Google admits it's making YouTube worse for ad block users

Whatever happens on my browser is client side, which is hardware and software I own. I can make what I own do what I want. It's a right.

It's like Google saying that I can't skim a magazine in my home, and that I must read the ads. Google can do what they want server-side, and I'll do what I want client-side.

Remember when every billionaire apologist was telling us how no one would do shit like this when net neutrality was being gutted?

This is a good time to make aware about an amazing privacy-centric & user-friendly alternative - Peertube. It is not a big network as of now but the benefits it provides over YouTube are large - it is a part of the fediverse. Of course, only through increasing participation will the network become bigger.

If you still wish to use YouTube, you can try third party front ends like Invidious or Piped on the browser; NewPipe(Also is a front end for Soundcloud, media.ccc.de, Peertube & Bandcamp) or LibreTube on Android.

If you only browse YT Music, you can try HyperPipe in the browser. There are many apps for it available on F-Droid, an alternative app store for Android. My personal pick is ViMusic.

Well that's only fair.

It already made it worse for non-adblock users.

However bad they may make it, it can't possibly be worse than it is for non-adblock users.

But hey, if they want to torpedo their own services, have at it. It's not like they have a reputation for it or anything....

I don't know why they think this change is going to get anyone to switch.

5 seconds of nothing is still way better than a minute-long ad

Fuck Google and YouTube, but the title is misleading, and it's an article from three weeks ago. I'm quite surprised that this post is so upvoted, and nobody else flagged this before.

Are they, though? I’ve been using Firefox and uBlock Origin for years and I’ve not had an issue other than needing to manually update my filters three times since this started.

And freetube is making it so much better.

Weren't adblocker-blockers judged going against gdpr?

Great, I'll use it less if that's the case 🤷

By the looks of these default recommended videos, Youtube is great for bigots and authright traitors.

We'll still figure out ways to get around ads. So suck it Google.

I mean they've also consistently been making YouTube worse for everyone not using Adblock, so it's only fair.

As a premium subscriber, it's definitely gotten worse for me over the last month. Whatever they're doing on the back end, it's pretty terrible.

WHAT?! I didn't believe it for a second when the whole planet immediately noticed at the same time!

But then again, they DID admit it. Which means they have nothing to hide! And that's transparent, and bold. We should reward companies for doing the right thing. Not only criticize them when they didn't do wrong!

Tinkle Fingerent!

Long time family premium user (household of parents and kids). Anything Youtube do to preserve their revenue within reason doesn't bother me too much as long as they don't reduce the split with quality creators. If they were successful with all this bullshit perhaps they wouldn't have needed to notify me that subs are almost doubling next year. My guess is all they are doing is fucking things up for everyone. It is only going to get worse if their premium subscription base reduces. They should be pricing premium as an alternative to ad-blockers but instead they are pushing people including premium subscribers towards ad-blockers.

I already have ad-blockers and apps for circumventing youtube ads. Not using them in favour of a fairly priced (to me) subscription was a choice but sadly one Google seems to be discouraging.

*Laughs with RSS feeds, Invidious redirects, Newpipe and Sponsorblock.

The CEO said shareholders needs to be appeased by making new sacrifice

Fuck YouTube

Are they making it worse than ads make it?

My biggest problem with the ads is that it's louder than the thing I'm watching, oftentimes a lot.

They are sometimes an hour long and I gotta press the skip ad button with my nose cause it'll take me ten minutes or more to clean up.

I have no love for the automatic gadgets where you can speak your commands. They get suggested by my coworkers quite a bit.

They want too much for what is ultimately hours of people playing chess.

(⁠╯⁠°⁠□⁠°⁠）⁠╯⁠︵⁠ ⁠┻⁠━⁠┻

Despite their wasted efforts, it just doesn’t matter. Circumventing all this is still too easy. Only the impatient are doomed.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Google has admitted its efforts to discourage the use of ad blockers now includes delaying the start of videos – a deliberate "suboptimal viewing" experience, as the corporation put it.

Earlier this year, YouTube began interrupting videos for those using advert blockers with a pop-up encouraging them to either disable the offending extension or filter, or pay for YT's ad-free premium tier.

In a statement to The Register, Google admitted it was intentionally making its content less binge-able for users unwilling to turn off offending extensions, though this wasn't linked to any one browser.

To be clear, Google's business model revolves around advertising, and ad blockers are specifically called out as being in violation of its terms of service.

Google told us users who have uninstalled their ad blockers may continue to experience temporary delays loading videos, though the issue should resolve itself after "refreshing their browser."

As we reported earlier this month, the search giant will be pushing ahead with a planned API change in June that will render legacy Chrome extensions – including ad blockers – useless unless they are overhauled.

The original article contains 468 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 61%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

As a Premium user who still had uBlock installed, I was noticing the other day a loading problem when I had it activated until I deactivated and reloaded. Still, Google is entirely within it's right to target people even according to one of its greatest critics: https://youtu.be/KMLMQRS3Krk?si=topYLrXiiYqpF1GE&t=175

It doesn't seem to be working for me. I've never been blocked for using ad blockers. It's still the same speed it's always been. I have all these work arounds just waiting to be used that I haven't even had to actually try.

Are they only doing this shit to like 12 people who write articles about it? Why wouldn't it be globally done all at once for everyone?

It just doesn't play on my Firefox anymore.

Still using Vivaldi with only the built-in ad blocking, still noticing no ads, still noticing zero performance issues.

They are a business that makes money off of ads. Nothing to see here.

I have LIbreWolf with uBlock Origin and NoScript (and Redirector I can turn on to redirect me from watching videos on YouTube.com to YewTu.be on a moments notice of something funky going on with YouTube), and so far, I have not noticed any ads or anything for a long time. I'm probably at the point of beginning to wonder what a YouTube Ad is.

Still not going to give them a dollar ever.

Youtube is still fast for me though.

This is not new. They started doing this when the adblock detection was ramping up too

The official YouTube app is slso terrible, so maybe it's their excuse for terrible products?

Why can't people just stop using google? Genuinely curious

Sure if you consider captcha to be a punishment. Poor baby.

I use VPNs but I'm not going to be a slave or a fanboy to avoiding facts and reality.

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