YouTube is stepping up its fight against ad blockers by using a pop-up that warns users that they’ll need to remove privacy-preserving extensions in order to use the service.
Initial verification (seeing a pop-up saying “ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube” and asking users to turn them off) began on YouTube in May. It began growing in October among a global audience on YouTube, angering users, who took to sites like Reddit to complain.
Unfortunately for anyone who wanted a U-turn on the ban, it looks like YouTube’s ad blocker crackdown is working. Ad blocking companies have shared figures showing “hundreds of thousands” of people uninstalling ad blockers in October, according to an article on Wired.
Yet, at the same time, record numbers of people installed new ad blockers as users rushed to find alternatives that wouldn’t trigger YouTube’s pop-up. Some users even tried Microsoft’s Edge as they looked to escape the ad blocker ban, according to Wired.
The crackdown on ad blockers came after tests on users’ tolerance for an increased number of ads. It also came when the value of YouTube Premium increased from $2 to $13. 99.
YouTube has pointed out that ad blockers violate its terms of service. A spokesperson told me last month, “The use of ad blockers violates YouTube’s terms of service. We’ve introduced a global effort to incentivize the audience with ad blockers enabled to allow classified ads on YouTube or check out YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. It publishes a diverse ecosystem of creators around the world and allows billions of people to access their favorite content on YouTube.
YouTube says creators get the most long-form videos on YouTube and says YouTube has paid out more than $50 billion to creators, artists, and media companies.
“I’ve noticed that YouTube’s new policy opposes ad blockers classified as ‘greedy,’ but I feel like ad blockers are greedy,” YouTube author Hank Green said in a recent tweet. “It’s like saying, ‘You, the other person, you’re looking at classified ads so I don’t have to.
There’s no doubt about it, they’re annoying and so are pop-ups, so what can you do?
As I wrote previously, the ad blocking service Adblock Plus lists recommendations on its site. If you see YouTube’s ad blocking wall, we recommend that you keep your kill lists updated so that any adjustments made through kill list authors are implemented in your extension.
He also suggests adding YouTube to your permissions list to at least have a respite from annoying classified ads on other sites.
According to Wired, verified YouTube Chrome users on laptops and desktops. “This doesn’t happen for other people who use YouTube’s mobile or TV apps, the YouTube mobile site, or watch embedded YouTube videos on other sites,” Wired wrote. This suggests that employing another browser would prevent the YouTube pop-up from appearing, or of course, you could avoid YouTube altogether.
Google doesn’t check how many times the popup will appear before its content is blocked, and many other people claim they can still watch videos. However, others say otherwise, and Android Authority and tech site The Verge report that other people are constantly being blocked. The pop-up window indicates whether you are logged into YouTube or not and even if you are in incognito mode.
Everyone knows the business style of YouTube’s owner, Google: the company makes money from advertising. So, it’s evident that he probably wouldn’t change his mind. However, Wired reports that a similar initiative through Facebook in 2016 required too many resources. to maintain.
Many other people expect YouTube to feel the same way.