What you need to know
- A discovery made by the developers of SponsorBlock shows that YouTube has started experimenting with server-side “injectable” ads.
- This method would see ads become one with the streamed video content instead of being presented to your device as a separate entity.
- YouTube’s new efforts would make it extremely difficult for ad blockers should this become widespread, though it might not signal the end of them.
Developers of a crowdfunded ad blocker have reportedly spotted evidence of YouTube’s efforts to make it more difficult to block ads.
The folks who developed SponsorBlock reported via an X post that YouTube might make ad blocking harder with “server-side” ads (via 9to5Google). The creators call it an “injection,” which would mean that ads are a part of the video’s stream instead of a separate entity.
This poses a problem as ad blockers grab an ad’s information (data) through that disconnect between it and the streamed video. The developers go in depth through a GitHub FAQ, stating that this likely isn’t the end of ad blockers in the general sense. However, things will become increasingly difficult if this moves through.
A user on Reddit has already spotted these new server-side ads as YouTube kickstarted its test. Their post details their usage of Firefox and the uBlock browser extension for snuffing out ads in videos.
They report that this isn’t working; even changing a few settings has proved useless.
This is going to break adblockers as well from r/youtube
YouTube has been at war with ad blockers for a while now, like giving users three strikes before cutting them off from its service. There was even word of YouTube emailing users about their continued usage of ad blockers and how doing so would result in a loss of access.
The company then stepped up its battle against ad block creators, warning that those attempting to do so and create such extensions would lose API access.
In late May, users reported encountering some frustrating issues when enabling an ad blocker on YouTube. Folks encountered videos skipping to the end or even muting if the platform detected an ad blocker. YouTube promptly denied those issues as being part of its efforts to combat blockers.
All of these issues have reportedly led to an increase in ad block uninstalls, leaving users with the choice of YouTube Premium or sitting still until that “skip ad” button appears.