The cat-and-mouse game between Google and ad blockers over YouTube ad blockers continues with a new episode that could be a big win for Google. The company has been trying to ban ad blocker extensions on YouTube for quite some time, but these programs have always found a way around Google’s ideas. This seems to indicate that Google may never be able to completely thwart all ad blocker apps. But it also suggests that extensions that block YouTube ads don’t always work.
Some users are starting to notice that YouTube is adopting a new type of ad technology that makes it harder for ad blockers to block ads. It seems that Google is considering server-side ad insertion that some ad blockers may not be able to block. Google is already testing the new ads, and some YouTube users are starting to find black, unskippable video segments that show nothing.
“I opened a YouTube video and was greeted with 6 seconds of non-skippable silence (presumably an ad blocked by ublock origin), which seems to suggest they’ll start inserting ads directly into the video stream going forward,” said a Reddit user. The user posted a screenshot showing a 6-second non-skippable black video segment, which seems to indicate that you can’t proceed to the video you want to watch.
Other Reddit users have also confirmed this issue. Some have said that refreshing the page fixes the problem. Another solution is to log out of your Google account. These solutions are likely temporary.
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As Android Police noted, Google posted an update about the YouTube extension to a YouTube community page on the same day that Reddit users began noticing the new unskippable ads.
Of course, it could all just be a coincidence, or Google could be taking some kind of action against ad-blocking extensions: In an update, Google said it was “upgrading safety standards for YouTube browser extensions.”
It’s unclear what “enhanced enforcement for these extensions” means, but the company said the new security features “help protect viewers and creators from cyberattacks, including hijacking and data theft.” Google didn’t name the extensions that the new security features affect.
Google says these mysterious changes will happen automatically. However, if you experience issues with extensions, you can disable them or use YouTube in an incognito window with all extensions disabled. You can read the announcement at this link.
I believe that ads should be part of the YouTube experience because otherwise we wouldn’t get the free content we want. But I also believe that Google is to blame for people hating YouTube ads so much. That said, it will be interesting to see what ad blocker developers come up with if this server-side ad insertion technology can block ad blockers.