Google Cracks Down on Adblock

[Poetic Nova]

Well, it is not I wanted to ever use Chrome, considering it eats RAM like no tomorrow...
As others have said before, it can and will bite them in the ass.

 

[Politrukk]

Google Cracks Down on Adblock

Google appears to be cracking down on Adblock for its Chrome browser, forcing users to watch full, unskippable, YouTube ads.

The "Adblock" ethical debate [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/8854-The-Adblock-Episode] is one that has divided people on the internet for a long time (NB: pretty please white-list The Escapist from your Adblock!) and it now looks like Google is taking some forceful steps to block the blocker, at least within its own Chrome browser. Reports are coming in that users watching YouTube videos on Chrome with the extension installed are being forced to watch full, 3+ minute commercials, without the option to skip them after ~10 seconds like non-Adblock users can.

The workaround seems to be affecting not just the original uBlock [https://adblockplus.org/]. Essentially, the workaround tricks the extension into seeing the "Skip Ad" button as an advertisement itself, meaning the only way you can restore your ability to skip ads is to either uninstall the extension, or whitelist YouTube.

You can bet that this is a result of bought the service [http://www.businessinsider.com/youtube-still-doesnt-make-google-any-money-2015-2] back in 2006.

I'm certain it won't be long before Adblock updates itself to get around the workaround, but for now users have discovered that uninstalling the YouTube App from Chrome seems to stop the Adblock bypass.

Source: Neowin [http://www.neowin.net/news/google-chrome-reportedly-bypassing-adblock-forces-users-to-watch-full-length-video-ads]

Permalink

1 Youtube was originally not meant to reap in huge sums of money, google has been pouring a shit ton of money into individual youtubers to promote the service which had to be ofset with the ads being allowed, nobody likes forced ads and so they figured out a workaround because it's annoying as hell.

2 The Escapist is and has also been guilty of forcing ads, autoplay ads, ads with a weird overlay,unclickable ads, sure the ads bring your company money but they also bring your user discomfort.

3 95% of ads are irrelevant and useless to the person they're being shown too and that's part of your problem right there.

4 Just throwing it in there : has anyone here ever bought something due to an online add? I know I haven't.

 

[1981]

Facebook has the worst targeted ads I've ever seen. I'll never forget that one time when they showed me an ad for Assassin's Creed instead of the usual U So Fat, weddings and dating sites (while I was in a relationship). I almost clicked on it. I certainly looked at it long and hard.

According to one study, ads influence people even when they don't remember seeing them. While it proves that ads serve a purpose, it also suggests that it's not a good idea to shove them in our faces. I swore I'd never buy anything from that online book store that had the audacity to interrupt The Walking Dead.

 

[cikame]

There is an ethics debate about whether blocking ads is right considering it is the primary source of income for a lot of websites, but i propose the debate on ads completely destroying the user experience of websites is a bigger issue, and needs to be sorted out.
We wouldn't need to fix the ad problem if it wasn't a problem, a new more intelligent use of ads is required.

 

[JSoup]

So, been using Youtube regularly for a few weeks and haven't had this come up at all with my ad-block use. Perhaps because I use two ad-block programs (normal ad-block and ad-block for youtube)?

 

[Fox12]

Spoiler: Let me tell you a quick story about a lovely little site.

Fakku is one of the most well-known and legit hentai sites in the west. One day, they role out a new form of advertisement. This ad causes a small screen to load up in front of a hentai on the first page, you just hit exit and be on your merry way. Ad block users ran into an issue where the ad would not load and the hentai would be unable to easily change pages and the first page you selected would be blank. I noticed that someone in their forums placed a thread asking what was happening with this, he even straight up said "I think my ad-blocker is causing this". Jacob Grady, owner and founder of the website responds with "Yes, we aware that the new ad type causes issues solely for ad-block users. We have our tech team working on it ASAP. Sorry for the inconvenience."

The owner of a website, which is most likely how he makes most of his money, is having his tech team fix something that is only effecting ad-block users and even apologized for it. You may be asking "Elfgore, what's the point with all this?" The point is that ad-block is something that website owners need to realize they can not stop. Trying to stop it just hurts yourself, as I'm sure most people would just travel to another site rather than deal with your annoyances. Several websites acknowledge this, Fakku, The Mod Nexus, and I'm sure many others. They understand ads are annoying, but they have to use them to keep the site afloat. Google, this is a terrible idea. People will just jump over to the next available browser rather than deal with your shit. You should just include a constant link to download Firefox throughout that whole 3 minute, un-skipable ad. Saves people some time at least.

I'm not condoning the use either. I just think that a large portion of the internet uses ad-block as an objective fact. Birds fly, fish swim, and people use ad-block a bunch.

Living up to the Lewd Guard title, aren't you Elfgore?

OT: Google will lose this fight. The chance to make a premium advertisement free youtube service has been lost. Aggressively going after the blockers isn't going to make Youtube profitable. Can't say what will, all I know is that this isn't going to help them one bit in the long run.

I find it telling that googles way of making YouTube profitable is to always restrict or take away things, and not to add anything of value.

Awful copyright standards, terrible auto play features, failed attempts at forcing peoe to adopt a google account, and now this ad-block bullshit. I mean, I get it, but what have they done to actually make YouTube BETTER? Because I haven't seen it.

Edit: Evidently white listing youtube itself doesn't remove the long videos... which serves what purpose exactly? Just having it installed forces you to watch long videos, which actually makes it harder to support the channels I like. Ad-blocker is a useful added defense against viruses that I take down for sights I trust. So what exactly is their goal on this? Other then to chase people away? Because I'm switching to firefox.