The Morning After: YouTube’s fight against ad blockers led to ‘sub-optimal’ viewing
YouTube started cracking down on ad blockers earlier this year, but it escalated things this month when it locked out anyone trying to watch YouTube through apps, add-ons and extensions that skip its ads.
It's even affected a lot of YouTube viewers not using workarounds though, with Firefox or Edge users reportedly having to wait around five seconds every time they load a video. In screen recordings shared on Reddit and other online forums, users show how their screen goes blank for a short period when they click on a YouTube video before the page loads, but we couldn't replicate this at Engadget.
Based on code found by some Y Combinator and Reddit posters, Google's anti-ad blocker mechanism may be causing the delays. The company said users with ad blockers installed may experience suboptimal viewing," no matter which browser they use.
- Mat Smith
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-youtubes-fight-against-ad-blockers-led-to-sub-optimal-viewing-121559650.html?src=rss