YouTube is slowing down for users with ad blockers in new wave

A new wave of slowdowns is hitting users, with the only resolutions being disabling the ad blocker or upgrading to premium.

Or just switching to ublock origin.

Or just switching to newpipe.

Or just switching to freetube.

etc

etc

etc

And still, I’m more likely to stop using YouTube than to stop using an ad blocker.

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I really wish government would just come in already and shatter google into a million pieces with the anti-monopoly hammer already.

Google is far worse than AT&T ever was when it was shattered into the baby bells.

Just gotta learn from AT&T to not let them re-congeal back together like somekind of fucked up liquid metal terminator 20+ years down the line.

Frankly, I'd stop using YouTube entirely before I'd start using it without an adblocker. At least there are no signs of it slowing down for me, yet.

Watching YouTube load slowly is better than watching ads.

"We'll make our service worse, that'll show them!"

Ok google, good luck with that.

I will download videos then. I refuse to not use an adblocker on the modern internet.

I wish we can fast forward to the part where Youtube completely destroys itself and a new platform takes its place so we can enjoy it for 10 years before the enshittification cycle restarts again.

So I have YouTube premium but also have ad-blocker, for the first time yesterday I was noticing absolutely abysmal speeds on YouTube and I suspect this is why. I thought my computer was starting to shit the bed initially it was so brutal.

Oh no (continues to watch on freetube) anyway....

I dusted off an old laptop, put debian on it, put an SSD and now I have my own invidious instance, among other services...

No ads, no throttling, no bullshit. Google is very welcome to suck it. I'd gladly stop using youtube, but there's no competition.

That's why Invidious exists.

I don't have an ad blocker, I just have the standard strict tracking protection enabled in Firefox. What's more, I pay for YouTube Premium. But still they add a five-second delay every time I visit a web page. It's infuriating.

Why are there so many PornHub alternatives but only a handful of YouTube alternatives?

Don't worry, YouTube, I won't be using your website anymore. But my yt-dl will be ripping max quality videos by the hundreds, just for shits and giggles.

Apparently this seems to be mainly affecting Chrome users, lol.

And this is why we use Newpipe

YouTube speed has been shit ever since they stopped actually buffering.

Anything better than listening 3 songs and getting 5 ads.

Stop being trash youtube. Be normal like you once were and i would actually consider a paid subscription IF i get to fully exclude shorts on my side of the platform.

Nationalize YouTube.

Specifically, nationalize the backend, Google can keep their website. And place it in the hands of something like the UN, rather than any specific country. I hardly trust Uncle Sam any more than Google's investors. They've successfully monopolized video hosting, now turn it into a public resource.

And open it up to the world, too. Google might get to keep their website, but everyone else can access the same database, too. May the best front end win.

I don't always click on a YouTube ad, but when I do it's a UI failure because it's an accidental click. How much do you want to bet this crackdown is a distraction from the fact their ad system doesn't perform as well as advertised?

Good things come to those who wait (and block ads)

Fuck YouTube

Trying to use it via Firefox is pointless. I just downloaded the video and pirated. Fuck YouTube.

Been using revanced, sometimes using Iceraven (ff fork) w/ ublock origin on phone, and using librewolf (another ff fork) also w/ ublock origin on desktop. So far never encountered slow down since November 2023.

Is this slow down only on select extension issue? Although when it first happend (late 2023) I was thrown up by sudden yt not loading on my librewolf but it only happend only on single day, afterward it gone.

I am for sure one of the smaller number of people doing this, but I watch YouTube on my TV using the TV app. As a result I always had to watch ads. I wish I could avoid them. I suppose a could watch from an alternative and then AirPlay it to my TV, but that’s about it.

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I feel its slowing down Smarttube too, because I have to wait a few seconds for the video to start now. I don't know if it's a bug

I remember when they first put ads in and people rebelled. Frogs in a pot because it's not like any of you will actually use peertube

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Man, it's wild to see Youtube kill themselves in real time.

Can someone create (or does it already exist?) an app that plays the videos in the background, remove the ads and then let you playback the whole video ad-free? Sort of like you did back in the VHS-days....

Try opening a link from Gmail in Firefox or searching Google for a specific piece of information. SSDD. Fuck Google. At this point they're in par with the evil Amazon.

I do not care. I only watch 10 channels and these are in my favorites. I do not use the algorithm and thanks to European law the frontpage is deactivated. I also ever watch only one video per day and then do something else, so they can slow down the website as much as they want since I am not scrolling. I click on a channel and on a video, that's it. If it gets too bad I rather not use Youtube anymore, it is not the end of the world.

Does it affect Invidious front-end as well?? I have been noticing that for a while now, but I thought maybe it is because the page doesn't use native yt js code to track video download. the same videos would load battery smooth when accessed through YT.

I’m not very tech savvy, my Adblock sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. I’ve been using Firefox with extensions incognito for YouTube or I just avoid the site these days. I really liked it for music videos, since in unwilling to pay Spotify. So far my strategy is working.

Wasn't this confirmed to be an AdBlock (Plus) bug? https://twitter.com/gorhill/status/1746263759495077919

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Lol

i feel like this has been going on for months now no? or maybe it's the fact that my laptop is 11 years old now lol

Never seen the "turn off your adblock prompt" because I never login to Google. Not that hard.

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I don't understand how anyone can put up with youtube without premium. Every time I visit a friends house I am shocked at the level of bullshit they are ok with. I'd pay a lot more than 10 bucks.

Yes. You people just cost money. Pay, or find a new service. I'm not so sure what's confusing about this.

Google isn't going to let you use the service for free anymore.

Edit: Reading comprehension seems to be at an all time low. None of this has to do with you liking YouTube or not. Nobody cares if you don't like Google's data farming. It's 100% irrelevant.