It seems that YouTube has begun to adopt desperate measures, and it is that with the purpose of be able to generate income, Well, it has recently implemented a new tactic to counteract ad blockers.
Personally, I had recently read on the subject and I had not noticed anything strange, since I use both Edge (for Game Pass tasks), Chrome (for work), Firefox and Brave (for personal matters) and in all of them (except Brave) I use Adblock Plus.
In Brave so far I haven't noticed anything, since even on Android I use it to listen to news and videos of interest while I'm moving or doing activities. But in Chrome hUntil recently, exactly what I had read about the changes on YouTube happened to me.
And is that if you are using an ad blocker, when trying to play a video, you will be taken directly to the end of it, skipping playback entirely. Additionally, YouTube also disables the audio of the video. In other words, even if you can prevent the video from being skipped, you will experience playback without sound.
While some believe it is a strategy by Google to force users to pay for a YouTube Premium subscription, others point out that the problem is more localized, mainly affecting AdBlock Plus users, as the current approach could be driving the adoption of tactics that negatively affect users who prefer the free service, incentivizing them to pay for a free experience. advertisements.
In 2023, some users started noticing pop-up warnings on YouTube which said that “ad blockers are not allowed on the video sharing platform.” These pop-ups included the message: “turn off your ad blocker or subscribe to YouTube Premium.”
A YouTube spokesperson confirmed this experience, saying that the company strongly recommends users try YouTube Premium or allow ads on the platform. “We're running a small experiment globally to encourage viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium. Detection of ad blockers is not new and other publishers routinely ask viewers to disable them,” the spokesperson explained.
Between the "benefits" offered by a YouTube Premium subscription, is found to allow users watch videos without ads, play videos in the background while using other applications, Download videos to watch them offline and access YouTube Music (coincidentally, many functions that third-party apps already offered and without paying)
And is that to some extent the battle that has declared YouTube to ad blockers, could be understandable, Because during the Covid-19 pandemic it was one of the main sources of income for many, both streamers, content creators, gamers, musicians and even many entertainment media figures.
But to date, the number of ads is already excessive that appear in the videos and the worst part is that even the advertising videos are usually longer than the video you are playing (on one occasion I had a 15-minute advertising video).
YouTube has a lot to think about, since there are many users who have complained on various sites on the Internet and many reach the same conclusion, "reduce the number of ads", but it seems that YouTube is determined to implement more and more aggressive methods to encourage advertising. adoption of its Premium service and discourage the use of ad blockers, users have found alternative solutions.
And for their part, users use specific extensions like uBlock Origin, while others turn to add-ons that automatically accelerate ads on YouTube. There are also users who have discovered that setting up a VPN with a location in Albania can prevent advertising on YouTube, possibly because Google's advertising platform does not support the Albanian language. These solutions are used on both mobile devices and desktop computers.