YouTube is intentionally slowing video loading for customers with advert blockers enabled, in what seems to be an escalation in Google’s marketing campaign in opposition to ad-blocking extensions.
A number of customers across Reddit and the Brave browser forum report movies displaying black screens for the everyday period of pre-roll advertisements earlier than content material begins taking part in. The video participant concurrently exhibits a pop-up (“Experiencing interruptions? Discover out why”) with a hyperlink directing customers to a Google support page about disabling ad-blocking extensions, suggesting the slowdowns are intentional.
The latest crackdown is a shift from YouTube’s earlier techniques of merely displaying warning messages or blocking video playback solely. The brand new method inserts synthetic delays that mirror the time you’ll spend watching commercials, mainly forcing the identical annoying time funding, whether or not advertisements are blocked or not.
It seems to be like particular person accounts beforehand flagged for ad-blocking habits are being focused, probably bypassing detection strategies that extension builders usually use to counter YouTube’s measures. PCWorld confirmed the habits utilizing uBlock Origin Lite, whereas Courageous browser customers report related experiences regardless of the browser’s built-in ad-blocking capabilities.
Pop-up customers see throughout delays (Picture credit score: PCWorld)
This drama transfer suggests YouTube is ready to considerably degrade the person expertise for non-paying customers who refuse to view commercials or subscribe to the $13.99 month-to-month YouTube Premium service, which gives an ad-free expertise, offline downloads, and background playback.
For what it is value, YouTube just lately launched a Premium Lite plan for $7.99/month that removes advertisements for many movies, excluding music content material, Shorts, and whenever you search or browse.
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