ad) could change.

          So just splice them in at some randomized keyframe and landmine those chunks if they are requested from the server. Once your client requests an ad-bearing chunk in the stream, deny all other requests for (non-ad) stream chunks at the server for (length_of_ad)-(length_of_current_stream_buffer) wallclock time. That defeats both sponsorbblock-like blacklisting AND skipping the ad by any third-party client. You could still presumably download the file for offline viewing with some third-party download tool

          • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

            by Opportunist ( 166417 )

            Just forget it. I've played whack-a-mole with more enthusiastic opponents.

            Please don't forget that for me (read: the person who enjoys thwarting your efforts) this is a game. I don't do that for the money. It's enjoyable to see your attempts to screw with my experience go to waste. Whether that's ads in videos or copy protection schemes in video games, all your money spent to create the better blocker does is provide me with a new chew toy to sink my teeth into.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by flink ( 18449 )

        The video server could refuse to skip past the ad window until all the ad frames have been served.

    • Cost.

      First, there's the work to merge the two video streams into one. That would be a one-time technology cost.
      Second, and more important, the ads don't come from the same servers, and maybe not even from Google's infrastructure. Funneling these ads through Google's infrastructure would add a significant ongoing cost to Google, for things like bandwidth.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by flink ( 18449 )

        Cost.

        Second, and more important, the ads don't come from the same servers, and maybe not even from Google's infrastructure. Funneling these ads through Google's infrastructure would add a significant ongoing cost to Google, for things like bandwidth.

        So make an API the ad server can call indicating that it has served enough frames from the ad for steam X that the user is now allowed to skip. Then the YT video server could refuse to serve any more frames from the content until it gets the confirmation from the ad server.

  • Enshittification word triplet (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Errol backfiring ( 1280012 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @06:12AM (#64504585) Journal
    After "embrace, extend, extinguish", the current strategy is now "buy, enshittify, extinguish".
  • I admit to rarely using it, but several of my family members give it that alternative name.

  • Entropy incarnate. (Score:3)

    by Eunomion ( 8640039 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @06:37AM (#64504601)
    Instead of working to improve user experience, they treat people like prey and find a million petty ways to squeeze them. It's already virtually unusable to content creators because they've automated copyright takedowns and no human employees are ever available to contact. Now they don't even want the homogenized slop that does get through to even be watchable.

    People are morons for migrating to a China-controlled platform like TikTok, but I can see the pressure to find something that isn't Youtube.
  • It's not at all surprising that Google would be being peevish about adblocking, given basically their entire business model; but it seems weird that they'd be going with behavior that isn't readily distinguishable from a technical glitch, especially to a nontechnical user.

    The actually-paying-attention will find it pretty easy to compare behavior with and without an adblocker enabled, even if they have no ability to dig any deeper, so it's not like obfuscation hides anything from the people they need to w
  • How many services start ad free then change.....this has been happening for over 20 years ! Promises made, promises broken !! Greed is bottom line. Promise to myself when I cancelled DishTV over 11 years ago was to watch anything ad free if possible. Personal preference not to waste "my time" watching ads. YT is causing load time issues, so be it. I upvote and subscribe to different channels so that does help monetize them.

  • Ads are how it pays for the video streaming service. I tried ad blockers once but so much stuff stopped working or loading, so I don't care anymore. I rarely buy crap that's advertised anyway, and if something looks interesting, I'll search to find the best price (which is hardly ever from the ad site itself).

  • Every time an ad begins, it counts as its impression. Most videos have from one to three ads in their start, then there are a few, usually single ads during the actual video content, and the classic who-cares-how-many-at-the-end that nobody watches (unless you let videos playing by itself). Every time an ad start, just reload the video. It either jumps straight to the next ad or right to the video. Rinse and repeat. Annoying, but free of blockers, works on any platform, does not break any rules, policies or

    • "Ads make money. Content does not." is the corporate attitude behind so many hard to skip ads while simultaneously reducing the value of content to users through numerous content punishing policies.

      I had to learn a whole new vocabulary to watch some content because so many normal English words will get a video banned.

  • Half-measures won't do it (Score:5, Funny)

    by ForTheVeryLastTime ( 1777610 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @07:23AM (#64504671)

    Here's my suggestion to Google/Alphabet/YouTube for handling adblock users:

    - make sure to pre-load lots of irrelevant content (AI-narrated video listicles or movie trailers will do), thereby sucking up bandwidth and wasting the user's time
    - before the actual video, play a 45-second mix of white noise and "Daisy, Daisy" played on a badly tuned piano, at full volume
    - pause the video every 15 seconds or so and when the user tries to resume, show an "experiencing interruptions?" pop-up

    If this is implemented properly, the user experience will at least start to approach that of a non-adblock user, and perhaps those using adblockers will finally reconsider their choices and go to Rumble, Bitchute, or Odysee instead.

    Oh, you wanted to force them to PAY you for the privilege of watching uninterrupted videos? Sorry, I've got nothing.

  • Drop in the bucket (Score:3)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @07:24AM (#64504673) Journal

    I really have to wonder how many people watch YouTube via HTML with a browser supporting ad blockers, and who actually have installed them. The vast majority of people I know that watch YouTube do so with the YouTube app on cellphones and tablets, or streaming devices (Roku, Firestick, Apple TV), none of which have a reasonable option for ad blocking at all.

    So surely the amount of people actually blocking ads is a miniscule drop in the bucket of overall views, unless I'm really missing something going on with ad blocking.

    • I'm that guy. I watch YT on iPad safari with half a dozen ad blocker and privacy+ extensions.

      I do not have an account. I watch anonymously (as much as that exists today). I do not get any ads or viewing glitches, ever.

      Fingers crossed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by flink ( 18449 )

      When I watch on my phone I use Firefox with uBlock Origin. On my Android TV, I use SmartTube.

  • When you take the nearly "free to the user" product that got you where you are, cripple it, then offer the non- crippled product back with a hefty price tag.
    It's as if giant corporations want everything in our lives to be a subscription service. If one didn't know better, one might be lead to think that they'll happily fuck over their customer so that their board can buy that third yacht to park their second yacht in.
    If one didn't know better, of course.

  • GenX (Score:2, Interesting)

    by CohibaVancouver ( 864662 )
    I guess maybe it's because I'm GenX, but this insane recoil from ads confuses me.

    When I was growing up ads were on broadcast television. On the radio. On the newspapers and magazines we read. Our comic books were full of them. You just tuned them out.

    On YouTube I get to watch a useful 20-minute video for free, in exchange for a few ads, 75% of which I can skip over after a few seconds. Just doesn't bother me.

    But maybe that's my generation. I dunno.

    • Re:GenX (Score:5, Insightful)

      by StormReaver ( 59959 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @08:37AM (#64504835)

      I guess maybe it's because I'm GenX, but this insane recoil from ads confuses me.

      I'm GenX, and I consider accepting ads after a lifetime of being bombarded with them to be the insanity.

      When I was growing up ads were on broadcast television. On the radio. On the newspapers and magazines we read. Our comic books were full of them.

      Yet you don't understand why we're sick and tired of them? You answered your own question. They're everywhere.

      It just occurred to me that you have have never experienced a day without ad bombardment, so you have no idea how pleasant a life without them actually is. Here's an experiment for you: put down the comic books, turn off the TV and radio, install uBlock Origin, and experience a day without ads. Then you'll understand.

      • ```
        I'm GenX, and I consider accepting ads after a lifetime of being bombarded with them to be the insanity.
        ```

        Which economic model do you prefer to keep YouTube available without ads?

        Genuinely curious.

        Do you buy YouTube Premium, or should it be free and ad-free?

        • They already track me across the entire net, profiled me, and sell my data to third parties without my permission.

          That's enough. I don't owe them any more of my time or attention.

        • Re: GenX (Score:4, Insightful)

          by ToasterMonkey ( 467067 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @10:43AM (#64505139) Homepage

          The quality of the ads is everything. Internet ads seem to be the sleaziest, right now it's all about hawking full body deodorant for your sweaty ass crack or some other viral TikTok scam. The breaks are random and unexpected. There is a level of repetition that doesn't feel right, like the same ads in each block back to back.

          If it were broadcast tv, it's sort of like the difference between ads at 4 AM and the ones at 4 PM. Streaming and internet ads feel like shit tier all the time. Targeted ads are like being bombarded with commercials for something you asked a store clerk about once, you either bought it already or made up your mind not to.

      • I'm GenX, and I consider accepting ads after a lifetime of being bombarded with them to be the insanity.

        You could always just pay for Youtube premium instead of feeling some sense of entitlement to complain about your Terms of Service workaround being blocked. You do that right? Either not use Youtube or subscribe to Youtube Premium? No one owes you a Youtube video for free.

    • It's not a generational thing, at all, as another so-called "gen-x".

      Ads suck, and using something like Brave all of a sudden makes browsing faster and more pleasant. I'm done being shilled to. Not their business model? Too bad, it's not my "business model" to waste my time giving attention to shouting ads for products I will never buy.

      If there's a technical way to avoid ads, I'll do it. If there isn't - I will simplify my life and cut YouTube out of it.

    • Re:GenX (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dskoll ( 99328 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @09:21AM (#64504903) Homepage

      I'm GenX too and I ruthlessly block ads. Ads on TV could not be personalized and didn't try to mine data from you. Internet ads are completely different and more intrusive.

    • Re:GenX (Score:4, Insightful)

      by caseih ( 160668 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @09:27AM (#64504923)

      Sure we had ads. Only on tv and radio...and in magazines...and movies. And at ball games, on buses, and milk cartons, and t-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky. But not in dreams! No sirree.

      I suppose I'm gen X as well, and yes we did grow up with lots of ads. But ads in newspapers and magazines didn't blink and flash and make noise and play music. And they tended to be more relevant to the probable interests of the reader. For example, ads in magazines like Popular Mechanics tended to sell products of actual interest to the reader.

      Ads on television did (to an extend) but were much shorter than they are now, and not quite as loud. Over the years the amount of ads vs content has steadily increased, an the amount of show vs ads has decreased, and the volume compared to normal programming is louder.

      But the honestly worst came when advertising began on the internet. Obnoxious, in your face, and increasingly dangerous (malware) and fraudulent. Besides that, ads in the past did not track you and turn you into the product.

      The advertising business is really reflecting how noisy and distracting the modern world has become and it's not good for anyone's mental health. Everyone is shouting for attention and I will have no part of it. Maybe people are so afraid of quiet and hearing nothing that they actually like advertisements as you do. I dunno.

    • It is about the frequency, amount, and intrusiveness of ads. Going to a website and having something passive on the side... yes. Having two ads take over large amounts of screen with sound and video, where you have less than a postage stamp of space to view stuff, hell with that. Scrolling along, then taken to a third party site because they did a pop-over? Won't get me to buy stuff, but definitely ensure I use a blocker. Sites that demand you disable adblocking utilities, then try to force downloads o

    • Re:GenX (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Waffle Iron ( 339739 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @11:04AM (#64505201)

      When I was growing up ads were on broadcast television.

      I've been skipping ads on broadcast television since my family got its first VCR circa 1979.

    • I'm also GenX. The thing is, advertising works. Even for people who think they are "immune" to advertising. It's a multi-billion dollar industry for a reason. It effects our thought processes and purchasing decisions. It's really just propaganda with a commercial end. It skews your perception of what's normal and what you ought to have and wear.

      The point is that adblocking saves you more money than you can imagine.

      • Advertisement used to be there to describe the product. In the 80's some TV advertisements actually made me think 'that was cool' or 'useful'.

        We have internet now, I can go on their website and look up the feature list or see their description that pushes new features.

        It is 30+ years later, and now advertisements are just there to remind you that 'hey we still exist'. That is not an advertisement but a true nag, and they have multiplied like rabbits while becoming completely intrusive instead of point
    • Similar generation, but I saw even the ads on the TV become ridiculously long to the point that a DVR is mandatory to skip the darned things. 3 or 4 minutes of commercials every 15 minutes? Sure I tolerated that hour long shows used to be 50 minutes vs 10 for commercials. Then it was 48 and 12. Then it was 42 and 18, anything beyond that ratio isn't worth my time unless it is on in the background or can be skipped on DVR.

      Streaming is way beyond that ratio which is tolerable making it to the point of ridi

  • I'm a YouTube Premium customer and pay them 11 Euros per month for them not to get pissy with me. If they do, they'l lose me as a customer.

    • I'm a Premium subscriber as well, we watch enough of it to be worth the money. I did notice last time around when they started screwing with ad blockers, that the computers where I was logged in on with the premium account was not affected.

  • It's very easy for even Premium users (I know, because I am one) to notice the changes.

    Just a few months ago Youtube became so buggy on various browsers, first Chrome, where it would freeze mid play, or several times during play.
    Then on Edge, it would throttle so you can't fast forward anymore, sometimes even freezing.
    Then in firefox it became the same hell as on Chrome.

    Youtube is now effectively useless for even Premium users.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      Premium user here, having none of these issues.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jetkust ( 596906 )

        Premium user here, having none of these issues.

        Yep, same here. But I also almost never use a browser to watch YouTube. It's either Roku, Fire Stick, or phone app.

  • Where do any competitors send the Thank You cards or flowers for the funeral?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by caseih ( 160668 )

      What competitors? It's true that many of the creators I watch on YouTube also post to Odysee and a couple other sites. And we've got very old video sites still out there like DailyMotion, Vimeo, etc. But they are just a tiny minority compared to the vast majority of people posting videos to YouTube. And there's no way Odysee or any other niche video service has the resources (money) to compete with YouTube on the same scale.

      YouTube's only real competitor is TikTok.

  • Good! (Score:3)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @09:19AM (#64504899)

    Hopefully this makes YouTube less popular, and when I'm looking for instructions on how to do something I can get a nice wall of text and diagrams instead of everyone posting rambling videos trying to get enough time for monetization.

  • I never go to the YouTube website and only use newpipe. I'll stop using YouTube before I watch ads or remove my ad blockers.

  • I think they ran some trials a while ago (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @09:56AM (#64504997)

    I seem to recall some of the stuff described in TFS happening shortly after they trialled denying videos when the browser blocked ads, so I'm not surprised by what I'm reading here. My browser blocks all ads, and that's never going to change, so YouTube may soon become unusable to me. That will suck, but oh well...

    I may get some extra time via the FreeTube program on my laptop and the NewPipe app on my phone, but I expect Google to find a way to plug those holes in the not-too-distant future. Even as it is, when I find videos I know I'm going to want to watch again I use yt-dlp to download them. I guess I'm going to be doing that even more from now on. 'Cause when I can't watch YT without ads, I won't watch it at all.

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