YouTube continues its efforts to circumvent ad blockers. Earlier this week, the SponsorBlock ad blocker was launched to publish The Google-owned video service is testing server-side ad injection with a limited number of users.
This basically means that the ad is inserted into the video before it reaches your device (as opposed to client-side ad injection, where ads arrive on your device separately), making it difficult for software to detect and block the ad.
“This breaks the sponsor embargo since all timestamps are now offset by ad times,” SponsorBlock said.
A Google spokesperson appears to confirm the testing a permitwriting that the service is “working to improve its performance and reliability in delivering both organic and advertising video content,” with an update that “may result in sub-optimal viewing experiences for viewers with ad blockers installed.”
Google reiterated its position that ad blockers “violate YouTube’s terms of service” and that viewers who want an ad-free experience should subscribe to YouTube Premium.
This is just the latest step in an ongoing battle, as YouTube constantly finds new ways to get around ad blockers and then ad blockers try to adapt. In fact, the company rolled out a pop-up message last year that prevented visitors from watching YouTube videos unless they disabled their ad blockers.
when I’ve spoken to the companies behind many ad blockers Last fall, Ghostery’s director of product and engineering, Krzysztof Mudras, told me that YouTube “as one of the largest publishers in the world, is constantly investing in ad blocking circumvention” and that it “seems to be adapting to this.” [its] methods more frequently than ever before.”
Recently, an email from another ad blocker, AdGuard, suggested that while the server-side approach is new to YouTube on the web, the service was already doing something similar in its mobile apps.
AdGuard said it remains “optimistic that solutions will emerge, though they will require concerted efforts and innovative approaches from ad blocking developers and the ad filtering community.”